The Psalter-Hours of Isabelle of France

Physical Description

Description and Contents

Parchment, iv modern parchment flyleaves + 309 fols. (foliated I-XIII, 1-296) + iv modern parchment flyleaves, 190 x 140 mm (125 x 95 mm),  18 long lines, ruled in plummet, quire and leaf signatures in quires 18-27, catchwords, fols. 292-296 added in the 14th century were previously bound at the beginning of the volume, two leaves missing after fol. 64, two more missing before fol. 227, one leaf missing before fol. 242 and another one after fol. 291.

The Calendar text is written in gold and blue, the main text in iron-gall ink and its rubrics in vermilion red.

This is the last page to contain the exuberant red and blue pen-flourished ornamentation in the upper and lower borders found only in quire 17. Being the last page of quire 17, it also preserves a catchword – the only one still extant in the manuscript. The words written in black ink at the bottom edge of the page – p[o]p[u]lo dei que – are the first words of the next page which starts quire 18.