Special Offers - Monographs
Der Psalter des Robert De Lisle:
Facsimile edition of the manuscript Arundel 83 II (British Library London).
Simbach am Inn : Müller und Schindler, 2009
38 pages (19 leaves) of illustrations, format 22.8 x 33.8 cm – with 33 partly whole page illuminations of biblical events and 12 illustrated whole pages theological diagrams.
Leather binding modelled on the binding of Add. MS 18972 (Peter Comestor, Historia Scholastica, 1451) of the British Library.
The commentary volume is edited by Lucy Freeman Sandler (New York University).
Subscription price: EUR 2,780.00 (currently corresponding to USD 3,640.00), valid until January 31, 2009
Later: EUR 3,400.00 (currently USD 4,450.00)
The text of this entirely illuminated manuscript has either been lost or not been produced at all. It is assumed to have been a leader to a complete psalter, but the question whether it is a fragment or an incompleted masterpiece has never been solved. The leaves have been preserved as individual pieces that had been bound as an add on to a psalter in the late 16th or early 17th century. The volume was made a present to the Royal Society of London in 1667 and purchased by the British Museum in 1831 as the Howard Psalter Hours.
It is uncertain whether Robert De Lisle actually was the sponsor of the illuminations. But the elegance and erudition of the illuminations are his trademark and resemble the decorated style typical of the artists of Westminster Abbey under Kind Edward II. and Edward III. who were supported by Robert De Lisle. We know from his own hand that he, in 1339, had passed the psalter on to his daughters who had retreated to the monastery of Chequesaundes – obviously an attempt to leave the manuscript to the safety of a monastery rather than expose it to the jeopardies prevalent at his time for any public or private collection.
As was customary for the book illuminations of the 14th century, more than one artist or scribe were entrusted with the creation of the manuscript. So the illuminations of the De Lisle Psalter show the styles of two master artists, the so-called Madonna Master who created the central illuminations depicting the life of Maria and Jesus, dated around 1310, and the so-called Majestas Master who added at least 5 whole page illuminations, reminiscent of the Paris style of Jean Pucelle, including the Majestas miniature, to complete this magnificant example of English Gothic book illumination.
The facsimile volume will be ready for dispatch in January 2009, the commentary volume will follow later in the year.
Please order through your normal library channels, or contact service@harrassowitz.de for further information.