Utrecht Psalter

The Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I Nr 32.) is a ninth century illuminated psalter which is a key masterpiece of Carolingian art; it is probably the most valuable manuscript in the Netherlands. It is famous for its 166 lively pen illustrations, with one accompanying each psalm and the other texts in the manuscript (Chazelle, 1055). These other texts include some canticles and hymns used in the office of the hours, including various canticles, the Te Deum and Athanasian Creed. The latter text was the subject of intense study by Thomas Duffus Hardy and others after the psalter was rediscovered in the 19th century. A complete facsimile edition of the psalter was made in 1875 (Lowe, 237).

History

The psalter was at one time thought to be 6th century largely because of the use of archaic conventions in the script. The Psalter is written in rustic capitals, a script which by the 9th century had fallen out of favour in Carolingian manuscripts. These are now widely viewed as imitation rustic capitals, and the manuscript is dated no earlier than the 9th century (Lowe, 237). It has been suggested that because of the capitals and the book's size, the Utrecht Psalter was intended as a choir book for several monks to read at the same time while singing; alternatively that it was intended for young monks learning the Psalms by heart in groups, a suggestion that perhaps better explains the amount of illustration. The psalter is believed to have been made near Reims, as its style is similar to that of the Ebbo Gospels (Benson, 23). It may have been sponsored by Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, and so is usually dated between 816 and 835. Others have argued for a date c. 850, saying that the psalm illustrations draw from the travels of Gottschalk of Orbais, and the illustration with the Athanasian Creed and other details pertain more to Ebbo's successor, Hincmar (Chazelle, 1058, 1068, 1073).

The entire volume contains 108 vellum leaves, approximately ). The canticle of Moses the Prophet (). The following canticle is the blessing of the three children, then the Te Deum attributed to St. Ambrose of Milan, the Benedictus of Zachary () folio includes the Gloria in Excelsis. Next follows the “Oratio Dominica secundum Matheum” (
*cite book|author=Walter de Gray Birch|title=The history, art and palaeography of the manuscript styled the Utrecht psalter|publisher=Samuel Bagster|year=1876|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=S88DAAAAYAAJ
*cite book|author=Robert G. Calkins|title=Illuminated books of the middle ages|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1983|isbn=0-8014-9377-3
*cite journal|author=Celia Chazelle|title=Archbishops Ebo and Hincmar of Reims and the Utrecht Psalter|journal=Speculum|volume=72|issue=4|date=October 1997|pages=1055-1077|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2865958
*cite book|author=Roger Hinks|title=Carolingian Art|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0472060716|year=1974 [1935 1st edn.]
*cite journal|author=E. A. Lowe|title=The uncial gospel leaves attached to the Utrecht psalter|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=34|issue=3|date=September 1952|pages=237-238|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/3047423
*Nigel Morgan, "A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, Volume 4: Early Gothic Manuscripts, Part 1 1190-1250", Harvey Miller Ltd, London, 1982, ISBN 0199210268
*cite book|author=Otto Pächt|others=trans fr German|title=Book Illumination in the Middle Ages|publisher=Harvey Miller Publishers|isbn=0199210608|year=1986
*cite book|author=Philip Schaff|title=The Creeds of Christendom|year=1877|volume=2|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XUn1samQhigC
*cite book|author=Meyer Schapiro|title=Selected Papers, volume 3, Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art|publisher=Chatto & Windus, London|year=1980|isbn=0701125144
*cite journal|author=Dimitri Tselos|title=Defensive Addenda to the Problem of the Utrecht Psalter|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=49|issue=4|date=December 1967|pages=334-349|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/3048495
*cite journal|author=Frederic Vinton|title=The Utrecht Psalter and the Athanasian Creed|journal=The Princeton Review|volume=5|issue=17|date=January 1876|pages=160-170
*cite book|author=Ingo F. Walther and Norbert Wolf|title=Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600|publisher=TASCHEN (Köln)|year=2005
*cite book|author=Francis Wormald|title=English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh centuries|publisher=Glasgow|year=1952
*cite book|title=Latin Psalter in the University Library of Utrecht|publisher=Spencer, Sawyer, Bird and Co|year=1875

External links

* [http://psalter.library.uu.nl/ Digital facsimile at Utrecht University] (Internet Explorer only)