This illuminated page comes from the earliest known book from the south of England: the ‘Vespasian Psalter’. It is a majestic Anglo-Saxon Psalter written in a stately script (‘uncial’). It was most probably produced in Canterbury, c.725, using Jerome’s Latin version of the Psalms translated from the Hebrew.

The miniature affords a colourful glimpse into the joyous, action-filled, and noisy court of King David, celebrated author of several psalms. David, haloed and swathed in purple, sits on a plump cushion on his throne, surrounded by his courtiers, feet on a footstool, singing and playing a lyre. At his side, two attentive scribes record the new psalm being composed, while four horn-blowing musicians accompany his chanting, and two courtiers, carried away by the exultant rhythm, clap their hands and dance.

The musical instruments in this illumination accurately reproduce contemporary Anglo-Saxon ones, and show how they were played. The lyre matches examples retrieved from elite burials, such as Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, and Prittlewell, Essex. David is shown stopping some of its strings to strum a chord. The musicians’ wind instruments are of two types: one is a short, curved animal horn; the other—long and straight—is made of hollowed wood sections held together by copper-alloy bands. A similar horn, found in Ireland (Belfast, Ulster Museum, BELUM.A9637), features metal bands incised with decorations recalling those of our illumination, testimony to the close artistic interactions between Britain and Ireland (Breay & Story 2018: 308–11).

Following late-antique conventions, the courtly scene is framed architecturally by an arch supported on stylized columns with whimsical capitals and bases featuring animals. The rigid, geometric patterns of the columns contrast with the curvy, swirling patterns of the arch: these are ‘Celtic’ motifs, symbolizing the sacred (Youngs 2009). Thus, the arch morphs into a celestial vault with radiant stars and whirling constellations (Psalm 147:4), as well as clouds to provide rain for a blessed harvest (v.8). For the psalmist the contemplation of God’s orderly creation is a source of divine inspiration.

References

British Library, Cotton MS Vespasian A.1, available at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Vespasian_A_I [accessed 19 April 2022]

Breay, Claire and Joanna Story (eds.). 2018. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War (London: British Library)

Youngs, Susan. M. 2009. ‘From Metalwork to Manuscript: Some Observations on the Use of Celtic Art in Insular Manuscripts’, in Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World, AD 600–1100, ed. by Sally Crawford, Helena Hamerow, and Leslie Webster, pp. 45–64