The Bout Psalter-Hours: Introduction

The KB has recently acquired the Bout Psalter-Hours. It was purchased in 2007 with support from the Mondriaanstichting, the Vereniging Rembrandt, and the the Friends of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. The manuscript is called the “Bout Psalter-Hours” after the name of the family that commissioned it. The Bout family lived in Amsterdam but ordered the manuscript in Haarlem. The pen decoration in the manuscript is therefore typical of Haarlem. Furthermore, one of the best illuminators from Haarlem, as well as two different illuminators from Utrecht, contributed miniatures to the manuscript.

The manuscript is the only known example of an illuminated Dutch Psalter-Hours. It is highly interesting not only for its textual content, but also for its visual contents - gorgeous full-page miniatures, painted initials, and sensitive and often humorous penwork. Above all it contains a number of the best examples of painting made by several different masters. These masters worked in different cities, and their contributions to this manuscript force us to reconsider work practices in Netherlandish workshops in the middle of the fifteenth century. 

Click on the links below to see an overview of the manuscript’s contents, and to see the decoration and illumination from these different cities.

• The contents of the manuscript
• Miniaturists and illuminators