The Moore Psalter
France, ca 1280
The iconography of this stunningly-illuminated psalter includes a representation of the subject at the opening of each psalm. Some are very literal, such as, at the foot of the left-hand page, a family at table to illustrate Psalm 128 verse 3; ‘Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.’ The artist has also added a huge number of line-fillers ensuring that there is hardly a blank space left on any leaf; the figures include humans, animals, and charming grotesques.
This volume has been digitised in full: to view this, click ‘Open Digital Library’.
MS Ee.4.24, ff. 32v–33r (Royal Library)
Cambridge University Library MS Ee.4.24, sometimes known as the Moore Psalter (Peterson, 2004), principally comprises a fully-illustrated text of the Psalter (fols 6r-35v) dated c.1280. In addition, the manuscript contains an incomplete Kalendar (fols 1r-3v), showing only the months of March, April, September, October, November and December, and thirteen Cantica (fols 35v-38v), which, due to the missing last leaf of the manuscript, are also incomplete.
Significant due to the extent and nature of its illustrative programme, the manuscript contains copious decoration, including historiated initials, line fillers and border decoration. Each month of the Kalendar is provided with two miniatures, one showing the occupation of the month and the other the signs of the zodiac. Each psalm, likewise, has been given a dedicated illustration depicting some aspect of the psalm text’s meaning, except for the psalms beginning the seven Nocturnes, which show instead enlarged scenes from the Life of David (see, for instance, the initial showing David and Goliath on folio 6r of the manuscript). An index for the illustrations, possibly contemporary with the manuscript and describing the subject of each miniature in Norman French, has been appended to the codex between the Kalendar and the beginning of the Psalms on folios 4v-5v. Throughout the manuscript, there is elaborate marginal and interlinear decoration, comprising birds, animals, fish and hybrid humans and beasts, as, for instance, on folio 31r.
Elizabeth Wright, University of York
