This Psalter displays the piety, wealth and cosmopolitan tastes of its ducal patrons. It also exemplifies the movement of artists and styles across medieval Europe. The liturgical content reveals that the manuscript was commissioned after and completed before Learn more about the manuscript by exploring the sections below or selecting folios on the right. Discover further details by choosing any of the folios with the hotspot symbol. This Psalter is the earliest and most richly illuminated in a group of manuscripts made in Salzburg and Breslau, but including images painted in an Italian style.
Eleven illuminations painted by a Paduan artist and his Associate display the blend of Italian and Byzantine elements found in contemporary art from the Veneto. All remaining figural scenes — well over — and the profuse ornamentation throughout the volume were provided by seven local artists and their assistants.
Some of them worked in a similar style, but did not use the same palette. Others shared pigments, but retained their individual styles.
Riches He bequeathed it to the Fitzwilliam Museum and his widow presented it in The manuscript contains the Psalms. These Old Testament poems, central to liturgical, scholarly and devotional practices in the Middle Ages, were the most frequently and richly illuminated biblical texts. Figural scenes and profuse ornamentation grace every page in the Psalter. Twenty-seven full-page miniatures are grouped in ten sections. Each section introduces one of the standard text divisions of the Psalter.
The first Psalm of each section also received a large historiated initial. The Calendar, Litany and collects short prayers , and the borders throughout the volume are populated with hundreds of small scenes and marginal figures. The numerous artists who contributed to the decoration of this manuscript shared a common palette of lead white, ultramarine, vermilion and verdigris, which has significantly degraded in some cases.
