Harley Psalter facts for kids
The Harley Psalter (also known as British Library Harley MS 603) is a very old and special book. It's an illuminated manuscript, which means it's a handwritten book with beautiful pictures and decorations. This book was made a long, long time ago, in the early 1000s.
It's a psalter, which is a book containing the Book of Psalms from the Bible. The Harley Psalter is written in Latin on vellum, a type of parchment made from animal skin. It's quite large, measuring about 38 by 31 centimeters. Experts believe it was probably made at Christ Church, Canterbury, a famous church in England. A powerful person like the Archbishop of Canterbury, perhaps Æthelnoth, might have ordered such an expensive and beautiful book.
Contents
What is the Harley Psalter?
The Harley Psalter is very important because it's one of the earliest copies of another famous old book called the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter. The Utrecht Psalter was made around the year 820. The Harley Psalter was kept at Canterbury, and later, two other copies were made: the 12th-century Eadwine Psalter and the Anglo-Catalan Psalter.
Amazing Art and Drawings
This special book has more than 100 colorful drawings from the 11th century. These pictures were made using a technique called pen and wash, which means they used ink lines and then added light washes of color. The style of these drawings is very similar to the Utrecht Psalter. The book suddenly stops at Psalm 143:12, probably because some pages have been lost over time.
How the Psalter Was Made
The Harley Psalter is interesting because it wasn't made all at once. It was created in three different stages or "phases."
Phase One: Copying the Original
The first part of the book (pages 1-27 and 50-57) seems to have been started with the goal of making a very exact copy of the Utrecht Psalter. This included copying its pictures and how the text was laid out on the page. However, the scribes used a slightly different version of the psalms. One person, called a scribe, wrote all the text in this phase.
Phase Two: Simpler Designs
The second stage of making the book (pages 58-73) shows a change. The same scribe continued to write the psalms. But instead of copying the layout exactly, they just left empty spaces for the pictures. The artist who filled these spaces also started to create simpler drawings. They didn't copy the Utrecht Psalter as closely as before.
Phase Three: Filling in Gaps
The third stage of the manuscript (pages 28-49) was written later. It seems to have been done by a scribe named Eadui Basan. His handwriting in this section looks like he might have been older or unwell when he wrote it. This part of the book only has two drawings from the 11th century. Some people think this section was added to replace pages that had been lost or damaged from the original book.
Janet Backhouse, a famous expert on old manuscripts, called the Harley Psalter "one of the most important of all pre-Conquest English illuminated manuscripts." This means it's a truly special and valuable book from before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
