Friday 8 September 2017

Fécamp Psalter (The Hague KB, 76 F 13)

March: pruning vines, f. 3v.

Colloquial name(s): Fécamp Psalter / Fecamp Psalter
Official name(s): The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 76 F 13

Date: c. 1180 (source and source)
Origin: Abbey of Fécamp, Normandy (source and source)

Online facsimile available via: Koninklijke Bibliotheek Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Web Gallery of Art (some images)

The Fécamp Psalter is one of a number of fine psalters made at the end of the 12th Century in monastic circles in northern France (source). It is illustrated with 36 calendar miniatures depicting the Labours of the Months; 27 full-page miniatures of the Infancy and Passion of Christ; and 11 historiated initials illustrating the major divisions of the psalter (source). It was made at the Abbey of Fécamp for an unidentified female donor (source).

Basic descriptions of the illustrations are provided by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek with the facsimile - just click on the 'images and description' link at the bottom of the page.
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2 comments:

  1. ClausenFan6:47 am, December 04, 2019

    The Koninlijke Bibliotheek website has now (late 2019)proposed the very interesting theory that this Psalter was made for Eleanor of Aquitaine in about 1185, and furthermore that the portrait of the unknown "Lady Donor" is actually a portrait of Eleanor herself. They put forward quite a lot of circumstantial evidence, together with less convincing ideas such as the fact that her vair-lined cloak in the Psalter is the same as seen in a wall painting depicting the queen; in fact there are very many images of that period showing nobles and royalty wearing cloaks lined with vair. "One cloak doth not an Eleanor make", as someone almost said. Putting all the evidence together, however, does seem to suggest that the idea of it being Eleanor's Psalter is worth considering - but far from proven

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  2. Salka7:21 am, June 30, 2021

    I do Living History and I very love this Psalter. It is very interesting in details of clothing, I've never seen before. For example: Both farmer women wear patterned bands as belts; but the rich lady in fol 28v wears a belt of leather(?) with metal fittings. How is the farmer women's belt made? Was this kind of belt typical? I would love to get answers from the pictures...

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