New York Public Library - Ms Spencer 26 fol-5 A full-page Tree of Jesse preceding Psalm 1 in the Tickhill Psalter (1303-1314?), one of the most elaborately decorated English psalters of the 13th and 14th centuries, and unrivalled in its lavish beauty by any other early 14th century manuscript, except perhaps for the Peterborough Psalter now in the Royal Library in Brussels. Below, Jesse sleeps, and from his loins springs a branching tree bearing the forefathers of Christ, including David playing the harp; above, the Virgin and Child; and above, the Lord seated on a rainbow and holding an orb as the dove of the Holy Spirit flies down. In the branches of the tree are also depicted a number of well-observed birds. According to a 15th-century inscription on a fly-leaf, John Tickhill, Prior of Worksop Priory in Nottinghamshire (Augustinian Canons) wrote and gilded the manuscript. He was appointed prior in 1303 and removed from office for mismanagement in 1314, which presumably explains why the manuscript's ambitious programme of illustrations was left unfinished. The manuscript has an Old Testament cycle of 482 subjects from the lives of David and Solomon. Sandler 1986, pp.32-3 Alexander and Binski, 1987, p.451 Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. www.english.cam.ac.uk/medieval/zoomtest.php?id=158