(King David in the Psalms, The Westminster Psalter, London, c. 1200 , British Library, Royal 2 A. xxii, f. 14v © British Library Board)
An exhibition of the British Library’s collection of manuscripts owned by medieval kings and queens of England is opening on 11 November; I am desperate to go and see it but probably won’t be able to do so. It looks wonderful. The collection is of luxury books which belonged to monarchs from the ninth to sixteenth centuries, truly works of art. Because they are books, and thus usually closed, the paint colours often remain almost as vivid as the day they were painted. The press release promises that the books give insight into royal identity, prescribed regal behaviour and moral codes, and politics.
Below is an extraordinary picture from Henry VIII’s psalter (c. 1540) with Henry posing as (a very middle-aged) David. The colours almost hurt your eyes! Henry chose to identify himself with the supposed writer of the Psalms, a great warrior, musician and poet and also the direct ancestor of Jesus; nothing if not modest. David had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba, and perhaps Henry allows an allusion to his affair and marriage with Anne Boleyn. Bathsheba’s first son by David was struck down with a mortal illness by the Lord; Anne’s son also died (stillborn). Anne had been executed in 1536 and Henry may be affirming that his relationship with her was sinful, the result of (her) witchcraft.
I wish I could decipher the note in the margin...
(Henry VIII as David, Henry VIII’s Psalter, London c. 1540, Royal 2 A xvi © British Library Board)
And here is Henry V, as a yong man and Prince of Wales, from a copy of the Regement of Princes which was made for him. This was an English book in verse which gave exemplars (or ‘mirrors’) of good and bad regal behaviour for a prince to reflect upon. The image shows Henry receiving a copy of that very book from the kneeling author. Incorporating his portrait in the Regement makes him an exemplar as well as a reader, and binds him personally more closely to the lessons of the text.
(Henry V as a young prince, Thomas Hoccleve, Regement of Princes, England, c. 1430–38, British Library, Royal 17 D. vi, ff. 39v–40 © British Library Board)
And this is fabulous in both senses of the word! It’s a map of the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem, drawn by Matthew Paris in around 1250 and forming the preface to a copy of his Historia Anglorum. The itinerary begins in London and then travels by way of France and Apulia, with major stops and landmarks drawn on it. The camel is enchanting.
(Itinerary to Jerusalem, Matthew Paris, Map to Jerusalem, St Albans, c. 1250, Royal 14 C vii, ff. 2–5 © British Library Board)
Even if I cannot actually get to the exhibition, I will be selling my first-born and only child in order to purchase a copy of the catalogue.
(All captions are those written by the British Library; see here for further information.)