Psalter

From the Getty Museum record

In the Middle Ages, psalters were manuscripts that contained the Book of Psalms, a collection of 150 Hebrew religious hymns (in the Western Christian tradition). The psalms include praises of God’s work, communal and individual laments, matters relating to kingship, and thanks given to God, among other subjects. In addition to the psalms, psalters were often accompanied by a liturgical calendar and other devotional materials such as litanies, canticles, and creeds. The illuminations in this psalter are bold and lively, with bright blues and reds, and a large amount of gold. This specific style links the psalter to a group of manuscripts made in the Benedictine monastery of Engelberg (Switzerland). The calendar images depict the signs of the zodiac, and the two luxurious full-page initials show Christ as the Bridegroom and a woman feeding a leper in bed. These two initials, beginning Psalms 38 and 68 were two of the eight psalms that were traditionally decorated in liturgical psalters. The decorations divided the psalms according to how they were used throughout the liturgical week. In this manuscripts, the other six illuminated initials have been removed. Along with the style of the illuminations, the saints that are included in the calendar of a psalter can help determine where the book was made. This psalter’s calendar also indicates that it was created in present-day Switzerland.