Psalters were editions of the Book of Psalms from the Old Testament which were important both as a prayer book and as a means of learning letters. Due to the latter, and the vivid imagery that the texts created, the initial letter became elaborate and additional miniature illustrations were added to mark important places in the text. These six papers, plus an introduction, are taken from a symposium held at St Andrews in 1997 and present discussions of the historical evolution of psalter illustrations and problems of interpretation. They deal with examples of various date and provenance, although largely focusing on Britain, including the Utrecht Psalter, the Book of Kells and the Corbie Psalter.

With authorative contributions on the historical, stylistic, and iconographic context of this masterpiece of Carolingian Renaissance by R. McKitterick, K. van der Horst, K. Corrigan, F. Mütherich, and W. Noel, and including the catalogue of the 1996 exhibition on the Utrecht Psalter at the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.

A user-friendly guide to the study and interpretation of the Psalms.

Picturing Kingship presents the first comprehensive art-historical study of the personal prayerbook of King Louis IX. The book approaches the St. Louis Psalter through a rich range of perspectives and methodologies and positions it within the contexts of its production and use. Not only is the manuscript's production and structure given detailed study, but the king's ways of handling his prayerbook--his habits of reading, looking, and praying--are also set forth in a compelling narrative of his view of his sacred responsibilities as king. In the first half of the book, Stahl investigates the Psalter's physical construction and development within the context of manuscript production in thirteenth-century Paris. The second half looks at the Psalter's thematic and iconographic workings and the role of the king's adviser--Vincent of Beauvais--in the Psalter's shaping. Most important, though, the author delves into the meanings the Psalter might have held for the king, who was a crusader and so devout a Christian that he was canonized by Boniface VIII. Stahl makes it clear that the Psalter, already recognized as one of the true masterworks of thirteenth-century French culture, should also be recognized as a significant force in Louis IX's life and reign.

The book of Psalms was at the core of devotional practice in western Christianity throughout the Middle Ages. The study of medieval Latin Psalters provides evidence for the owners, users, and makers of each of these unique books. This volume examines Psalter manuscripts as objects, exploring how they were designed and the changes that have been made to them over time. The choices made about text, decoration, size, and layout in these manuscripts reveal a diverse range of engagements with the Psalms, as they were sung, read, and scrutinized. The book thus sheds new light on some of the treasures of Trinity College Dublin and the Chester Beatty Library. *** Slim in format and heavy in insights, this book is a peculiar hybrid. It is not a robust academic catalogue or a glossy exhibition catalogue or a coffee-table book, but it manages to combine some of the most appealing features of all three. Elegantly designed and richly illustrated in (almost) full colour, it is a pleasure to hold, look at and leaf through. ...a publication that invites an intimate study of Dublin's treasures.Ã?Â?Ã?Â?-- Stella Panayotova, Times Literary Supplement, February 2016 [Subject: History, Irish Studies, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies]

One of the most appealing & arresting of medieval manuscripts, the Luttrell psalter was commissioned in the 1320s by a wealthy Lincolnshire landowner, Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Irnham. Painted in vibrant colour, embellished with gold & silver, the vitality & inventiveness of its decoration is almost unique.

The Psalms are wonderful. They have been read, repeated, chanted, sung, studied, wept over, rejoiced in, expounded, loved and praised by God's people for thousands of years. The most ancient of these productions is now [1866] three thousand three hundred and twenty-six years old. The least ancient of them is two thousand four hundred and fifty-three years old. The difference in date between the most ancient and the most modern of them is eight hundred and seventy-three years. They were all written in Asia, so that we in this Western world can have no national pride respecting them. Yet pious people here and all over the earth have found and can find no compositions more suitable for delineating their devout emotions, and for expressing their pious sensibilities than those of inspired Psalmists. If to any man these songs are unsavory, the reason is found in the blindness and depravity of the human heart. Hengstenberg: "The Psalms are expressions of holy feeling, which can be understood by those only, who have become alive to such feeling." Other things being equal, he who has the most heavenly mind, will be the most successful student of the Psalms. - Introduction