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

 If you want to read more  from my blog about The Macclesfield Psalter or about a life in a Tudor Essex town, please do subscribe either by using the ‘Subscribe via Email’ button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do ‘Like’ it with the Facebook button below.

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.

 Guillaume de Deguileville (translator), ‘Devil holding a hook encircling naked people with a rope.’ from The Pilgrimage of the Soul (East England, circa between 1413 and 1475), shelfmark: Egerton 615 f. 34. © British Library Board

Guillaume de Deguileville (translator), ‘Devils’ from The Pilgrimage of the Soul (East England, circa between 1413 and 1475), shelfmark: Egerton 615 f. 46v.
© British Library Board

 ‘God holding a compass with angels and cherubins, and Lucifer with fallen angels and devils’ The Queen Mary Psalter (England, 1310-1320), shelfmark: Royal 2 B VII f.1v.
© British Library Board

All digital images from the British Library’s Online Images archive appear by courtesy of the British Library Board and may not be reproduced (© British Library Board).

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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following
– Early-modern images
– Images of Medieval animals
– Images of Medieval music
– Images of Tudors
– Images of Medieval devils

© Essex Voices Past 2012-2013.