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Description: | Medieval psalters were made to be used either for personal devotion or in church services, including the offices or daily cycle of prayers recited by monks. The Glenorchy Psalter was used in a monastery in Argyll, in Scotland, before the Reformation, but by the first quarter of the 16th century it was owned by the 3rd earl of Glenorchy, Colin Campbell. Its calendar, an aid to the manuscript's users in planning prayers and readings for services, lists many saints who were revered in western Scotland.
A copy of the Book of Psalms would be divided into sections according to one of four medieval traditions. The Glenorchy Psalter has the ten-fold divisions, which divide it according to the distribution of the psalms for early morning prayers (matins) for the seven days of the week with an eighth section for the evening prayers (vespers) plus an ancient Irish division which adds two to the total divisions. Psalm 68 / 69 ('Save me O God from the waters') begins the third section. The division is indicated by the large first letter, which is formed of the elongated bodies of imaginary animals. The limited colours and unsophisticated painting technique indicate the monastery's remoteness and limited resources, but the lively animal decoration represents the legacy of native book art from the early middle ages. | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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