Sometimes when I look through facsimile folios of the Macclesfield Psalter, I feel as though I’m playing a weird medieval game of ‘Where’s Wally?’.  There is so much to discover and so many creatures hiding on each folio!  At first glance, today’s image from the psalter is seemingly very plain (or plain by the standards of other folios within the psalter).  But look closer….

On this folio, see if you can discover
– a beautiful song-bird
– the heads of red devils
– a two-legged creature with the body of a bird but the head of floppy-eared dog
– two strange creatures with long snake-like necks and sharp claws
– the head of a bearded man growing in a flower

Click on the image to open a new window where you can use your browser’s zoom to see the illustration in its full glory (300-400% works best for me).

If you do spot Wally, please do let me know where he is!

Folio 19r from The Macclesfield Psalter,
probably produced at Gorleston, East Anglia circa 1330
Gold & tempera on vellum, 17cm x 10.8cm,
© The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

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All digital images from the Macclesfield Psalter appear by courtesy of The Fitzwilliam Museum and may not be reproduced (© The Fitzwilliam Museum).

Further reading
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter: A Complete Facsimile (2008)
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter Book (Cambridge, 2005)
Stella Panayotova The Macclesfield Psalter (PDF format on CD)(Cambridge, 2005)

You may also be interested in the following
– Images from the British Library’s online images from the early modern period
– Images from the medieval illuminated manuscripts
– The Macclesfield Psalter

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.