Harley Psalter - BL Harley 603 psalm 108 f55v

Harley Psalter - BL Harley 603 Trinity f1

The Harley Psalter (British Library Harley MS 603) is an

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...

of the second and third decades of the 11th century, with some later additions. It is a Latin

psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters w ...

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anim ...

, measures 380 x 310 mm and was probably produced at Christ Church, Canterbury. The most likely patron of such a costly work would have been the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, possibly Æthelnoth, who was consecrated in 1020 and remained at Canterbury until 1038.

Description

The Harley Psalter is the earliest of three surviving medieval copies of the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippi ...

Utrecht Psalter The Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I Nr 32.) is a ninth-century illuminated psalter which is a key masterpiece of Carolingian art; it is probably the most valuable manuscript in the Netherlands. It ...

of c. 820, then at Canterbury; the later ones were the 12th-century

Eadwine Psalter The Eadwine Psalter or Eadwin Psalter is a heavily illuminated 12th-century psalter named after the scribe Eadwine, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury (now Canterbury Cathedral), who was perhaps the "project manager" for the large and excepti ...

and the Anglo-Catalan Psalter. It contains more than 100 11th-century coloured

pen and wash A wash is a term for a visual arts technique resulting in a semi-transparent layer of colour. A wash of diluted ink or watercolor paint applied in combination with drawing is called pen and wash, wash drawing, or ink and wash.

drawings in the Utrecht Style, ending abruptly at Psalm 143:12, probably due to loss of pages rather than interruption of the original work. The Psalter is particularly interesting for having been written in three phases. The first phase seems to have been begun with the intention to produce a reasonably exact copy of the illustrations and layout of the Utrecht Psalter, although the Gallic form of the psalms in this work was substituted for the Roman form. This phase encompasses the first (ff.1-27) and third (ff.50-7) phases of the manuscript and is written by a single

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

.Backhouse, p. 75 The second phase of production is represented by the fourth section (ff.58-73), where the same scribe from the first phase continued to write out the psalms, but rather than imitating the layout of the Utrecht Psalter, he simply left gaps for illustrations at the beginning of each psalm. The artist who filled these gaps strayed further from the Utrecht Psalter as well, using much simpler compositions. Phase three of the manuscript is encompassed in the second section of the Psalter (ff.28-49) which seems to have been written later by the scribe

Eadui Basan Eadwig Basan (Latin: Eaduuius Basan) was an eleventh-century monk and scribe of Christ Church Canterbury, who worked on several manuscripts, including the ''Eadwig Gospels'' and ''Eadwig Psalter,'' both of which were named after him, and the ''Gr ...

, although his hand seems either elderly or infirm when compared to the work he produced 1018. Only two 11th-century drawings are found in this part of the manuscript; it has been suggested that this was written to replace a portion of the Psalter which had been lost or damaged, as it fills a gap between two sections of seemingly earlier work.

Janet Backhouse Janet Moira Backhouse (8 February 1938 – 3 November 2004) was an English manuscripts curator at the British Museum, and a leading authority in the field of illuminated manuscripts. Early life and education Janet Backhouse was born in Corsha ...

described the Harley Psalter as "one of the most important of all pre-Conquest English illuminated manuscripts".Backhouse, p. 74

Notes

References

, 'The Harley Psalter', in ''The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066'', ed.

D. H. Turner Derek Howard Turner (15 May 1931 – 1 August 1985) was an English museum curator and art historian who specialised in liturgical studies and illuminated manuscripts. He worked at the British Museum and the British Library from 1956 until his ...

and Leslie Webster (London, 1984), pp. 74–75

External links

British Library detailed record for the Harley Psalter, with imagesImages of the Harley Psalter in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
The layout in medieval psalters (Utrecht, Harley, Bury, Eadwine ...) {{Authority control Illuminated psalters Later Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts 11th-century biblical manuscripts Harleian Collection 11th-century illuminated manuscripts

Description

Notes

References

Further reading

External links