Item 5: Psalter

As a personal prayer book, the psalter might be illuminated in a variety of ways. The sequence of scenes illustrating the life of David, which mark the liturgical divisions of this psalter, do not refer literally to the words of the psalm they introduce. Rather, they honour David, generic author of the psalms and the royal ancestor of Christ.

Several psalters made for the de Bohun family contain pictorial cycles based on the Old Testament, and since John Teye, one of the illuminators resident in the family castle in Essex for many years, was an Augustinian friar, it is probable that the family was well instructed in the significance of such stories. Even though there may be no specific relationship between the text and illustration, visual and literary themes often complement one another. On the page displayed here, for example, Psalm 66 is a plea to God for rescue from one’s enemies: ‘Save me O Lord,’ says the psalmist, ‘for the waters have come nigh unto my soul’. Pictorially, Abigail pleads effectively for deliverance from the wrath of David, who is incensed by the brutish and un-cooperative behaviour of her husband, Nabal.

Heraldic insignia relating to past members of the de Bohun family abound throughout this prayer book, together with contemporary references to Mary (daughter of Humphrey de Bohun) and Henry Bolingbroke. The prayer book may, in fact, commemorate the marriage of this couple in 1380. The inclusion of miniatures as well as historiated initials in the illustrative program may reflect the influence of the book of hours, which was growing in popularity, and several of which were owned by the de Bohun family.