This pocket-sized 11th-century manuscript contains the Greek text of the Psalms followed by Biblical poetry. It is an example of a group of manuscripts known as ‘marginal psalters’, so called because the margins are lavishly decorated with images related to the text of the Psalms.

What makes this Psalter special, is that many of its pages have survived the centuries with minimal whitewashing attempts or alteration: and depicts the Biblical Hebrew Israelites as they were, a dark skin, Negro people with dark bushy hair or Afros.

Manuscript: BL Additional 40731 The Bristol Psalter;
Folio: 240r; Dating: 1000-1100;
From: Istanbul, Turkey; Holding Institution: British Library

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