Hand B
Artists
Hand B worked on the Psalter section of the manuscript, painting the eight historiated initials for Psalms 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (quires 2-12). His figures are slender and elongated. His treatment of drapery is the least advanced in the manuscript, still relying on linear patterns to indicate folds, with minimal use of colour modelling for shades and highlights.
David praying and clerks chanting (Psalm 97)
David prays to God in the upper part of the initial C. Below, two clerks sing from an open book and look up to God. This standard image for Psalm 97 in 13th-century French Psalters and Bibles illustrates the opening verse of Psalm 97, written in gold on the right and continuing beneath the image, Cantate domino canticum novum (‘Sing to the Lord a new canticle’). The initial was painted by Hand B.