Howard Psalter and Hours

The Howard Psalter and Hours (British Library, Arundel 83 pt. I) is a 14th-century

Decoration

The manuscript is lavishly decorated. There are nine diagrams, six miniatures, eight large historiated initials, two smaller historiated initials and three decorated initials, all of which are painted in colors and feature gold leaf. The larger historiated initials have full borders which are historiated and contain scenes in the base of the page. The smaller historiated initials have partial foliate borders. The decorated initials have extensions into the margins of the page. There are also some smaller decorated initials which include human heads, which are also painted in colors and gold. There are also smaller gold initials on red and blue grounds, smaller gold initials with purple foliate pen flourishes and smaller blue initials with red foliate pen flourishes.

Provenance

The manuscript may have been made for John Litton (d.1326), whose arms appear on folios 47r and 55v. It was also owned by

Bound with the Howard Psalter is part of what was once the De Lisle Psalter (Arundel MS 83 II),[a] consisting of a calendar and the Speculum theologiae, a collection of diagrams attributed to John of Metz, a 13th-century Franciscan friar working in Paris. The illuminations have been attributed to the Madonna Master, named after the facing miniatures of the Virgin and the Crucifixion (ff. 131v-132r),^[b] who may also have been responsible for paintings on the oak sedilia at Westminster Abbey (1307–8).^[c]

Gallery

• 
  The Twelve Articles of Faith (folio 12v)
• 
  Crucifixion / Tree of life scene with saints bordering (folio 13r)
  Based upon Bonaventure's Lignum Vitae
• 
  Wheel of the Twelve Attributes of Human Existence. Christ's head is surrounded by twenty-five radial segments with readings about the twelve ages of man, and symbols of the four evangelists in each corner.
  Madonna Master from the De Lisle Psalter (folio 126).
• 
  Miniature of the Virgin and Child. The Virgin's feet rest on a dragon and a lion. She is seated in an elaborate Gothic arched canopy, with niches containing two angels and the saints

  Margaret of Antioch.
  Madonna Master

  from the De Lisle Psalter.
• 
  Les trois mors et les trois vis from the De Lisle Psalter.
• 
  Wheel of the ten ages of men from the De Lisle Psalter.

Notes

Sources

• British Library Catalog of Illuminated Manuscripts
• Hourihane, Colum (6 December 2012). The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. OUP USA.
  ISBN 978-0-19-539536-5
  .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Howard Psalter and Hours (c.1308-1340) - BL Arundel MS 83 I.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to De Lisle Psalter (c.1310) - BL Arundel MS 83 II.

• Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834–1840), I, part 1: The Arundel Manuscripts, p. 22-23.
• Lucy Freemen Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles (Harvey Miller: London, 1986), no. 38.

External links

• Digitized manuscript