No Strange Gods

No Strange Gods Commentary by Frederica Law Turner Bible Passage In the upper section of this large E of ‘Exultate deo…’—the opening word of Psalm 80 (81 in modern versions)—we see King David playing bells, accompanied by a man on a harp, a standard illustration for this musical psalm. The scene below is much more unusual: two men blow trumpets and a woman plays a viol before the idol of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32). As recounted in Exodus 32, when Moses went up Mount Sinai to collect the Tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments, the Israelites revert to idol worship and set up a bovine statue made from their own jewellery. This initial is found in the Psalter section of a fragment of a Breviary (hence two columns for the text, rather than one as in Psalter manuscripts). This was a manuscript containing the Divine Office—i.e. the daily services—of the Catholic Church throughout the year. Medieval and Renaissance Breviaries were made not just for priests, but also for devout laity who wished to follow the services in their own volumes. We are not sure precisely for whom it was made but it seems to have been a royal woman: the B of Psalm 1 shows a queen kneeling before the Virgin and Child. The iconography of the initials is unusual—as here they often show King David, a role model for medieval kings, alongside an ‘exemplum’ taken from the psalm text. The subjects are variations on those found in Breviary of Philippe le Bel (Paris, BNF lat. 1023), datable to 1296. The Morgan Breviary was perhaps made for Philippe’s wife, Jeanne de Navarre (d.1305) The artist—or perhaps more likely the artist’s theological advisor who would have designed the decorative programme—has picked up a theme from later in the psalm text: Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you… (vv. 8–9)