Girdle prayer book
London, England, AD
1540-45
A girdle prayer book is a miniature prayer book
enclosed within gold covers that is attached by long chains to
girdle chains worn around the waist, almost as a conspicuous piece
of jewellery. It was considered particularly fashionable for ladies
of rank in the English court between around 1530 and 1560. The
fashion may have originally been introduced into Henry
VIII's England by the Spanish entourage of Queen Catherine
of Aragon.
This example was
probably made by Hans von Antwerpen (known in England as John of
Antwerp), a Flemish goldsmith and friend of Hans Holbein the
Younger (1497-1543). He was working in London for the Tudor court
from about 1534. The foliate ornament and arabesques on the spine
are similar to two designs by Holbein for a girdle prayer book,
also in The British
Museum.
The front cover of
the enamelled gold binding depicts the biblical scene of
'The Brazen Serpent'. The inscription in black
enamel around the border can be read: 'Make thee a fiery
serpent, and set it up for a sign, that as many as are bitten, may
look upon it, and live' (Numbers, 21:8). The text derives
from the English-language printed Bible of 1539/40. The scene is
based on a large silver-gilt book cover dated 1543 by the leading
Renaissance goldsmith of Antwerp, Hieronymous Mamacker. The back
depicts 'The Judgement of Solomon'. The inscription
around the scene can be read 'Then the king answered and
said, Give her the living child, and slay not: for she is the
mother thereof.' (1 Kings, 3:27)
H. Tait, 'The Girdle-prayerbook or 'tablett': an important class of Renaissance jewellery at the court of Henry VIII', Jewellery Studies-1, 2 (1985)
H. Tait (ed.), Seven thousand years of jewell (London, The British Museum Press, 1986)