This manuscript contains a Flemish psalter in Latin, written in the 13th century in Flanders. The Kalendar at the beginning is missing January and December, and is in general much mutilated. There are many illuminations, especially in the first sections, including 3 folios with illuminations after the Kalendar. An Invitatory, Venite exultemus, was later inserted by another hand on f. 9r. The Service of the Dead ends abruptly on f. 157v before some folios that were cut or ripped off.

Contents

Kalendar: starts on f. 1r and ends on f. 5v.

Illuminations: on ff. 6v-8v.

Invitatory: on f. 9r.

Psalter: starts on f. 9v with the following words: Beatus vir. And ends on f. 149r with the following words: et superexaltatus in secula.

Canticles and Quicumque vult: start on f. 149r with the following words: Te deum laudamus. And end on f. 153r with the following words: Salvus esse non poterit.

Litany: starts on f. 153r and ends on f. 155v.

Service of the Dead: starts on f. 155v with the following words: Placebo domino in regione vivorum. And ends imperfectly on f. 157v with the following words: per ignem.

A well-written book. Verse initials are plain red and blue capitals; psalm initials, three-line letters of burnished gold, outlined strongly in black, on backgrounds of blue and lake.

The ornamentation consists of initials, Kalendar illustrations, the subjects and treatment of which are characteristically Flemish of the period, and a series of pictures. Some psalm initials are prolonged in the margins, showing the beginnings of border work. Three of the larger initials to the divisions of the Psalter have been cut out. Those that remain, with the exception of the 'B' of Beatus vir, which occupies a full page, occupy twelve lines of text, and are all of the same type. The letters are either blue or pale lake, outlined in black, on square grounds of lake or blue outlined in black and gold. Within the letter, against a background of burnished gold, a youthful figure in a blue gown with a red halo is seated, left hand raised in blessing, right hand holding a book (either the Psalmist or Christ). In the 'B' of Beatus vir there are two figures. Above, David, crowned, legs crossed, plays harp; below, a bearded figure in blue cloak holds something in the left hand and points with the right. This figure is much mutilated but may be meant to represent Saint John the Baptist.