page_title: Melisende Psalter
section_title: The calendar
hierarchical_section_title: Melisende Psalter / The calendar
context_page_description: The Melisende Psalter is an illuminated manuscript commissioned around 1135 in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, probably by King Fulk for his wife Queen Melisende. It is a notable example of Crusader art, which resulted from a merging of the artistic styles of Roman Catholic Europe, the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire and the art of the Armenian illuminated manuscript.
  Seven scribes and illuminators, working in the scriptorium built by the crusaders in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, were involved in the creation of the psalter. It measures 21.6 centimetres by 14 centimetres.
  This manuscript forms part of the Egerton Collection in the British Library.
context_section_description: Folios 13-21 contain the calendar, which is strikingly similar to psalter calendars produced in England in the same period. It appears to be based on a calendar of St. Swithun's church in Winchester. The calendar is filled with English saint days rather than those more popular in Jerusalem, and one name, St. Martin of Tours, a saint popular throughout Europe, is written in gold, for unknown reasons. Three crusader-specific dates are mentioned in the calendar: the capture of Jerusalem on July 15, the death of Baldwin II on August 21, and the death of his wife Morphia on October 1. Each month also has a medallion with a sign of the Zodiac, illustrated in a Romanesque style with heavy Islamic influences.
caption: Folio 9v - The Harrowing of Hell
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