Rare Book School Lecture: Iconographic Disjunction in the Ruskin Psalter/Hours: A Flemish Illuminated Manuscript of ca. 1470–80

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 "slippage" 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.