Show notes
James H. Marrow gave a public talk on โIconographic Disjunction in the Ruskin Psalter/Hours: A Flemish Illuminated Manuscript of ca. 1470โ80,โ on 23 July 2025, as part of Rare Book School's 2025 Summer Lecture Series. You can watch the full recording of the lecture on YouTube at https://youtu.be/LxIPOQ6ehss?feature=shared.๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ง๐ฎ๐น๐ธ:Illustrated by a cycle of nine historiated initials of scenes from the Old Testament, which function typologically as prefigurations of events from the life of Christ, and by ten full-page miniatures of events from Salvation History, the Ruskin Psalter/Hours appears at first glance to be a sophisticated example of Flemish manuscript illumination from the turn of the third to the fourth quarters of the fifteenth century. On closer examination, the cycles of illumination are not correctly synchronized. In this lecture, James H. Marrow will discuss the iconographic โslippageโ or disjunction found in the cycles of illustration of the Ruskin Psalter/Hours and propose a novel explanation for the striking anomalies in what otherwise appears to be a refined and deluxe manuscript of the period. Marrow suggests that the example of the Ruskin Hours can be viewed against the backdrop of the growing production of relatively high-end illuminated manuscripts at this time, qualified in this case by the exigencies of an atypical commission.๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฟ:James H. Marrow is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Princeton University and Honorary Keeper of illuminated Manuscripts (former Acting Keeper) at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (UK). He has published widely on northern European art of the late Middle Ages, with special attention to questions of meaning in works of religious art, and on manuscript illumination in the Low Countries, Germany, and France.



