The Clarkson Archive at the Walters Art Museum: An Early Thirteenth-Century English Gospel Book (W.15)

ABSTRACT

The first of two topics addressed in this article is the monumental archive established by Christopher Clarkson during his consultancy from 1977 to 1979 in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland (renamed Walters Art Museum in 2000). His tenure at the Walters coincided with the launching of a catalogue of some 500 Western European manuscripts, for which funding was generously provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The two chief topics addressed below are Clarkson's organization of his codicological manuscript survey and the significance of an early thirteenth-century English glossed Gospel book still in its original monastic binding. As a scholarly resource, Christopher Clarkson's archive at the Walters marks an enduring contribution to his formidable legacy.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Das erste von zwei in diesem Artikel behandelten Themen ist das außerordentlich umfangreiche Archiv, gegründet von Christopher Clarkson während seiner beratenden Tätigkeiten von 1977 bis 1979 in der Abteilung für Handschriften an der Walters Art Galerie in Baltimore, Maryland (2000 in Walters Art Museum umbenannt). Seine Amtszeit an der Walters fiel mit der Herausgabe eines Katalogs über ca. 500 westeuropäische Manuskripte zusammen, für die großzügig Geld des National Endowment for the Humanities zur Verfügung gestellt wurde. Die beiden Hauptthemen, die im Folgenden angesprochen werden, sind Clarksons Gliederung seiner Erhebung der Handschriften und die Bedeutung eines englischen Evangeliars mit Glossierung einer englischen Glossenhandschrift aus dem frühen dreizehnten Jahrhunderts mit seiner ursprünglichen klösterlichen Bindung. Als wissenschaftliche Ressource stellt das Archiv von Christopher Clarkson in der Walters einen bleibenden Beitrag in seinem beeindruckenden Erbe dar.

KEYWORDS:

• Thirteenth century
• English Gospel Books
• Walters Art Museum
• Catalogues
• manuscript surveys

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• Dreizehntes Jahrhundert
• Englische Evangeliare
• Walters Art Museum
• Kataloge
• Handschriftenerhebung

Acknowledgment

Astute editorial comments and several illustrations in this article were kindly provided by my former colleague, Abigail Quandt, Head of Book and Paper Conservation at the Walters Art Museum.

Notes

1 See McCracken et al. (1974). On the formation of the art collection, see Johnston (1999).

2 Vols. II (France, 1420–1540) and III (Belgium, 1250–1530) appeared in 1992 and 1997 (Randall et al., 1992, 1997). Walters MS W. 65 is cited in Huglo (2003: 380–381 no. 50).

3 For an analysis and diagram of the construction of the treasure binding on an eleventh-century German Gospel Lectionary (MS W. 8), see Clarkson's Appendix B (1978) in Muthesius (1978). The binding has been digitized and is available at Walters Art Museum (2019a: Mondsee Gospel Lectionary W.8).

4 Full cataloging is available on The Digital Walters (Walters Arts Museum et al., 2019), while abridged cataloging with a user-friendly interface is available on the public-facing website Walters Ex Libris (Walters Art Museum, 2019b). As of this publication, the French and Italian manuscripts have not yet been fully digitized.

5 The two featured manuscripts are a French book of hours of c. 1500 (W. 294) and Statuti della Compagnia di San Bastiano, Florence, dated 1499 (W. 480); see Miner (1957: nos. 117, 118). For a full-page colour plate of W. 294 in its chemise, see De Hamel (1994: pl. 147).

6 This manuscript is now digitally available on Walters Ex Libris (Walters Art Museum, 2019c: Glossed Gospels W.15). De Ricci et al. (1935: 168, no. 68, 1935: 2290, no. 68): added reference to ownership by the third viscount Hill at Hawkstone, Shropshire, and to his sale in London, 23 July 1886, no. 381, to the London bookseller William Ridler. For further reference to Walters 15, see Ker (1987) and Watson (1987: 52):_: ‘OXFORD. Aug. Priory of St. Frideswide […] Reject: Baltimore, Johns Hopkins U. L., W. 15’; De Hamel (1994: 140). William Noel, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters when this article was written, kindly facilitated pursuit of this inquiry.

7 See De Hamel (1984); Stirnemann (1994: 257–301) (called to my attention by Michael Gullick); De Hamel (2001: esp. 109–111).

8 Reprinted in Ker (1985).

9 This feature was noted by Jeanne Krochalis, Palaeography Consultant for the Western manuscript catalogue at the Walters.

10 The three extant prologues are numbered as follows in Stegmüller and Reinhardt (1950–1980): Matthew, S. 591; Mark, S. 607; John, S. 624.

11 The ‘suspension’ of the running headings from the ruling was noted by Adelaide Bennett, catalogue consultant for English manuscripts at the Walters.

12 The Gospel of John ends on the last recto (fol. 256r); inscribed in grey crayon on the otherwise blank verso are what appear to be two joined Hebrew words possibly denoting ‘London’ and ‘Place’, suggested to Michael Gullick by a Hebrew calligrapher.

13 The group of six manuscripts includes, in addition to Walters 15 (fols. 79v–81v): Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 150/44 (fol. 119r); London, British Library, MS Royal 15.B.iv (fols. 65v-66r); London, Lambeth Palace, MS 105 (fol. 271v); Monte Cassino, MS AA 136 (ff. 223r–224r, 231r); Rome, Vatican Library, MS lat. 2343 (fol. 86r-va). Fowler-Magerl's appended discussion cites later related manuscripts and reviews scholarly contributions to the formation of the group. The formularies in Walters 15 and in four of the five related manuscripts cited above (excluding Lambeth Palace, MS 195) formed the basis of F. Donald Logan's collated edition based on MS Royal 15.B.iv (Logan, 1967); other than the glossed Gospel Book (MS W. 15), three of the four manuscripts in Logan's study are legal compilations and the fourth is a miscellany of treatises on grammar, logic, and law concluding with formularies. Cf. Cheney (1950: 124–129) including reference to formularies appended in the early thirteenth century to a glossed Psalter in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Laud lat. 17, fols. 223v-224v): ‘Cirencester?, twelfth c. ^¾’ (Pächt and Alexander, 1973: 129, no. 177 (Summary Cat. 94)); I am indebted to Michael Gullick for reference to discussion of the formularies in Sayers (1971). Research on formularies, involving examples in Walters 15, is in progress by Martha Carlin and David Crouch for a study of a compilation attributed to Oxford, c. 1240s (London, British Library, MS Add. 8167, fols. 88–133); I thank Professor Carlin for informative exchanges relating to this research.

14 Henry Walters's purchase of Walters 15 is undocumented. An as yet unidentified clipping on file from an English sale catalogue (item 11) includes specific references to the formularies in Walters 15, here assigned to Oxford, late twelfth century; a search of the Schoenberg Database of Manuscript Sales for this sale catalogue yielded no results. Of possible relevance is Dorothy Miner's annotation ‘J. Martin’ on the slip she proofread for the entry on Walters 15 in De Ricci (1935, 1935); the reference may be to the Italian bookseller Giuseppe Martini (1870–1944), alias Joseph Martini or Joseph Martin, who referred to dealings with American clients in Martini and Pellizzari (Martini and Pellizzari, 1934: xii); this catalogue was kindly made available to me at the Grolier Club by Librarian Fernando La Peña.

15 Richardson cites Dorothy Miner's opinion that the formularies were contemporary and in the same ink as the Gospel texts (Richardson, 1941b: 319, n. 2).

16 Commenting on the scholars’ exodus, Rashdall notes: ‘the studium generale of Cambridge owes its existence to the Oxford ‘suspensium clericorum’ of 1209’ (Rashdall et al., 1987: vol. 3, 33–34).

17 For citation alongside Walters 15 of a copy of texts in French relating to St. Gregory, dated 1212, at the Augustinian Abbey of St. Frideswide, Oxford (Paris, BnF, MS fr. 24766), see De Hamel (1986: 134, pl. 128); cited in the revised edition De Hamel (1994: 140).

18 For references to members of the Fitton and ‘Reynolds/Reynoldes’ family, see Coates (1999: 200, 208). Michael Gullick kindly called this publication to my attention.

19 The Dissolution of Reading Abbey, founded in 1121, was effected on September 12, 1539 (Coates, 1999: 18).

20 In addition to the Fingall Cartulary, seven of the fifty-eight manuscripts known to have been associated with Reading have ‘broadly similar’ twelfth-century bindings; two others were probably bound in the thirteenth century (Coates, 1999: 19, 37, 51).

21 For a diagram of lacing paths of various lengths, see Clarkson (1993: fig. 4); the construction technique of the tab endband system and the appearance of an endband core are fully clarified in a diagram included by Clarkson (1996: fig. 63).

22 The type of skin used for the cover has not been consistently identified. It is currently thought to be sheepskin, although it has also been published with the earlier assumption that it was deerskin.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lilian M. C. Randall

Lilian M. C. Randall, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books emerita, The Walters Art Gallery (Walters Art Museum as of 2000). BA cum laude, Mount Holyoke College, 1950; MA, Radcliffe College, 1951, PhD, 1955; LHD (hon.) Towson State University; Sesquicentennial Award, 1987 and D of Arts (hon.), Mount Holyoke College, 1998. Visiting lecturer, Johns Hopkins University, Art History Deptartment, 1964–68; Assistent Director, Maryland State Arts Council, 1972–73; Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, The Walters Art Gallery, 1974–85, Research Curator of Manuscripts (catalogue), 1985–95, Research Consultant, 1995–97. Honarary Lecturer at University of Michigan, Getty Museum, Morgan Library and Museum, Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study, etc. Grants for tuition, research, publications, 1950–1996: AAUW, College Art Association, Ford Foundation, Getty Grant Foundation, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Mount Holyoke College, NEA, NEH, etc. Past Board member Digital Scriptorium, advisor Union Manuscript Computer Catalogue, 1996, NEH panelist, etc. Eight book-length publications, co-edited Festschrift, several score articles. Festschrift recipient, 1996, editor Elizabeth Burin. Fellow: Medieval Academy of America. Member: Grolier Club. Listed in Who's Who; 2000 Notable American Women, etc.