The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is awaiting a decision from the Export Reviewing Committee (ERC) to see if it can mount a second bid to secure a British medieval illuminated manuscript to its collection.

The Macclesfield Psalter, discovered last year in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield in Oxfordshire, is a 252-page illustrated manuscript that dates back to 1320.

The script was put up for auction this summer by the Earl, during which Fitzwilliam lost a bidding war to the Los Angeles-based John P Getty museum.

The piece was sold to the US museum for £1.5m, as the Heritage Lottery Fund rejected Fitzwilliam’s application for a £2.5m grant to secure the Psalter.

However, the decision on whether to let the masterpiece leave England is now in the hands of the government, which is waiting for the recommendation report from the ERC.

Stella Panayotova, the Fitzwilliam museum’s keeper of manuscripts, is disappointed but sees such art as international property.

Panayotova said: “The outcome is a very good one, since the manuscript might have otherwise disappeared from the public domain completely.

“As soon as the secretary of state considers the recommendations of the ERC, a decision will be announced. If export is denied, the Fitzwilliam will do everything possible to raise the £1.5m and secure this treasure for East Anglia.”

As the 14th century is the period when East Anglia seen to have produced a number of inventive and creative scripts, the Fitzwilliam is eager to see a national treasure such as the Psalter ‘returning home’ to its origins.

At the original auction, the National Art Collections Fund and a private dealer, Sam Fogg, provided the unsuccessful £1.2m bid on behalf of the Fitzwilliam. Details: www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk