[MANUSCRIPT - PSALMBOOK - CATHOLIC]. DIETENBERGER, Johannes.

Davidis Psalter: per D. Johan: Diettenberger ex idiomate Latino in germanicum translatus, & conscriptum ad usum Monialium in Closterbeyren.[Klosterbeuren (Swabia)], 1591. Manuscript German prose psalmbook with the 150 psalms and 8 hymns, written in brown ink on parchment (10.5 x 7 cm, text area 9 x 5.5 cm with 18 lines per page, quired in 6s) in a neat and very readable upright Fraktur hand, with the title-page in red, blue and black; each psalm and hymn with the title in red and a pen-work red initial in the margin; thousands of capital letters in red. Nineteenth(?)-century sheepskin, hand painted in many bright colours and gold, with a madonna and child on the front board and an arabesque centrepiece on the back board, both in arabesque decorative frames and with arabesque decorations on the spine, gilt edges.

      . (1), 158, (1) ll. For Dietenberger: ADB V, pp. 155-156. A lovely little Catholic manuscript psalter in the German prose version by Johannes Dietenberger (ca. 1475 or ca. 1490?-1534), produced for and probably in the Klosterbeuren Franciscan convent in Swabia. Dietenberger published his translation of the Bible in 1534, and although intended as a Catholic version, it was largely based on Luther's, with parts brought into conformity with the Vulgate. Although Dietenberger's translation became the standard Bible among German Catholics, his psalms appear not to have been separately published until 1586, when Quentel produced an edition at Cologne, only five years before the present manuscript. The 150 psalms appear on leaves 1 to 150, followed by eight hymns that are not mentioned in the descriptions of the printed edition, on leaves 150 to 159. The eight hymns (following the manuscript's own spelling) are Esaiae 12, Ezechiae, Annae der Müter Samulis (1 Samuel 2), Moyses Exodi 5, Abacue 3, Moysis Deutronomi 22, der dreien Knaben (Daniel 3) and Zachariae.The original leaf numbers of leaves 1 to 7 have been trimmed off and a few others and an occasional penwork initial have been shaved, but the manuscript is otherwise in very good condition. The binding is fine, with the bright colours (orange, pink, green, red, etc.), gold and natural skin and hair colours of the painted images and decorations well preserved. A charming manuscript psalm book from a Swabian Franciscan convent, in an important German prose version..