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.

The verses of Psalm 1 begin with one-line initials (versals) in alternating blue and gold leaf with red or blue pen flourishing. Psalm 2 at the bottom of the page opens with a larger, pink initial Q, filled with foliage and an orange dragon on gold leaf ground, set against an outer blue ground within a gold leaf frame, and extending into spiky foliage which supports a rabbit. This initials and the line fillers, painted in the same style, are the work of the same assistant (Hand 1).