Frontispiece to the Giltlingen Psalter made for the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra, Augsburg, 1494-1495, with 19th-century overpainting. A duplicate number MS.425 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.

Frontispiece leaf showing St Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg, with a fish in his left hand, and St Afra, clasping the tree to which she was bound at her martyrdom by fire. In the lower part of the miniature, the scribe Leonhard Wagner presents the psalter to its patron, Johann von Giltlingen, abbot of the imperial abbey of Saint Ulrich and Saint Afra in Augsburg from 1482-1496. St Jude (or Matthew?) with hatchet in his right hand stands behind Wagner, as his patron saint. Giltlingen's arms (argent, three eagles sable) are painted in the foreground. The arms of Ulrich (Kyburg) and Afra (1 and 4 Jerusalem; 2 and 3 Lusignan are of Cyprus) feature in the upper corners.

(1) From a psalter made in 1494-1495 for the abbey of Saint Ulrich and Saint Afra in Augsburg, commissioned by Johannes von Giltlingen (abbot from 1482-1496) who is depicted on this leaf, together with his coat of arms; illuminated by Georg Beck (1450-1512) and his son Leonhard Beck (circa 1480‒1542).
The leaf was still in the psalter in 1793 when it was described in the catalogue of the abbey's library.
(2) Collection of William Horatio Crawford, Lakelands Library, Co. Cork, Ireland: his sale, Sotheby's London, 12 March 1891 and 11 following days, lot 1663 (sold for £21 to Quaritch)
(3) Bought by the South Kensington Museum from Quaritch for £28 in 1892 on the instigation of James Weale.

The frontispiece was submitted to extensive overpainting in the 19th-century.

With 19th-century overpainting.

D.86-1892