THE EMBROIDERED BINDING OF THE FELBRIGGE PSALTER

PENELOPE WALLIS

THE MANUSCRIPT

MANY fine medieval manuscripts are exhibited in the British Library's Grenville Library, but one ofthe most unusual is the Felbrigge Psalter (Sloane MS. 2400), which was probably written and illuminated in Northern France in about the middle of the thirteenth century.^ At some time the manuscript came to England and its calendar was altered, removing a number ofthe French saints and adding English ones, some having particular connections with East Anglia.^ Another apparent East Anglian link is the addition ofthe date ofthe dedication of Norwich Cathedral on 24 September.^ The Felbrigge Psalter later belonged to Anne Felbrigge, a nun in the House of Poor Clares at Bruisyard in Suffolk; her name is written in the manuscript/ Anne was the daughter of Sir Simon Felbrigge, KG, Standard Bearer to Richard II; her mother was Margaret, daughter of Primislaus, Duke of Teschen, and a cousin to Richard's queen, Anne of Bohemia, to whom she was also maid of honour.^ Sir Simon died in 1442, Margaret in 1416, and both are commemorated by a fine and interesting brass in Felbrigg church in Norfolk.^ Obits of Anne's parents are written into the calendar ofthe Psalter: two for Margaret in January and June and two for Sir Simon in December.^ A note written in the Psalter says that on the death of Sister Anne the manuscript passed into the possession ofthe convent at Bruisyard.^

THE BINDING AND OPUS ANGLIGANUM Two embroidered panels are set into the binding ofthe manuscript (figs, i, 2). These panels now measure 8| x 5I in. (front) and 8^ x 5^ in. (back), having been cut down somewhat and remounted, rather clumsily, in a sprinkled calf binding,^ the doublures and spine of which were later replaced. The fore-edge painting of the Felbrigge arms (or, a lion rampant gules) was clearly carried out before the manuscript was rebound, probably when it belonged to Anne. The , although very worn, is a fineexampl e of (English work), that magnificent English embroidery which reached its apogee between <;. 1260-70 and c. 1330-40. The panels can be dated to f. 1300-30.^^

71 Fig. I. Felbrigge Psalter, Sloane MS. 2400: binding. Annunciation Eig. 2. Felbrigge Psalter, Sloane MS. 2400: binding. Crucifixion Unfortunately, at some time a varnish has been painted over them, giving them a rather dull appearance except where the varnish has worn away and the fresh, bright colours show through. Extremely fine embroidery was produced in England from Anglo-Saxon times until the ; both surviving pieces and documentary sources give evidence for this. However, it was during tbis great period that it was most in demand throughout Europe. The historian and chronicler, Matthew Paris, writing in the middle of the thirteenth century, relates that, in 1246, Pope Innocent IV, on seeing some embroidered ecclesiastical vestments worn by English priests, sent letters to almost all ofthe Abbots of the Cistercian order in England, asking that they should send to him, without delay, these gold , with which he wished to decorate his copes and chasubles. ^^ Indeed, the Vatican inventory of 1295 lists more vestments with English embroidery than from any other country. ^^ It is from inventories that the name ''Opus Anglicanum^ comes, a term still used today to refer to this splendid English work.^^ Examples of Opus Anglicanum survive in many of the great ecclesiastical centres of Europe—for example, Rome, Pienza, Anagni, Toledo, S Bertrand-de-Comminges, and S Maximin; in museums such as those in Lyons, Madrid, and New York; and in the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Virtually all of the surviving pieces of embroidery are ecclesiastical vestments, but it is known that such work was also carried out for secular use. Little of the latter survives, but examples are documented in medieval illustrations. A beautifully worked horse-trapper showing the arms of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, embroidered in silver on a blue background, can be seen in the Luttrell Psalter (Add. MS. 42130, fol. 202^) (fig. 3) and the famous Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery in London shows both Richard II and St Edmund of Bury wearing embroidered garments, the former with his badge, the hart, worked in gold.^'^ The panels of the Felbrigge Psalter binding are worked in coloured and silver gilt (gold coated on silver) thread on a twofold ground (a fine upper layer over a thicker lower one). The stitches used are split stitch for the whilst the metal threads are surface-couched on the background in a chevron pattern. ^^ This method of attaching the metal threads was rare in England at this date; indeed, in this respect these panels are unique survivals. The usual method of underside- produced a more attractive and probably more secure way of fixing the threads, ^^ but it involved a bulky line of stout thread under the ground fabric and, while this would make no difference to the surface of vestments, when the panel was pasted on to board it would cause the metal threads to stand out in higher relief. The use of sucb a technique suggests that the panels were specifically designed for a bookbinding. Both tbe silk and metal threads oftbe panels show much wear, with the underdrawing showing through in many places. A close inspection ofthe remaining metal threads shows their construction—a thin layer of silver gilt wound round a core of silk thread. Where the coloured silk threads survive they show varying tones of greens, blues and grey, browns, fawn and white, and a beautiful deep rose pink.

74 Eig. 3. Luttrell Psalter, Add. MS. 42130, fol. 202^: Sir Geoffrey Luttrell

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE PANELS The front cover (fig. i) depicts the Annunciation^"^ with the Angel Gabriel approaching the Virgin Mary from the left, his right hand raised in a graceful gesture of greeting and his left holding a scroll. A number of regularly placed stitch marks suggest that the scroll was originally inscribed, doubtless with the words 'Ave Maria', which the Angel used in greeting Mary and which, although based on the text in the Vulgate version ofthe Bible ^^ are, in fact, actually those ofthe Angelus,^^ a form of words which is shown in a number of Annunciation scenes on English embroidered vestments of this date.^*^ The standing figure of Mary turns towards tbe Angel with her head bowed and her right hand raised, showing both surprise at tbe Angel's appearance and acquiescence in the role assigned to her. She holds a book in her right hand—a motif which dates back to the ninth century when a poem called 'Krist' by Otfried described Mary as reading the Psalter when the Angel arrived.^^ Above Mary the Holy Spirit, in the form ofthe Dove, flies down towards her. 22 ]V[ary wears a veil, a symbol of her continuing virginity, and all three figures are nimbed.

75 Eig. 4. Evesham Psalter, Add. MS. 44874, fol. 6: Crucifixion Between the figures of Mary and Gabriel stands a vase with a lily, the flower associated with the Virgin and symbolizing her purity. The three flowers on the stem (representing the three persons of the Holy Trinity) are red, the colour of blood, whicb in medieval colour symbolism was used to allude to tbe Sacrifice of the Cross. The back cover ofthe Psalter (fig. 2) shows the Crucifixion. ^^ Here the scene is depicted with poignant simplicity. Tbe twisted body of the dead Christ hangs on the cross with knees exaggeratedly bent, fixed with three nails—typical of Crucifixion scenes of this period—and with the mark oftbe lance wound in his side just visible.^ To the left and right stand the nimbed figures ofthe Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist, both shown by the artist as expressing their sorrow. Mary has her head bowed and her hands clasped in front of her in an attitude of prayer; St John, also with bowed head, lifts his right hand to his face, hardly able to contain his grief, whilst his left hand is holding up the folds of his drapery. T'he straight-armed cross on which the figure of Christ hangs stands on a stylized hill formed by a pointed trefoil shape. Beneath this kneels a small figure looking up and seeming to hold a book in its upraised hands. Virtually all the stitches have worn away from this figure and it is impossible to see if it is male or female, although it is unlikely to have been in holy orders since fragments of blue and white silk survive around the edge, suggesting that it may have been a female, wearing a wimple. It is probable that this is a donor figure, perhaps the person who had the embroidered binding put on the book, but it is now unlikely that its identity will ever be known. An interesting comparison can be made between this Crucifixion scene with its 'donor' figure and a full-page illuminated miniature in the Evesham Psalter (Add. MS. 44874, fol. 6) (fig. 4).^^ This manuscript was written and illuminated for an abbot of Evesham after 1246 and it is he who is seen kneeling at the foot ofthe cross in a very similar position to that ofthe figure embroidered on the binding ofthe Felbrigge Psalter. In both scenes the artists have shown Mary and St John in similar poses of grief. The scenes of the Annunciation to Mary, representing the Incarnation, and the Crucifixion, the Sacrifice of Christ, were often linked together in medieval art, a number of examples appearing as embroidered scenes on English medieval vestments.^^ The Felbrigge Psalter is, however, unique in that its binding incorporates the only surviving example of Opus Anglicanum used in this way and apparently originally intended for this purpose. Tbe manuscript was in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, one of the foundation collections of books and manuscripts in the British Museum's library departments.

1 I should like to express my thanks to Dr Adelaide Edward, king and martyr, on fol. 4 and St Bennett, Dr Patrick McGurk, and Dr Mirjam Etheldreda, virgin and martyr, on fol. 5^. Foot for their assistance in the preparation of this 3 Sloane MS. 2400, fol. 6. paper. 4 Sloane MS. 2400, fol. 2^. 2 For example, on fol. 4"^ St Eutrope, martyr, is 5 R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Felhrigg: The Story of a crossed through, whilst additions include St House (London, 1962), pp. 6, 8.

77 6 Illustrated in M. Clayton, Victoria and Albert 13 For example, 'Item, unum dorsale de opere Museum: Catalogue of Rubbings of Brasses and anglicano cum imagine Salvatoris et beate Incised Slabs (London, 1968), pi. 17. Virginis . . .' and 'Item, aliud repositorium de 7 Sloane MS. 2400, fol 3, 'In die Sancti Johannis opere anglicano cum imagine Salvatoris . . .'. E. obitus Margarete ffelbrygge'; fol. 5^, 'in vigilia Molinier (ed.), Inventaire du Trisor du Saint Sancti Petri Apostoli obitus domine Margarete Si^ge sous Boniface VIII (Paris, 1888), and ffelbrygge'; and fol. 7^, 'Obitus venerabilis quoted in Christie, op. cit., p. 3. domini Simonis ffelbrygge militis' and 'obitus 14 Illustrated in M. Rickert, Painting in Britain: Symonis fFelbrygge'. The Middle Ages (London, 1965), pis. 160-1. 8 Sloane MS. 2400, fol. 2^, 'Iste liber est sororis 15 Christie, op. cit., p. 123; King, op. cit., p. 30. Anne ffelbrygge ad terminum vite post cuius 16 Christie, op. cit., p. 25 and figs. 41-2. decessum pertinebit conventui minorissarum de 17 Luke i: 26-38. Brusyerd'. 18 Luke i: 28, 'Ave gratia pleta'. 9 A. G. I. Christie, English Medieval Embroidery 19 'Ave Maria gracia plena.' (London, 1938), p. 123, and D. King, Opus 20 As, for example, on the English embroidered Anglicanum: Catalogue of the Arts Council copes now in the Cathedral Treasury, Toledo, Exhibition (London, 1963), p. 30. This is unlikely the Museo Civico, Bologna, and the Cathedral to have been done after the manuscript became Museum, Pienza. part of the British Museum collection. 21 G. Schiller, The Iconography of Christian 10 Christie, op. cit., p. 123; King, op. cit, p. 30. Art (London, 1971), vol. i, p. 42; Pseudo- 11 'Eisdemque diebus, dominus Papa videns in Bonaventura, Meditationes vitae Christi, iii, trans- aliquorum Anglicorum ornamentis ecclesiasticis, lated in I. Ragusa and R. B. Green, Meditations utpote in capis choralibus et infulis, aurifrisia on the Life of Christ from an Illustrated Manu- concupiscibilia, interrogavit ubinam facta fuis- script of the 14th century: Paris, Bibliotheque sent. Cui responsum est; "In Anglia." At ipse; Nationale MS. Ital. 115 (Princeton, 1961), pp. "Vere hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia. Vere 12-13. This is a work of the late thirteenth puteus inexhautus est; et ubi multa abundant, de century which was at one time attributed to multis multa possunt extorqueri." Unde idem St Bonaventura and which influenced many dominus Papa, concupiscentia illectus oculorum, medieval works of art. literas suas bullatas sacras misit ad omnes fere 22 Luke i: 35. The Dove was the usual way of Cisterciensis ordinis abbates in Anglia com- representing the Holy Spirit in art as it had morantes, quorum orationibus se nuper in appeared at the Baptism of Christ (Matthew 3: capitulo Cisterciensi commendaverat, ut ipsi 16, Mark i: 10, Luke 3: 22 and John i: 32). aurifrisia, ac si pro nihilo ipsa possent adquirere, 23 Matthew 27: 33-50, Mark 15: 22-41, Luke 23: mittere non different praeelecta, ad planetas et 33-49, and John 19: 17-37. capas suas chorales adornandas. Quod mercen- 24 John 19: 34. nariis Londoniae qui ea venalia habebant 25 D. H. Turner, 'The Evesham Psalter', Journal non displicuit, ad placitum vendentibus; unde of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxvii multi manifestam avaritiam Romanae ecclesiae (1964), pp. 31 fr. detestabantur.' H. R. Luard (ed.), Matthew 26 As, for example, on the English cope in the Paris, Chronica Majora, vol. iv, pp. 546-7, Rolls Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid, and a Series (1877). wall-painting in St Alban's Abbey. 12 Christie, op. cit., p. 3; King, op. cit., p. 5.