Friday, November 19, 2004

Consult the Book of Armaments!

A fascinating set of articles in the Telegraph about the so-called Macclesfield Psalter, a recently discovered illuminated manuscript. This article explains that there is a fight to keep the manuscript in Britain, whilst this article describes it as the 'Monty Python' saucy psalter, due to the fact that it was decorated with bizarre and typically British cheeky images.
The margins contain Monty Python-esque images, possibly designed to ward off evil - or perhaps to hold the reader's attention if it happens to wander off spiritual matters - which include grotesques with faces in their bottoms, strange naked wild men, a dog dressed as a bishop, rabbits and a giant skate swimming across a page.

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