Following the launch last September of a high-profile Art Fund campaign to save the export-stopped Macclesfield Psalter, this remarkable medieval manuscript has been secured for the 探花直播 of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum.

拢1.7 million had to be found February 10 2005 deadline, and the money has finally been raised with just two weeks to go. If the Fitzwilliam's bid to buy the Psalter had failed, it would have departed for the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. 探花直播Fitzwilliam has now made a matching offer to the owner, and the Getty has gracefully withdrawn its interest.

探花直播campaign was kicked-off with a 拢500,000 grant from the independent charity the National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund) and captured the public imagination. 探花直播Macclesfield Psalter's illuminations demonstrated just how extraordinary the world of the medieval imagination could be, from the macabre to the exuberant. When the Art Fund launched a public appeal on the BBC's Culture Show, people responded enthusiastically with donations ranging from 拢1 to an anonymous contribution of 拢15,000.

探花直播public appeal raised 拢180,000 in all. 探花直播National Heritage Memorial Fund - the Government's heritage fund of last resort - also played a crucial role, awarding a major grant of 拢860,000 which gave a tremendous mid-way boost to the fundraising attempt and brought the target within reach. 探花直播Fitzwilliam and its Friends allocated 拢150,000 from their own funds, and many other trusts and foundations generously added their support.

Duncan Robinson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said:

"We are absolutely delighted by the outcome of our efforts to acquire the Macclesfield Psalter. 探花直播public response to the appeal to save for the nation this gem of our medieval heritage has been overwhelming. At the same time, we wish to acknowledge the enthusiastic support of both the National Art Collections Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund which was crucial to the success of the campaign."

David Verey, Chairman of the National Art Collections Fund, said:

" 探花直播export stop placed on the Macclesfield Psalter last year presented us with an irresistible opportunity to secure something of unique national interest. This devotional manuscript is an outstanding example of English artistic mastery - dating from one of those rare periods when English artists were the pride of Europe - and it mines a rich vein of dark and ribald humour. We are thrilled to have played a key role in saving it for the Fitzwilliam, and to have lent not only our financial support but also our campaigning strength to the cause.

Liz Forgan, Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), said:

"I can think of no better way to kick-off the 25th anniversary year of the National Heritage Memorial Fund than with the news that the Macclesfield Psalter is taking up permanent residence in the Fitzwilliam Museum. This manuscript is an irreplaceable chronicle of late medieval life and like the Mappa Mundi and the Sherborne Missal, also saved with the help of the NHMF, it would have been a huge loss if it had left these shores for good."

James Stourton, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby's Europe, said:

"We are very pleased for the Fitzwilliam Museum. 探花直播discovery of this manuscript by Sotheby's at Shirburn Castle in 2003 was an extraordinary event. It is a wonderful thing that even in the present time, a manuscript of this importance can come out of the woodwork. 探花直播Macclesfield family hope that it will be enjoyed by many thousands of visitors to the Museum."

探花直播Macclesfield Psalter was sold to the Getty Museum, California, at Sotheby's in June for 拢1.7 million. However, the Government's export review system, which recognised the outstanding importance of the Psalter to this country, gave the Fitzwilliam the chance to match this sum. Indeed, the manuscript contains some of the most remarkable examples of English painting before the age of Constable and Turner. It is a jewel-like treasury, consisting of 252 richly-illustrated pages, each a work of art in itself. 探花直播manuscript is also a fascinating record of medieval English humour, teeming with highly bizarre and imaginative marginal illustrations. These images, possibly designed to ward off evil (or hold the reader's attention if it happened to wander from more spiritual matters), include grotesques with faces in their bottoms, strange naked wild men, a dog dressed as a bishop, a trouserless man pulling a dragon's tongue, and an astonishingly naturalistic giant skate which swims across the page.

探花直播Psalter was produced in the 1320s, probably at Gorleston, at a time when East Anglia was one of the foremost artistic centres in Europe. 探花直播volume is very small (170 x108 mm), and contains forty-six historiated initials, fourteen large miniature paintings (mainly from the life of King David), and hundreds of lushly decorated borders and marginal scenes. 探花直播miniatures include depictions of the patron saints of Suffolk and Gorleston Church. Perhaps the chief joy of the work is the secular imagery in the margins, which displays an uninhibited humour and inventiveness.

探花直播Psalter was possibly commissioned by the 8th Earl of Warenne, who was a commander of armies in Scotland and Aquitaine, who was closely involved in the affairs of King Edward II, and whose other claim to fame is that he was excommunicated for multiple adultery. 探花直播numerous rabbits in the border (rabbits were a common symbol of lust) are often depicted by their warrens, possibly a pun on the family name. 探花直播Earl of Warenne also commissioned the famous Gorleston Psalter in the British Museum and the Douai Psalter, a masterpiece which was reduced to fragments during the First World War. 探花直播Macclesfield Psalter was discovered when Sotheby's experts were asked to catalogue the library of the Earl of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, prior to the auction of most of the Earl's books and manuscripts.

探花直播Macclesfield Psalter will be on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum from the 15-27 February 2005

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