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medieval imaginations:
literature and visual culture in the middle ages



picture data:

medium: manuscript 
date: 14th century
episodes: All
owner/location: Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
catalogue information: Macclesfield Psalter 4
related images: 636  638  639  642  643  644  645  646  647  648  649  650  651  652  653  654  655  656  657  658  659 
Borders and Margins

Image 637 (This image by courtesy of Sotheby's) From the recently rediscovered Macclesfield Psalter (c.1320-30), probably from Gorleston, Norfolk, and closely related to the Gorleston Psalter. This leaf contains the opening of Psalm 27, 'Dominus illuminatio' ('The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?'). The historiated initial depicts the annointing of a beardless boy king David by Samuel with dramatic, energetic gestures. To the left, Jesse watches, holding a scroll. The reticulated plant stems of the initial 'D' weave variously behind and in front of the feet, hands and garments of the figures in the initial. In the lefthand border: heads of a queen, a large-snouted creature, and a bearded man. In the righthand border: a hybrid grotesque, with a second face in its bottom and a tail for a nose, looks towards the initial. Across the bottom of the page: two trumpeters sound golden trumpets (one bearing a banner of orange and gold stripes). A figure rides a grotesque, while below another figure in green seems to be grappling for dear life with the encompassing foliage, watched by another grotesque bottom right.

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further reading:
Binski, Paul, and Panayotova, Stella, The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, London 2005
Panayotova, Stella, The Macclesfield Psalter, Cambridge 2005