The Peterborough Psalter

Indulge in lavish quantities of gold and brilliant colours! Open the Peterborough Psalter and enjoy the magnificent illustrations on every page: finely tooled gold backgrounds, fleur-de-lis and yellow gold decorated initials, line-fillers and figural motifs in the borders, precious colours and shining silver, gracefully swaying and expressive figures, scenes from the Old and the New Testament in Gothic miniatures.
The splendid Burgundian arms and the decorative fleur-de-lis emblem of the French kings are evident on every miniature page. The script of the text pages is entirely written in gold and blue lettering. Take great delight in looking at this masterpiece of book illumination and discover the marvelous variety of fine details!

Patrons and Owners

The splendid psalter was written and illuminated around 1300 for the Benedictine Abbey of Peterborough, in the English diocese of Lincoln. The manuscript might have been commissioned by an aristocratic couple as patrons, though any potential coat of arms of the time is painted over today. The original owner of the manuscript is known to have been Geoffrey of Crowland, Abbot of Peterborough from 1299 to 1321. He is probably the figure depicted in a historiated initial on fol. 65r, where, accompanied by a Benedictine monk, he is represented at prayer before an altar on which stands a crucifix. The monastic owner notwithstanding, the book illumination contains a number of secular scenes from a romance of chivalry.

A Succession of Powerful Owners

The provenance of the Peterborough Psalter can be entirely traced throughout the centuries. In 1318 Abbot Geoffrey of Crowland offered the lavishly illuminated manuscript to the papal nuncio, who presented it to Pope John XXII. The pope then offered it to the widow of the French king, Clementia of Hungary, on the occasion of a visit by her. On her death, the psalter was passed on to Philip VI, the French king, and somewhat later it became part of the collection of his grandson, Charles V, who had the backgrounds of the miniatures decorated with fleurs-de-lis in gold. When the book entered the library of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, his arms were added to all the miniature pages. Some 350 years later, even Napoleon asserted his claim to the manuscript by having it rebound.

Figures depicted in elegant, slender proportions recount the stories of the Old and New Testaments. Their faces are carefully modelled in fine detail, and their individual facial expressions radiate vitality and physical presence. The background areas in gold are finely tooled, effectively alternating with the original monochrome backgrounds, which during the third quarter of the 14th century were decorated with the French royal fleurs-de-lis. The brilliant colours were made from the most precious pigments, giving the miniature pages the appearance of stained-glass windows. Making full use of their creativity and displaying a rich variety of motifs, the book illuminators were intent on occupying all of the pictorial space, thus filling the columns and lines with ornament.

Peterborough-Psalter

Enjoy Viewing a Few Sample Pages:

A Glance at the Facsimile

The section of the Peterborough Psalter reproduced here comprises fols. 63v–67r. The sequence of pages starts with a text page in blue letters. Fols. 64r–64v show the miniatures depicting the Deposition, the Descent into Hell and Christ’s Resurrection, correlated with their antecedents from the Old Testament. The historiated initial at the beginning of Psalm 101 on fol. 65r supposedly shows the abbot of Peterborough kneeling in prayer. At the top of the decorated border, a man is playing two trumpets, and at the bottom an angel is playing one. In the historiated initial on fol. 66r, Benedictine monks are singing at a lectern. In the border at the bottom, a cleric is playing a portative organ, and another man is playing a bagpipe.

The Masterly Craft of Book Binding

In the wake of the occupation of the Austrian Netherlands by the French revolutionary army in 1794, the Peterborough Psalter was taken to Paris. Napoleon had it rebound in red leather in Empire style. The gold tooled border is characteristic of the classicist decoration.
For this facsimile edition, the leather carefully selected for the binding is dyed red, as is the original. A rich gold tooling is applied to the covers, the spine and the edges. True to the original, the volume is furnished with a pastedown and a flyleaf of green moiré silk.