Queen Mary I's Psalter

This is an image depicting harvesting in August from the prayer book known as the Queen Mary Psalter. According to the British Library, which notes that images from the Psalter are public domain except in the UK (I am publishing in the USA):

The Queen Mary Psalter is one of the most extensively illustrated biblical manuscripts ever produced, containing over 1000 images. Prefacing, commenting on and embellishing the Psalms, the illustrations are famous for their artistic sophistication in both coloured drawings and paintings. Extraordinarily, it appears that all of the Psalter’s illustrations were completed by the same person, an artist who is now known as the ‘Queen Mary Master’ after this book.

The manuscript takes its name not from its original owner but from Queen Mary I (r. 1553–58), to whom it was presented in 1553 by a customs officer, Baldwin Smith, who had prevented its export from England. Although there is no heraldic or documentary evidence that the manuscript’s original patron was also royalty, the magnitude and quality of its illustrations makes an owner of such status very likely. . . .

The images begin on the second text page of the Psalms, and run continuously for 464 pages. Their subjects are extremely varied. They include the Miracles of the Virgin, portraits of martyred saints, and depictions of the lives of Sts Thomas Becket (b. c. 1119, d. 1170) and Mary Magdalene, as well as illustrations of animals and musicians and pursuits such as hunting and hawking. Collectively, the astonishing breadth and beauty of the drawings and paintings create a moving evocation of the world, both sacred and secular.

The Queen Mary Psalter has been digitized at the British Library. It was in the royal possession until King George II gave it to the British Museum in 1757.

The University of Arizona Library Special Collections, which has facsimiles of this Psalter, further notes:

Queen Mary Tudor owned the Psalter two centuries after it was made, but substantial contextual evidence suggests that its original owner was Isabelle of France, the queen of Edward II of England and mother of Edward III. The Psalter provided a rich experience in the reading of texts and images for viewing.

This document provides a great deal of detail about the Psalter and comments upon Queen Mary's appreciation of it, including the rebinding of the book with emblems of the pomegranate, her mother's badge.

Welcome to August!