King Henry's Prayer Book

This personal psalter, prepared for Henry VIII around 1540, presents the Latin Psalms in a humanist script for private devotion, with seven painted miniatures and decorated initials of birds, plants, and animals. One miniature shows the king at prayer in his chamber. Throughout the margins Henry added notes in pen, pencil, and red ink, marking verses that speak of kingship, enemies, repentance, and divine favor. The volume is a working prayer book rather than a public liturgy: the biblical text is the substance, and the annotations record how one Tudor monarch read the Psalms against the crises of his reign and conscience.

Bound in red silk velvet over wooden boards. Gilded and shuffles page edges. Cream endleaves. COMMENTARY VOLUME by James P. Carley One colour plate. Gold endleaves. Bound in black buckram with gilt titling. SOLANDER BOX Bound in black buckram decorated and titled in gold, two inner sides papered in gold.