Psalter

Recto

Verso

A lavishly illuminated leaf from a Psalter is one of the items in the De Gregorio collection. Sacred illuminated manuscripts were produced by Muslims, Christians, and Jews to glorify their respective deities. Illumination in its final form appeared by the 6th-century. Illuminated means "lit up" with colors, and the gleam of burnished gold. Early manuscripts demonstrate collaboration among the Scribe, who wrote the text in precise, hand-formed script; the Illuminator, who created the tiny, intricate designs; and the Rubricator, who completed page headings and section markers in red.

The leaf is from a personal book of devotion in the codex format. Early Christian evangelists created the codex, the modern form of the book, far easier to carry than heavy scrolls when traveling to spread the word of their faith.

The brilliantly illuminated leaf, circa 1200 A.D., is from a Psalter (passages from The Book of Psalms in The Book of Common Prayer) commissioned by a member of the court of the French King Philip II. In the age of the great Gothic cathedrals, the towering pillars and elegant stained-glass windows are strikingly similar to illuminated manuscripts of the period. The pointed letterform is Gothic or Blackletter, the movable type font used by Gutenberg for his 42-Line Bible, circa 1450 A.D. Below is an example of the font.

A superlative example of the finest illumination, there are two extraordinary majuscules, large capitals with elaborate designs drawn inside the spaces of the letter, on both recto and verso, as well as numerous minuscules, smaller, rounded capitals (Roman uncials), that are the basis of our modern alphabet. The illumination is exquisite, rendered in resplendent colors of gold, blue, and red.