Melisende Psalter [SEP] collection
Melisende Psalter
The Melisende Psalter (London, British Library, Egerton MS 1139) is an illuminated manuscript commissioned around 1135 in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, probably by King Fulk for his wife Queen Melisende. It is a notable example of Crusader art, which resulted from a merging of the artistic styles of Roman Catholic Europe, the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire and the art of the Armenian illuminated manuscript.
Seven scribes and illuminators, working in the scriptorium built by the crusaders in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
Melisende Psalter is an extraordinarily beautiful little book that survives today in the British Museum" - a gloriously decorated gift carefully and thoughtfully chosen. While only 21.6 centimeters tall and 14 centimeters wide, the Melisende Psalter was ornately and expensively adorned - originally having the entire front cover gilded in gold and with six roundels made of ivory and exquisitely carved. It has a "multicolored silk spine" and the ivory roundels/medallions have studded "turquoise, ruby, and emerald stones" around scenes of King David from the Old Testament,