38 Keepers, Jonathan Alexander, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor at the Institute <strong>of</strong> Fine Arts, New York, and James Marrow, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Emeritus <strong>of</strong> Princeton <strong>University</strong>. Research <strong>The</strong> discovery in 2004 <strong>of</strong> the so-called Macclesfield Psalter equals in significance that <strong>of</strong> the Thornham Parva retable nearly eighty years ago. It came to light when Sotheby’s catalogued for sale the library belonging to the Earl <strong>of</strong> Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire. Its earlier provenance remains a mystery; it may have been in the library which Thomas Parker, the first Earl, acquired with the Castle in 1716. On the other hand we know from his inscription that in the late sixteenth century it belonged to Anthony Watson, sometime student and then Fellow <strong>of</strong> Christ’s College <strong>Cambridge</strong> who was appointed Bishop <strong>of</strong> Chichester by Elizabeth I in 1596. By the time the psalter appeared in Sotheby’s catalogue it had already been associated with two other illuminated manuscripts, the Gorleston Psalter in the British Library and the Douai Psalter, so named because its remnants are in the library there. All three display sufficiently similar characteristics to suggest a common source, scriptorium or workshop, and all three have links with the parish <strong>of</strong> Gorleston on the east coast (the county boundaries have been redrawn to divide the honours between Suffolk and Norfolk). What are unmistakable are the East Anglian connections; St Edmund and St Etheldreda, St Alban, St Botolph, and St Osyth consort with less regional Christian saints, along with an extraordinary cast <strong>of</strong> imaginary characters revealing that one <strong>of</strong> the illuminators had an extremely fertile mind. Rabbits and monkeys are concealed within its leaves along with grotesque figures reminiscent <strong>of</strong> the most indecent miserichords, to give a vivid impression <strong>of</strong> the earthy humour and unbridled fantasy which are as much a part <strong>of</strong> the Middle Ages as its unquestioning piety. Fortunately for the <strong>Fitzwilliam</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>, the importance <strong>of</strong> the Macclesfield Psalter was acknowledged by everyone, including the National Heritage Memorial Fund which <strong>of</strong>fered a grant <strong>of</strong> £860,000 representing half the cost, after the National Art Collections Fund gave £500,000 and mounted a national campaign to ‘save the psalter’. At the <strong>Museum</strong>, the public response was overwhelming as people recognised the manuscript as both a national and a regional treasure, moreover one which increases by a significant amount the sum total <strong>of</strong> our knowledge <strong>of</strong> painting in fourteenthcentury East Anglia. For the <strong>Museum</strong>, <strong>of</strong> course, the task has only just begun. Dr Panayotova has already been to Douai to draw her own conclusions about the precise nature <strong>of</strong> the relationship between the two manuscripts before writing the entry for ours in time to include it in <strong>Cambridge</strong> Illuminations. In the meantime, after an initial showing when it arrived in <strong>Cambridge</strong>, the Macclesfield Psalter is undergoing conservation. Because its eighteenth-century binding is split, there is a perfect opportunity to photograph it leaf by leaf and to display it in its unbound state before putting this most private <strong>of</strong> all devotional books back together again. Unknown until a year ago, this gem <strong>of</strong> East Anglian painting is about to become one <strong>of</strong> the bestknown <strong>of</strong> all English medieval manuscripts. It also demonstrates, in the words <strong>of</strong> a former director, M R James, written just over a century ago, that ‘the <strong>Fitzwilliam</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> is a place where manuscripts (are) choicely valued, religiously preserved, and minutely investigated.’ <strong>The</strong> <strong>Cambridge</strong> Illuminations will be on display at <strong>The</strong> <strong>Fitzwilliam</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> and the <strong>University</strong> Library, 26 July – 11 December 2005. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>’s research activities are undertaken across the breadth <strong>of</strong> the collections. A list <strong>of</strong> publications is available on request. 1Christopher Norton, David Park and Paul Binski, Dominican Painting in East Anglia: the Thornham Parva Retable and the Musée de Cluny Frontal, Woodbridge, 1987
“ ... a team whose scholarship and technical expertise are second to none.” Liz Forgan, Chair, Heritage Lottery Fund, on the conservators at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, 2004 Conservation
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