The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has secured the future Macclesfield Psalter, a medieval illuminated manuscript, after reaching the target of £1.7m needed to keep it in the UK.

The psalter was bought by the US-based Getty Museum at Sotheby’s last June for £1.5m, but the government export review system – which recognised the psalter’s importance to its native East Anglia – gave Fitzwilliam the chance to match the sum.

Thousands of individuals donated money after a public appeal to keep the work of art in the UK was made by the museum.

On 24 January, two weeks before the deadline set by the government, the target was reached following donations from the National Art Collections Fund (NACF) and the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).

Duncan Robinson, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “The public response to the appeal to save this gem of our medieval heritage for the nation has been overwhelming.

“We also wish to acknowledge the enthusiastic support of both the NACF and the NHMF which was crucial to the success of the campaign.”

Created in the 1320s in East Anglia, which at the time was seen as one of Europe’s artistic centres, the 252-page psalter was discovered last year in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield in Oxfordshire.

The psalter will be held at the Fitzwilliam Museum, where it will feature prominently in the museum’s exhibition of illuminated manuscripts between July and December 2005.