The Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I Nr 32.) is a ninth-century illuminatedpsalter 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). The precise purpose of these illustrations, and the extent of their dependence on earlier models, have been matters of art-historical controversy. The psalter spent the period between about 1000 to 1640 in England, where it had a profound influence on Anglo-Saxon art, giving rise to what is known as the "Utrecht style". It was copied at least three times in the Middle Ages. A complete facsimile edition of the psalter was made in 1875 (Lowe, 237), and another in 1984 (Graz).
The entire volume contains 108 vellum leaves, approximately 13 by 10 inches (330 by 250mm) in size. The pages are formed by quires of 8 pages folded (Birch, 64, 67). There was probably at least an author portrait of David at the start, and the surviving text begins with a large initial with insular-style interlace (picture at top).
The psalter was at one time thought to be a 6th-century work 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).
Beginning of the Utrecht Psalter
A period spent in the late 9th century in the area of Metz, perhaps at the court of Charles the Bald, has been suggested on the basis of apparent influences from the manuscript in the art of the area. The manuscript had reached Canterbury Cathedral by c. 1000, at which time a copy began to be made of it; this, the Harley Psalter, is in the British Library as MS Harley 603 (Benson, 14). The Psalter was copied in full three times in the Middle Ages, the second copy being the Eadwine Psalter (Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R.17.1) of 1155–60, with additions 1160–70, and the texts extended to five versions of each psalm. The last copy is a fine version in full colour with gold backgrounds that is known as the "Anglo-Catalan Psalter" or MS Lat. 8846 in the BnF, of 1180-90 (Morgan, 47–9). This was half-illustrated by an English artist in about 1180–1200, and completed by a Catalan artist in 1340–50, naturally using a different Gothic style. The images are necessarily somewhat simplified, and the number of figures reduced.
Earlier there were derivative works in other media; similar groups of figures appear in a Carolingian engraved crystal in the British Museum (the Lothair Crystal, stylistically very different) and metalwork, and some late Carolingian ivories repeat figure compositions found in the Utrecht psalter (Calkins, 211).
The original manuscript spent at least two centuries at Canterbury from the year 1000, and after the English Dissolution of the Monasteries (Canterbury was a monastic cathedral) came into the possession of Robert Bruce Cotton, the famous English antiquary, at which point it was rebound, with his arms on the cover. Cotton lent the manuscript to the great collector Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who took it into exile with him during the English Civil War; it was taken to the Netherlands in around 1642 and sold on Howard's death by his widow and son. It reached Utrecht University in 1716, at which point it was incorporated into the University Library. It was rediscovered in the library in 1858 (Benson, 13).
Comparison of Utrecht and Eadwine Psalters
One of the illustrations in the Utrecht Psalter (left) copied in the Eadwine Psalter (right). Psalm 63 (Vulg.), 64 (AV): "Exaudi, Deus...".[1] Eadwine, folio 108v. The psalm begins (NIV): "Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint; protect my life from the threat of the enemy. 2 Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the plots of evildoers. 3 They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows." The literal rendering of metaphor is a characteristic of the Utrecht tradition of illustration.
Illumination
Another page
The Utrecht Psalter is lavishly illustrated with lively pen and ink drawings for each psalm. The miniatures consist of outline drawings in plain bistre, a technique which gained popularity in the Carolingian Renaissance; it was cheaper than full coloured illustrations and quicker to produce. However the Gospel book still remained the main focus of illumination at this period, and the Utrecht Psalter is highly unusual both in the number of illustrations, their size, and the large groups of small figures they contain.
The Utrecht Psalter is important to the development of Anglo-Saxon art in the late tenth century, as the artistic style of its artwork seems to have been drawn on and adapted by Anglo-Saxon artists of this time (Pächt, 172). Although it is hardly likely that this single manuscript was solely responsible for beginning an entire new phase, the style which developed from it is sometimes known as the 'Utrecht' style of outline drawing, and survived almost unchanged into the 1020s (Wormald).
The style of the outline drawings is dramatic, marked by activity, leaping creatures and fluttering folds of drapery set in faintly sketched landscape backgrounds stretching the full span of a page. Unlike traditional medieval Psalter decoration, which focused on general narrative or symbolic aspects of the texts, the Utrecht Psalter provides a very literal, concrete depiction of every line of the text for each Psalm, all combined into one elaborate scene which directly precedes the psalm it illustrates. The purpose of this unusual mode of illustration is unclear. Some have argued it was designed to enable easier memorization of the psalm texts by associating every line with a striking image, in accordance with classical and medieval mnemonic arts (Gibson-Wood, 12–15). However, these composite images sometimes go beyond a purely literal reading of the text, incorporating New Testament scenes or motifs from Christian iconography (Pächt, 168–170).[2] Despite the individuality of the style, the hands of eight different artists have been detected.
The Psalter is the earliest and most fully illustrated of a "narrative" group of Carolingian Psalters and other manuscripts; the much greater freedom of their illustrations may represent a different, probably monastic, audience for them from the more hieratic productions for the court and the altar. Images are unframed, often varied and original in iconography, showing a "liveliness of mind and independence of convention" not found in the more formal books (Hinks, 117). Other members of the group are the Golden Psalter of St. Gall and the Drogo Sacramentary, which made the important innovation of placing most illustrations in inhabited initials. The Byzantine Chludov Psalter represents a comparable tradition in the East (Hinks, 115–119), and the Reims style was also influenced by artists fleeing Byzantine iconoclasm (Berenson, 163).
Meyer Schapiro is among those who have proposed that the Psalter copied illustrations from a Late Antique manuscript; apart from an original perhaps of the 4th or 5th centuries, details of the iconography led him to believe in an intermediary "Latin model" of after about 700 (Shapiro, 77, 110 and passim). That the miniatures are in large part based on an earlier manuscript, initially disputed by some (Tselos, 334 etc.), seems to have gained general acceptance, though the precise nature and dates of earlier postulated versions vary.[3]
Folio 15b illustrates Psalm 27
The illustration for Psalm 27 centers on they "that go down into the pit". Winged figures poke the "workers of iniquity" with spears. On the left a king stands before a temple; Christ and his angels are shown above. The umbrella held over the king was considered strong evidence that the manuscript was not produced by an Anglo-Saxon artist (Birch, 232).
The illustration for Psalm 115 shows a crucifixion with a chalice catching the blood flowing from the side of Christ. The earliest known comparable images are a miniature from the Drogo Sacramentary (dated 840–855), and an ivory from the Pericopes of Henry II (dated 840–870). This illustration leads to one argument for a later date for the Utrecht Psalter, because dating the illustration before about 835 would make it substantially predate other extant Carolingian examples of this theme (Chazelle, 1072).
According to Getrud Schiller, the manuscript has the first Western images to show Christ dead on the cross, with eyes closed,[4] though it must be said it is hard to tell from such small drawings.
Additional texts
Start of Psalm 102
After the Psalms, like many psalters the manuscript includes various canticles and other material, including the Canticles of Isaiah the Prophet (Is 12 and Is 38), and a third Canticle of Isaiah (1 Samuel 2:1–10). The canticle of Moses the Prophet (Ex 15:1–13) includes 17-20 added on the lower margin. The canticle of Habakkuk (Hab 3) follows with the canticle of Moses to the children of Israel (Deut 32:1–43). The following canticle is the blessing of the three children, then the Te Deum attributed to St. Ambrose of Milan, the Benedictus of Zachary (Luke 1:68–79) with a nativity group, and the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55). The Magnificat is accompanied by an illustration of the Virgin holding a small child which is not the child Jesus, but a representation of her "spirit" (exultavit spiritus meus). The Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:29–32) folio includes the Gloria in Excelsis. Next follows the “Oratio Dominica secundum Matheum” (Matt 6:9–13), with the Apostles' Creed on the same folio. In the illustration for the creed, the Virgin holds the child Jesus with a cruciform halo.
Example of the drawings from Folio 30
Next comes the Athanasian Creed. The illustration appears to be a group of churchmen, with a central figure wearing the pallium of an archbishop. This need not be Athanasius at the Council of Nicea; it may also be Ebbo, or it may represent an archbishop generically as personifying the doctrinal orthodoxy of a creed. The psalter's creed had been mentioned by James Ussher in his 1647 De Symbolis when the manuscript was part of the Cotton library, but it was gone by 1723 (Vinton, 161). When the psalter was rediscovered again in the 19th century, it was thought to be the oldest manuscript containing the Latin text of the creed (Schaff, 70), as some thought the psalter dated from the 6th century. The oldest manuscripts of the Athanasian creed date from the late 8th century (Chazelle, 1056). After this is the "Apocryphal psalm", Psalm 151.
The Psalter is bound with 12 leaves of a different Gospel book written in uncial characters with a text similar to the Codex Amiatinus. These leaves date from around 700 and show characteristics typical of an Anglo-Saxon scribe (Lowe, 273), and is the only other text identified as by the same scribe as the St Cuthbert Gospel, working at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey (T. Julian Brown, Stonyhurst Gospel, 7–10). The psalter was at one time also bound with the Reculver charter (Birch, 77), but this was later removed (Benson, 14). Robert Cotton may have bound them together due to their similar folio size.
↑ The online images from Utrecht can be made to highlight these different episodes, with a commentary in English, against a Dutch text of the Psalms.
↑ Benson and Tselos were leading proponents of the "copy" theory, which they were the first to set out in full. See also Pächt and Hinks, ops cit, who with Kurt Weitzmann and Erwin Panofsky shared this view. Calkins, 210, is more dubious that there was a close model.
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons. They were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated, and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.
The Old English Bible translations are the partial translations of the Bible prepared in medieval England into the Old English language. The translations are from Latin texts, not the original languages.
The St Augustine Gospels is an illuminated Gospel Book which dates from the 6th century and has been in the Parker Library in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge since 1575. It was made in Italy and has been in England since fairly soon after its creation; by the 16th century it had probably already been at Canterbury for almost a thousand years. It has 265 leaves measuring about 252 x 196 mm, and is not entirely complete, in particular missing pages with miniatures.
The Vespasian Psalter is an Anglo-Saxon illuminated psalter decorated in a partly Insular style produced in the second or third quarter of the 8th century. It contains an interlinear gloss in Old English which is the oldest extant English translation of any portion of the Bible. It was produced in southern England, perhaps in St. Augustine's Abbey or Christ Church, Canterbury or Minster-in-Thanet, and is the earliest illuminated manuscript produced in "Southumbria" to survive.
Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of England, whose sophisticated art was influential in much of northern Europe. The two periods of outstanding achievement were the 7th and 8th centuries, with the metalwork and jewellery from Sutton Hoo and a series of magnificent illuminated manuscripts, and the final period after about 950, when there was a revival of English culture after the end of the Viking invasions. By the time of the Conquest the move to the Romanesque style is nearly complete. The important artistic centres, in so far as these can be established, were concentrated in the extremities of England, in Northumbria, especially in the early period, and Wessex and Kent near the south coast.
Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about 780 to 900—during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs—popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of important monasteries under Imperial patronage; survivals from outside this charmed circle show a considerable drop in quality of workmanship and sophistication of design. The art was produced in several centres in what are now France, Germany, Austria, northern Italy and the Low Countries, and received considerable influence, via continental mission centres, from the Insular art of the British Isles, as well as a number of Byzantine artists who appear to have been resident in Carolingian centres.
The Luttrell Psalter is an illuminated psalter commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276–1345), lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire, written and illustrated on parchment circa 1320–1340 in England by anonymous scribes and artists.
There exist a number of translations of the Book of Psalms into the Latin language. They are a resource used in the Liturgy of the Hours and other forms of the canonical hours in the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church.
Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, was produced in the post-Roman era of Great Britain and Ireland. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe. Art historians usually group Insular art as part of the Migration Period art movement as well as Early Medieval Western art, and it is the combination of these two traditions that gives the style its special character.
The Stowe Psalter is a psalter from the "2nd or 3rd quarter of the 11th century", at the end of Anglo-Saxon art. The text includes the Gallican version of the Psalms, followed by the Canticles with an interlinear Old English gloss.
The St Albans Psalter, also known as the Albani Psalter or the Psalter of Christina of Markyate, is an English illuminated manuscript, one of several psalters known to have been created at or for St Albans Abbey in the 12th century. It is widely considered to be one of the most important examples of English Romanesque book production; it is of almost unprecedented lavishness of decoration, with over forty full-page miniatures, and contains a number of iconographic innovations that would endure throughout the Middle Ages. It also contains the earliest surviving example of French literature, the Chanson de St Alexis or Vie de St Alexis, and it was probably commissioned by an identifiable man and owned by an identifiable woman. Since the early 19th century it has been owned by the church of St. Godehard in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, but is now stored and administered at the nearby Dombibliothek in Hildesheim Cathedral. A single leaf from the manuscript is at the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne; one further leaf, and one further cutting, are missing from the volume, their whereabouts unknown.
The Ebbo Gospels is an early Carolingian illuminated Gospel book known for its illustrations that appear agitated. The book was produced in the ninth century at the Benedictine Abbaye Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers. Its style influenced Carolingian art and the course of medieval art.
The Psalter of Oswald also called the Ramsey Psalter is an Anglo-Saxon illuminated psalter of the last quarter of the tenth century. Its script and decoration suggest that it was made at Winchester, but certain liturgical features have suggested that it was intended for use at the Benedictine monastery of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire, or for the personal use of Ramsey's founder St Oswald.
The Harley Psalter is an illuminated manuscript of the second and third decades of the 11th century, with some later additions. It is a Latin psalter on vellum, measures 380 x 310 mm and was probably produced at Christ Church, Canterbury. The most likely patron of such a costly work would have been the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, possibly Æthelnoth, who was consecrated in 1020 and remained at Canterbury until 1038.
The Eadwine Psalter or Eadwin Psalter is a heavily illuminated 12th-century psalter named after the scribe Eadwine, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, who was perhaps the "project manager" for the large and exceptional book. The manuscript belongs to Trinity College, Cambridge and is kept in the Wren Library. It contains the Book of Psalms in three languages: three versions in Latin, with Old English and Anglo-Norman translations, and has been called the most ambitious manuscript produced in England in the twelfth century. As far as the images are concerned, most of the book is an adapted copy, using a more contemporary style, of the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter, which was at Canterbury for a period in the Middle Ages. There is also a very famous full-page miniature showing Eadwine at work, which is highly unusual and possibly a self-portrait.
Christ treading on the beasts is a subject found in Late Antique and Early Medieval art, though it is never common. It is a variant of the "Christ in Triumph" subject of the resurrected Christ, and shows a standing Christ with his feet on animals, often holding a cross-staff which may have a spear-head at the bottom of its shaft, or a staff or spear with a cross-motif on a pennon. Some art historians argue that the subject exists in an even rarer pacific form as "Christ recognised by the beasts".
Beatus vir are the first words in the Latin Vulgate Bible of both Psalm 1 and Psalm 112. In each case, the words are used to refer to frequent and significant uses of these psalms in art, although the two psalms are prominent in different fields, art in the case of Psalm 1 and music in the case of Psalm 112. In psalter manuscripts, the initial letter B of Beatus is often rendered prominently as a Beatus initial.
The Great Canterbury Psalter is an early 13th- and mid 14th-century illuminated manuscript with the shelfmark MS lat. 8846 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. It was made in two different locations and moments in time: at Canterbury around 1200 and in Catalonia around 1340. It is the last of a series of copies of the Utrecht Psalter made in Canterbury, following the Harley Psalter and the Eadwine Psalter.
The Sankt Florian Psalter or Saint Florian Psalter is a brightly illuminated trilingual manuscript psalter, written between late 14th and early 15th centuries in Latin, Polish and German. The Polish text is the oldest known translation of the Book of Psalms into that language. Its author, first owners, and place of origin are still not certain. It was named after St. Florian Monastery in Sankt Florian, a town in Austria, where it was discovered.
The Tiberius Psalter is one of at least four surviving Gallican psalters produced at New Minster, Winchester in the years around the Norman conquest of England. The manuscript can now be seen in full online at the British Library website.
References
Benson, Gertrude R.; Tselos, Dimitri (March 1931). "New Light on the Origin of the Utrecht Psalter". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 13 (1): 13–79. JSTOR3045474.
Berenson, Ruth (Winter 1966–1967). "The Exhibition of Carolingian Art at Aachen". Art Journal. College Art Association. 26 (2): 160–165. doi:10.2307/775040. JSTOR775040.
Calkins, Robert G. (1983). Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. ISBN0-8014-9377-3.
Chazelle, Celia (October 1997). "Archbishops Ebo and Hincmar of Reims and the Utrecht Psalter". Speculum. 72 (4): 1055–1077. doi:10.2307/2865958. JSTOR2865958.
Gibson-Wood, Carol (1987). "The Utrecht Psalter and the Art of Memory". RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review. 14 (1/2): 9–15, 33–35. JSTOR42630353.
Lowe, Elias Avery (September 1952). "The Uncial Gospel Leaves Attached to the Utrecht Psalter". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 34 (3): 237–238. doi:10.2307/3047423. JSTOR3047423.
Morgan, Nigel. A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, Volume 4: Early Gothic Manuscripts, Part 1, '1190-1250. London: Harvey Miller, 1982, ISBN0-19-921026-8
Pächt, Otto (1986). Book Illumination in the Middle Ages: An Introduction. transl. from German. London: Harvey Miller. ISBN0-19-921060-8.
Schapiro, Meyer (1980). Selected Papers, volume 3, Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN0-7011-2514-4.
Schiller, Gertrud, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II, 1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, ISBN0853313245
Tselos, Dimitri (December 1967). "Defensive Addenda to the Problem of the Utrecht Psalter". The Art Bulletin. College Art Association. 49 (4): 334–349. doi:10.2307/3048495. JSTOR3048495.
Vinton, Frederic (January 1876). "The Utrecht Psalter and the Athanasian Creed". The Princeton Review. 5 (17): 160–170.
Walther, Ingo F.; Wolf, Norbert (2005). Codices illustres: The World's Most Famous Illuminated Manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN9783836553797.
Wormald, Francis (1952). English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. London: Faber and Faber.
Latin Psalter in the University Library of Utrecht. Spencer, Sawyer, Bird and Co. 1875.
Further reading
The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms of David (1996). Edited by Koert van der Horst, William Noel, and Wilhelmina C.M. Wüstefeld. Tuurdijk, Netherlands: HES.
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