Naples.- Two leaves from the well-known Psalter with Passion Sequences copied by Pietro Ursuleo of Capuo, opulently illuminated manuscript on parchment, text in Latin, two single leaves, each with single column of 19 lines of a fine and accomplished humanist hand, faded red rubrics, dark blue and liquid gold capitals within faded red or purple penwork, one leaf with one illuminated initial enclosed within white vinework on blue, green and red grounds, the other leaf with two such initials, slight old water damage at foot of one leaf, the other with a lower outer corner repaired with more modern vellum, overall in good condition, each approximately 170 by 125mm, southern Italy (Naples), [c. 1460] (2)

⁂ The parent manuscript was one of two sister volumes (the other now Trinity College, Cambridge, MS O.7.46), copied by the scribe Pietro Ursuleo (d. 1483), bishop of Satarino and elevated on his deathbed to the office of archbishop of Santa Severina, with both codices perhaps illuminated by Matteo Felice or a member of his workshop. It must have been copied for a patron in Ravenna, and later was in the possession of John Boykett Jarman (d. 1864), and probably damaged by the flood that affected his manuscript collection (the parent manuscript was his sale in Sotheby’s, 13 June 1864, lot 161). The book was still intact in 1913 (Tregaskis cat. 743, no. 510), but was beginning to be broken up in the years that followed (leaves initially appearing in Tregaskis cat. 777, 1916, no. 81). Other leaves are recorded in M.M. Manion, V.F. Vines and C. de Hamel., Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections, 1989, no. 89, with the colophon leaf now Canberra, National Library of Australia, MS 4052.

The leaves here include Psalms 75:1-76 and much of 143(144), with attendant responsories and chants.