A leaf from a Psalter, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Central or Southern Italy, 12th century]

A lively Romanesque initial on a leaf from a 12th-century Italian Psalter.

c.185 x 130mm. 26 lines written in a small, rounded Romanesque minuscule in two sizes, the initial 'E' opening Psalm 80: 'Exultate deo adiutori nostro', initials and rubrics in red, two modern foliations '37' and '46' in upper right margin (a few stains and smudges, generally in good condition). Mounted and framed.

Illumination:
The distinctive palette of greens, reds and yellows and the thick white-vine tendrils are features associable with manuscripts produced in the first half of the 12th century in central Italy, specifically in the region around Arezzo: K. Berg, Studies in Tuscan Twelfth-Century Illumination, Oslo 1968, no 15; F. Avril & Y. Zaluska, Manuscrits enluminés d'origine italienne. VI-XII siècles. Bibliothèque nationale, 1980, nos 71-75. The eccentric style of the initial is reminiscent of the extremely eccentric illumination of a manuscript of Pietro di Cava, Expositiones in librum primum Regum (Cava de’ Tirreni, Biblioteca Statale del Monumento Nazionale Badia di Cava, ms. 9), datable to the first half of the the 12th century.