Initial B with King David (Leaf from a Psalter)
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
Sizes
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View in the galleryAbout this painting
This leaf is big enough to share. The Cleveland Museum of Art notes that its size, 45.7 by 34.3 centimeters, indicates it could be used by a group of readers.
It opens Psalm 1, which begins with a large decorated B. The Florentine painter has put King David inside the letter, where the reader's eye enters the whole book of Psalms.
The museum adds the lineage: the book of hours grew out of psalters, once laypeople in the 1200s asked for psalters without the cumbersome psalms.
Look inside the B: David kneels, and his plucking instrument lies on the ground.
Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence:
Psalm 1:1 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 7,067 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.