Getty Museum

Psalter

Date

mid-1200s

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink

Culture

Flemish

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Psalters were ancestors of the Book of Hours, a medieval devotional manuscript. They were often made for clerics and rich lay people and contained the Book of Psalms, a collection of 150 Hebrew religious hymns (in the Western Christian tradition). The psalms contain 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. This manuscript comes from a group of liturgical psalters (often used for more public forms of worship). The saints, apostles, martyrs, and confessors that are included in a psalter’s calendar help determine where it was made. This psalter includes saints’ days that were celebrated near Cambrai in present-day France, but also some that were honored more often in present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. Instead of the zodiac signs, the calendar pages in this psalter depict daily activities from the corresponding time of the year, such as pruning trees in March. Before the Psalms begin, there is also a series of full-page miniatures showing the life of Christ, a mark of the manuscript’s luxurious nature. Throughout the text of the Psalms themselves, large, decorated initials divide the sections. These divisions made it easier for people to read specific psalms at certain hours of the day. Because Christ was understood to be the descendent of King David, the supposed original composer of the Psalms, the initials depict scenes from Christ’s Passion.

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