The Pelican in Her Piety: The Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Binding of the Psalter of Anne Boleyn

The Psalter of Anne Boleyn, currently held at Wormsley Library, is a manuscript formerly owned by Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. It was rebound in the early seventeenth century by an unknown bindery. Its binding has never been discussed within the context of the early seventeenth century. However, a study of its central motif of the Pelican in Her Piety reveals how this rebinding may have been chosen specifically to commemorate Anne Boleyn. By exploring contemporary understandings of the Pelican in Her Piety motif and discussing how Anne Boleyn was memorialized in the collective memory of England during Elizabeth I’s reign, this article sheds light on the possibility that the binding of the Psalter of Anne Boleyn pays homage to the former queen.