bosworth psalter – Mydwynter Studios

The Fountain award scroll. Inspired by and based on the beginning of Psalm 51 of the Bosworth Psalter. (Spring, 2013.)

The Bosworth Psalter is a mid–late 10th century English Psalter, characterized by large, interlaced, foliated initals nestled amid multicoloured, multi-hierarchy pages. There are also a few simpler pages with less-decorated initials and miniscule scripts, and many pages have been glossed in Latin or Old English.

The Bosworth Psalter, f.33r — The reference page, f.33r. The Kingdom being Atlantia, and the award being a fountain, I selected watery colours instead of the warmer earth tones of the original.

laying out the S initial — Because the reference initial is a Q, the S needed to be redesigned and reworked, with an eye toward maintaining the style.

One of the most delightful things about this manuscript (and, in fact, this broader period of time and location) is the playfulness of the letterforms. The scribes frequently stacked and nestled and integrated letters, with the result that you can have real fun without breaking the fourth wall, as it were.

scroll colour rehearsal — Scanned and coloured in Photoshop, to make sure everything will look harmonious and balanced.