Illustration of Psalm 119

Unknown (Flemish)

Item type:

manuscript, codex, scroll

Date of creation:

15th century

Height:

20.0 cm  (7 7/8 in.)

Width:

14.0 cm  (5 1/2 in.)

Measurements approximated, based on display from the British Library.

Technique / Medium:

parchment

Description

Illustration above psalm text depicts fifteen steps ascending to the right into the temple. Musicians, wearing pointed hats, some having beards, line the steps in the background, playing (from left to right): pipe and tabor, triangle, probably shawm, straight trumpet, harp, two lutes, two shawms, probably shawm, psaltry, and shawm. A musician sits in the foreground playing portative organ. A crowned, bearded male figure ascends the steps, the name "david" inscribed on his left shoulder. A seated, bearded male figure observes the scene from the background in the upper left, under the inscription, "rex david."

People as subjects

David, King of Israel

Iconclass

71H6
religious deeds of David

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Tabor pipe [6689] (Pipe and tabor played by one musician.)
Drum [2585] (Pipe and tabor played by one musician.)
Triangle [3005]
Shawm [4258] (Two shawms fully visible, three shawms partially obscured.)
Lute [3394] (Two lutes.)
Psaltery [3677]
Portative organ [2267]
Harp [3285]
Trumpet [4446]

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

McKinnon, James W. “The fifteen temple steps and the gradual psalms”. Imago musicae: International yearbook of musical iconography 1 (1984) 29-49. RILM 1984-06934.

Hughes, Dom Anselm and Gerald Abraham, eds. Ars nova and the Renaissance 1300-1540, New Oxford history of music, vol. 3 (London: Oxford University Press, 1960) frontispiece.

Wangermée, Robert, trans. Robert Erich Wolf. Flemish music and society in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968) 83, 309. RILM 1968-34378.

Closson, Ernest and Charles van den Borren, eds. La musique en Belgique du moyen age à nos jours (Bruxelles: Renaissance du Livre, 1950) 75.

Bowles, Edmund A. Musikleben im 15. Jahrhundert. Musikgeschichte in Bildern, Band III: Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, Lfg. 8 (Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1977) 148-49. RILM 1977-02178.

Holme, Bryan. Medieval pageant (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987) 76.

Notes

Title is McKinnon's caption, based on the text below the illustration in the Isabella Breviary: "Ad dominum cum tribularer," Ps. 119 (Vulgate). McKinnon notes that this manuscript illumination was incorrectly captioned in other music-historical works.

RIdIM record id

4662