UNIT 9 LATE MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE AND ART (c. 1100–1550s)
Function
A psalter is a book of psalms, the religious verses sung or recited in Christian and Jewish worship. This manuscript gets its name from an inscription in Latin at the bottom of a page of musical notation: ‘Cormacus scripsit hoc psalterium ora pro eo’, which translates to, ‘Cormac wrote this psalter, pray for him’.
Technique
The penmanship and decoration in this small book are of a very high quality, superior to anything else from the Romanesque period.
Decoration
The text is a well-executed Irish majuscule: the smaller capitals that begin each verse have their centres coloured in, and fat paws and animal heads decorate the end flourishes of some of the letters. White, red, yellow, purple, blue and green paints are used.
Figure 26.21 The capital Q from the 51st psalm, of the Psalter of Cormac which begins, ‘Quid gloriaris’ (‘What glory’).
The book is divided into three sets of 50 psalms by framed pages, which once held illustrations. These illustrations have been scraped out, probably because the style was considered old-fashioned and was intended to be replaced. Large capitals taking up most of the page open each set of fifty psalms.
Captial D Captial B
Figure 26.22 The Psalter of Cormac. The capital D is a painted ribbon interlace letter. The capital B is in pen and ink with the interior space painted in a variety of colours. Note the white spaces between the pen lines to appreciate the accuracy of the scribe.
CHAPTER 26 THE HIBERNO-ROMANESQUE PERIOD (c. 1100–1200s)
