Getty Museum

Psalter

Date

1420–1430

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and ink

Culture

English

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Psalters, among the most popular devotional books of the Middle Ages, were a collection of all 150 Psalms of the Old Testament coupled with other devotional texts. Although books of hours were the most popular type of personal prayer book to survive from the late Middle Ages, psalters were also a staple object in aristocratic collections. This psalter’s decoration is representative of the final development stages of England’s International Gothic Style (c. 1375-1450), with its lush, brightly colored foliage that intertwines the borders and its large decorated initials. Although the figural style in the manuscript’s one historiated initial reflects the art of Italy and the Netherlands, the decorated initials and border imagery retain elements of the embellishment conventions associated with English manuscripts. Characteristic motifs line the edges of the pages of the psalter, such as twirling vines, small clover leaves, and feathery sprays drawn in pen and highlighted with touches of gold. The decoration relies on design to create what could termed organic linearity, a type of embellishment associated with English manuscripts of the period. The psalter in the Middle Ages had a long history [with laymen in society] as being a gift of a luxurious nature. The calligraphy of this psalter, augmented by gold flourishes and an intricate array of vines, leaves, and other flora, suggests that both at the time of its creation the manuscript was highly valued due to the cost of its handmade construction. Owning such an object allowed patrons to showcase their status in society, as is the case with this psalter, even long after its creation. It holds a twentieth-century inscription on its inner front cover that reads: “Bunny darling, your engagement ‘ring’ remember?” inscribed by famed collector Philip Hofer (1898-1984), who gifted the manuscript to his fiancée, Frances Hofer. The fact that one of the most discerning collectors of the twentieth century chose this object to celebrate such an occasion indicates its long-lasting value as a prized possession.

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