The Felbrigge Psalter is an

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

Psalter from mid-13th century

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

that has an embroidered

bookbinding Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

which probably dates to the early 14th century. It is the oldest surviving book from England to have an

embroidered binding Embroidered binding, also referred to as needlework or textile binding, describes a book bound in cloth and decorated with a design on one or both covers and sometimes the spine. The binding is created for the individual book. History Embroidere ...

. The embroidery is worked in fine linen with an illustration of the

Annunciation The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

on the front cover and an illustration of the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

on the back.Cyril Davenport, "Embroidered Bindings of Bibles in the Possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society" in ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'', Vol. 4, No. 12 (Mar., 1904), pp. 267-28

Accessed 20 January 2007.

Embroidery

The cover embroidery is " by ", couching (embroidery), couched in a zigzag pattern using fine gold thread. The remainder is worked in linen floss using a split stitch that flows independently from the mesh of the canvas. In the opinion of Cyril Davenport, the embroidery on this book is very high quality: "I know of no other instance for which appropriateness of workmanship, or charm of design, can compare with this, the earliest of all." Davenport praises both the technical quality of the stitching and the overall rendering of the figures and drapery. See illustration for the front cover. Davenport describes the back cover in the following manner:

On the lower side, on a groundwork of gold similar to that on the upper cover, is a design of the Crucifixion. Our Saviour wears a red garment round the loins, and round his head is a red and yellow nimbus, his feet being crossed in a manner often seen in illuminations in ancient manuscripts. The cross is yellow with a green edge, the foot widening out into a triple arch, within which is a small angel kneeling in the attitude of prayer. On the right of the cross is a figure of the
Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
, in robes of pale blue and yellow, with a white head-dress and green and yellow nimbus. On the left is another figure, probably representing St. John, dressed in robes of red and blue, and having a nimbus round his head of concentric rings of red and yellow. This figure is unfortunately in very bad condition. The edges of the leaves of the book are painted with heraldic bearings in diamond-shaped spaces, that of the Felbrigge family 'Gules, a lion rampant, or' alternately with another 'azure, a 32 fleur-de-lys, or.'

By the close of the 19th century, when Davenport wrote, the book had been rebound in leather. The back embroidery had been ''quite done away with'' and the embroidered sides had been damaged both by time and by efforts at repair. The two panels have been laid into a calf leather binding dating from the 18th century.Guide to English Embroidered Bookbindings in the British Library
at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

's web site, bl.uk Accessed 21 January 2008. No other embroidered English book survives from this early period; the next oldest dates from approximately 1536. Grace Christie wrote in 1928 "The Felbrigge Psalter is the only example of existing Opus Anglicanum worked before 1350 with a 'surface' couched gold ground."

Ownership

The book takes its name from Anne de Felbrigge, a nun at a convent of Minoresses at Bruisyard,

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, who is known to have been an early owner of the book and was probably its embroiderer. Anne de Felbrigge had an aristocratic background: she was the daughter of Sir Simon de Felbrigge, of Felbrigg Hall, Felbrigg, who was standard-bearer to Richard II.Cyril Davenport, ''English Embroidered Bookbindings'', Chapter 2, from Project Gutenber

Accessed 21 January 2008. In the 18th century the Psalter was in the possession of Hans Sloane, whose collection was the foundation for the

, which opened in 1753. It is catalogued as ''MS Sloane 2400''.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Illuminated psalters English embroidery 13th-century biblical manuscripts Sloane manuscripts Bookbinding 13th-century illuminated manuscripts