Arenberg Auctions will hold an auction for a rare 15th-century Psalter in Brussels on June 14th. The starting price for this unique item is set at 40,000 euros.
The manuscript, dating back to 1478, is a large and beautifully decorated collection of psalms. It contains 235 precious parchment leaves and is exceptionally well-preserved, making it a one-of-a-kind piece.
The calfskin cover encloses pages of Latin text adorned with 21 large, colorful illuminated initials. The creation of this Psalter likely required a year of work and over a hundred sheepskins for the parchment, costing a fortune at the time.
Each page likely took at least a full day of work in the scriptorium, the monastery workshop where texts were copied. The manuscript was preciously kept by an anonymous Brussels collector.