A Decorated Psalter of the 14th Century

Here is another nice little discovery from the website of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, a decorated psalter made in Italy in the 14th century. (Département des Manuscrits, Latin 772) In addition to the large illuminated letters, it contains ten pages on which an episode of Our Lord’s life is paralleled with a story from the Old Testament. The images are very detailed and colorful, and cleverly designed, but not of the highest quality as far as the drawing is concerned.

On the first such page, the upper part shows the episodes related to the conception of Samson recounted in Judges 13: the angel speaks to his mother, then to both his parents, after which they offer a sacrifice to God. In the lower part, we see the betrothal of Mary and Joseph, and the Annunciation on the right, with God the Father sending a ray of light down towards Mary in the middle.

Second page: Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3) as a prophecy of the virginal conception of Christ; in the lower part, His Nativity in the stable, and two shepherds peeking in as baby Jesus gets a bath, with the star hovering above Him.

Third page, the presentation of tributes to a king, either David or Solomon, and below, the Adoration of the Magi. (Note the very clever way three different parts of their journey are squeezed into the space.)

The series is interrupted for the beginning of the Psalter, which this large illuminated B for the first word of Psalm 1, “Beatus”. Inside the letter is represented the procession by which King David has the Ark of the Covenant brought into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6.) David himself is represented in the upper right part of the B; the other figures are angels, prophets, and some of the other authors of the book of Psalms mentioned in the titles.

The text of the psalms is very plain, and has no decorative elements in it more complicated than those shown here as a sample.

On the fourth page of Biblical stories, in the upper part, Pharaoh gives the order to kill the male children of Israel, but they saved by the midwives (Exodus 1); in the lower part, Herod sends his soldiers to Bethlehem, and the Massacre of the Innocents.

In the fifth panel, the lower part represents the finding of Jesus in the midst of the doctors in the temple; it is not clear to me what story exactly is represented in the upper part.

In the sixth panel, the story of the leper Naaman (4 Kings 5) parallels the Baptism of Christ.

Psalm 26, the first of the ferial nocturn of Monday, with King David kneeling in prayer before the altar in the initial D of Dominus.

The episode of the Burning Bush is repeated in parallel with the wedding at Cana, for reasons that were undoubtedly clear to the person who designed the images.

The prophet Elijah raises a child from the dead (4 Kings 4, 25-38), paralleled with the raising of Lazarus.

In the illuminated D, King David writes Psalm 38, the first of the ferial nocturn of Tuesday. Above him, men rummage though a treasury, in reference to the words of this psalm, “He stored up treasure, and knoweth not for whom he gathereth it.”

At the very end of the same nocturn, David (anachronistically wearing a crown, though he is not yet king) enters Jerusalem in triumph, with the head of Goliath carried before him on a pike, paralleled with Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

This is followed immediately by an image of the Resurrection, to accompany Psalm 52, the first of the nocturn of Wednesday, which begins with the words “The fool said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ”

Psalm 68, the first of the nocturn of Thursday, with a man in a river praying the opening words, “Save me, o God, for the waters have come in unto my soul.”

Psalm 80, the first of the nocturn of Friday, with an image of very uncertain meaning in the illuminated E.

Psalm 97, the first of Saturday, with an image of Christ adored at the Last Judgment, in reference to the words, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”

Psalm 109, the first of Sunday Vespers, with God the Father and the Son, in reference to the opening words, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand’ ”, with King David writing beneath.

Illuminated psalters generally do not have an image for each day of the week among the Vesper psalms, but only for Sunday; this is one is unusual in having a decorative border for the page on which begin the psalms of Saturday Vespers (143-147.) Within the illuminated B of the first word of Psalm 143, David confronts Goliath, since the title of this psalm in Greek and Latin (but not in Hebrew) is “A psalm of David, against Goliath.”

The calendar page for the current month of October; all twelve are very simple in their decoration.

The beginning of the Litany of the Saints at the very end of the manuscript.