Acquisition of the Mostyn Psalter Hours

The British Library has acquired The Mostyn Psalter-Hours, produced in 13th-century London, with a grant of £390,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) and funding from other generous supporters.

The book is a large-format manuscript comprising a calendar, decorated with 20 small miniatures of the labours of the months and the zodiac, and a Psalter containing eight of the ten large historiated initials, the Hours of the Virgin, Office of the dead and other typical text. 

The manuscript is made of parchment, 160 folio and approximately 325 x225 mm. It was rebound in 1975 with dark red goatskin over wood. The artist is unidentified although it is stylistically similar to the important Windmill Psalter now in the Morgan Library, New York.