The Macclesfield Psalter

Description

Discoveries of real treasures are exceptionally rare. The Macclesfield Psalter (c. 1335), a jewel of manuscript painting, was unknown before its sale in 2004; it came to international attention and is now recognized as the most important discovery of a medieval manuscript in Britain within living memory. Its pages offer an intimate view of the medieval world and the beliefs, prejudices, follies, aspirations and sentiments of its people. Doctors, priests, minstrels, mummers, farmers, dancers, tricksters and beggars mingle in the margins as they would have done on the streets of a busy town. The author shares her intimate knowledge of the psalter and its historical context in an extended commentary, which unfolds an engrossing quest for the provenance of the manuscript and a beguiling account of its contents and meaning. Beautifully presented in a cloth-covered slipcase, this edition is a delight to the eye and a challenge to the mind.* Not only reproduces the manuscript in its entirety and at actual size, but is also supplemented by a host of details from related sacred books

Stella Panayotova is Keeper of Manuscripts at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. She is the editor, with Paul Binski, of The Cambridge Illumination: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval World.

'A large, handsome volume ... the reproductions provide the next - best thing to holding the Psalter in person and by themselves are well worth the purchase price' - The Journal of Ecclesiastical History