Bedford Hours and Psalter

This manuscript is a devotional book of prayers for the private use and edification of the laity. It was commissioned by John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford (1389-1435), younger brother of King Henry V; and it was illuminated by Hermann Scheere and his workshop in England. The illustration consists of 18 large, historiated initials at the beginning of each canonical prayer, the requiem mass and each section of the psalter, and 280 smaller historiated initials, most of which depict portraits.

The illustration on the present page was produced by an artist whose figurative style is very similar to that of the master Hermann Scheere, but whose ideas on landscape painting are quite distinct.