Psautier dit de saint Louis - BNF Lat10525 f1v

Two lavishly illustrated illuminated manuscript psalters are known as the Psalter of Saint Louis (and variants) as they belonged to the

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

King Louis IX of France. They are now in Paris and

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

, and are respectively good examples of French Gothic and English Romanesque illumination.

Paris

The Pari
Psalter of St. Louis
( Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Latin 10525) was made for Louis sometime between the death of his mother

Blanche of Castile Blanche of Castile ( es, Blanca de Castilla; 4 March 1188 – 27 November 1252) was Queen of France by marriage to Louis VIII. She acted as regent twice during the reign of her son, Louis IX: during his minority from 1226 until 1234, and during ...

in 1253 and his death in 1270. Done in the elaborate

Rayonnant In French Gothic architecture, Rayonnant () is the period from about the mid-13th century to mid-14th century. It was characterized by a shift away from the High Gothic search for increasingly large size toward more spatial unity, refined decora ...

style and richly gilded, the manuscript contains 78 miniatures of Old Testament scenes starting at the story of Cain and Abel and ending with the coronation of

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered t ...

, a calendar of feast days, prayers and the 150

psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

. The psalter is in excellent condition and considered a relic of Louis IX, who was

in 1297.

Leiden

Th
Leiden St Louis Psalter
(Leiden, University Library: BPL 76A), was originally produced for Geoffrey Plantagenet, Archbishop of York, probably in northern England in the 1190s. It is in Latin, with some inscriptions added in French, on parchment, with 185 folios, 24,5 x 17,7 cm. in size, 23 miniatures and

historiated initial A historiated initial is an initial, an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, that contains a picture. Strictly speaking, a historiated initial depicts an identifiable figure or a specific scene, while an in ...

s. This manuscript passed into the hands of Blanche of Castile after Geoffrey's death, and, as religious manuscripts often were, was used to teach the future saint King Louis IX how to read as a child, as a 14th-century inscription below the Beatus initial (illustrated right) records. After the king's death it passed through a number of royal owners, including the Valois

Dukes of Burgundy Duke of Burgundy (french: duc de Bourgogne) was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Spain from the House of Habsburg ...

, being regarded as a relic of the saint, before reaching the University Library at

in 1741.Nigel Morgan, ''A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles'', Volume 4: ''Early Gothic Manuscripts'', Part 1 1190–1250'', Harvey Miller Limited, London, 1982, , pp. 61–62.

Notes

Bibliography

* Günter Haseloff, ''Die Psalterillustration im 13. Jahrhunderts.: Studien zur Geschichte der Buchmalerei in England, Frankreich und den Niederlanden.'' Inaugural-Dissertation, Georg August Universität zu Göttingen, 1938. * Victor Leroquais, ''Les psautiers, manuscrits latins des bibliothèques publiques de France.'' Mâcon, Protat frères, 1940–41. *

Robert Branner Robert Branner (January 13, 1927 – November 26, 1973) was an American art historian, archaeologist, and educator. A scholar of medieval art, specializing in Gothic architecture and illuminated manuscripts, Branner was Professor of Art History a ...

, ''Manuscript painting in Paris during the reign of Saint Louis : a study of styles.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. * Harvey Stahl, ''Picturing kingship. History and painting in the Psalter of Saint Louis.'' University Park, Pa., Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. {{Authority control Illuminated psalters Manuscripts of Leiden University Library Bibliothèque nationale de France collections Louis IX of France