The Alphonso Psalter (BL Add. MS 24686)

Saint Andrew and Saint Lawrence, f. 2r.

Colloquial name(s): The Alphonso Psalter, The Tenison Psalter

Official name(s): British Library, Additional MS 24686

Date: c. 1284-1316, depending on illustrations in question (source)

Origin: London or Westminster, England (source)

Online facsimile available via: The British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts

The Alphonso Psalter consists of full-page miniatures of saints (ff. 2r-4v), a psalter (ff. 5r-135v) and a prayer in Anglo-Norman French (f. 136r) (source). Work on the Alphonso Psalter is considered to have been begun c. 1284. The calendar is considered to have been added before 1298, the psalm initials possibly between 1297 and the early 14th C and the miniatures of saints probably between 1302 and 1316. Thus, the illustrations represent the work of multiple illustrators over a probable 20 or 30 year spread (source).

Basic descriptions of the illustrations, which mostly consist of grotesques, are provided by the British Library with the facsimile.

A list of the folios containing illustrations will be added here in due course.