The Galba Psalter: Pictures, texts and context in an early medieval prayerbook

Anglo-Saxon England

Volumn 26, Issue , 1997, Pages 109-138

  Deshman, Robert ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 63149110198     PISSN: 14740532     EISSN: 14740532     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0263675100002131     Document Type: Article

References (142)

1. E. Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 2 (London, 1976), 36-7 (no. 5, figs. 15-17, 30-3)
2. T. H. Ohlgren, Anglo-Saxon Textual Illustration (Kalamazoo, MI, 1992), pp. 15-18 (no. 1, pls. 1.1-1.18)
3. R. Deshman, 'Anglo-Saxon Art after Alfred', Art Bull. 56 (1974), 176-90, figs. 1, 2, 15 and 21. The manuscript was customarily called the 'Athelstan Psalter' in earlier literature, but see below, nn. 7 and 118
4. D. N. Dumville, Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar, Stud. in Anglo-Saxon Hist. 3 (Woodbridge, 1992), 75, n. 93, and 88, n. 158, questions whether the calendar originated separately from the Psalter and whether the script and the decoration of the additions are contemporary with each other. It would stretch all probability, however, to believe that the Anglo-Saxon folios were not made for the Psalter but quite coincidentally had exactly the same, unusually diminutive dimensions as the Carolingian book. The calendar text (pls. IX-X) was obviously designed with space left for the present decoration, and the rather undeveloped ornamental style of the monograms is entirely in keeping with the very early tenth-century date assigned to the script. Style and colour clearly indicate that the calendar was illuminated by the same hand as both the miniature prefacing it and the picture of the Ascension (pls. X and XIII). Another, contemporary, hand was responsible for the other two miniatures of Christ and the saints and the Nativity (now removed to another book) (pls. XI-XII). The former was painted on what was originally a blank fly-leaf (21r) of a supplementary gathering (20r-27v) of devotional material that had already been added to the original Psalter text before the book's exportation to England. The gathering and the main text of the Psalter are written in different Caroline, continental scripts. There can be no doubt whatsoever that the calendar and the Anglo-Saxon decoration are contemporary with each other and were created specifically for the Psalter
5. For a description of the manuscript's contents, see E. M. Thompson and G. F. Warner, Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols. (London, 1884) II, 12-13; also below, p. 134
6. O. Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1973) III, no. 19, pl. 2
7. Off-sets from the missing miniature remain. J. J. G. Alexander and C. M. Kauffmann, English Illuminated Manuscripts (Brussels, 1973), p. 21, report a suggestion by Francis Wormald that the lost miniature is reflected in the Crucifixion drawing in the eleventh-century New Minster Prayer Book (London, BL, Cotton Titus D. xxvii, 65v). There is no basis for this supposition, especially since the later picture shows John writing, a late-tenth-century innovation
8. see J. O'Reilly, 'St John as a Figure of the Contemplative Life: Text and Image in the Art of the Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Reform', St Dunstan: his Life, Times and Cult, ed. N. Ramsay, M. Sparks and T. Tatton-Brown (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 165-85, with pl. 35
9. E.g., the late-tenth-century Cambridge Psalter (Cambridge, University Library, Ff. 1. 23, 88r), probably from Canterbury, and the early-eleventh- century Irish Southampton Psalter (Cambridge, St John's College C. 9)
10. See K. M. Openshaw, 'The Symbolic Illustration of the Psalter: an Insular Tradition', Arte medievale 2nd ser. 6 (1992), 41-60, at 51-2, and fig. 14
11. Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 97-8 (no. 80)
12. M. Lapidge, 'Abbot Germanus, Winchcombe, Ramsey and the Cambridge Psalter', Words, Texts and Manuscripts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture presented to Helmut Gneuss on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. Korhammer (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 99-129
13. D. N. Dumville, 'On the Dating of Some Late Anglo-Saxon Liturgical Manuscripts', Trans. of the Cambridge Bibliographical Soc. 10 (1991-5), 40-57, at 40-1
14. Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 64-5 and 120 (nos. 41 and 103; figs. 142 and 312)
15. C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 3 (London, 1975), 53-4 (no. 1; fig. 2)
16. B. Raw, Anglo-Saxon Crucifixion Iconography, CSASE 1 (Cambridge, 1990), 199-200, 213, 219-20, and pls. 9, 10 and 14
17. P. McGurk, 'The Metrical Calendar of Hampson. A New Edition', AB 104 (1986), 79-125
18. also M. Lapidge, 'A Tenth-Century Metrical Calendar from Ramsey', RB 100 (1984), 326-69, at 343-7
19. D. N. Dumville, Liturgy and the Ecclesiastical History of Late Anglo-Saxon England, Stud. in Anglo-Saxon Hist. 5 (Woodbridge, 1992), 1-38
20. Dumville, Wessex and England, pp. 75-6, n. 93
21. S. Keynes, 'King Athelstan's Books', Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies presented to Peter Clemoes, ed. M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 143-201, at 193-6
22. During Athelstan's reign, however, three more quires (178r-200v) were appended to the end of the manuscript; see D.N. Dumville, 'English Square Minuscule Script: the Background and Earliest Phases', ASE 16 (1987), 146-79, at 176. Unless otherwise indicated, my references to the 'additions' to the Psalter are only to the two earlier, prefatory quires (1r-19v) and the contemporary decoration
23. Deshman, 'Alfred', pp. 179-82
24. also J. O'Reilly, 'Early Medieval Text and Image: the Wounded and Exalted Christ', Peritia 6-7 (1987-8), 72-118, esp. 88-93
25. E. P. McLachlan, 'The Athelstan Psalter and the Gallican Connection', Trans. of the Third Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians (London, Ont., 1985), pp. 21-7
26. K. E. Haney, The Winchester Psalter (Leicester, 1986), p. 52
27. Openshaw, 'Symbolic Illustration', pp. 52-7
28. K. M. Openshaw, 'Images, Texts and Contexts: the Iconography of the Tiberius Psalter, London, British Library, Cotton MS. Tiberius C. VI' (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Univ. of Toronto, 1990)
29. idem, 'The Battle between Christ and Satan in the Tiberius Psalter', Jnl of the Warburg and Courtauld Inst. 52 (1989), 15-33
30. idem, "Weapons in the Daily Battle: Images of the Conquest of Evil in the Early Medieval Psalter', Art Bull. 75 (1993), 17-38, at 33-4, figs. 22-9
31. F. Wormald, 'An English Eleventh-Century Psalter with Pictures: British Museum, Cotton MS Tiberius C. VI', Walpole Soc. 38 (1960-2), 1-13
32. F. Wormald, The Winchester Psalter (London, 1973), figs. 37, 40, 53 and 57
33. Haney, Winchester Psalter, pp. 31 and 144, n. 118, cites the Galba miniature as a 'general precedent' but curiously omits any mention of its Winchester provenance. The awkward and unusual combination of rows of busts above a register of full-length figures permits no doubt about the relationship between the two psalters
34. The Nativity and Ps. I, the Crucifixion and Ps. LI, and the Ascension and Ps. CI. For an attempt at an explanation, see Raw, Crucifixion Iconography, pp. 38-9 and 86-7
35. Openshaw, 'Symbolic Illustration', pp. 41-54, figs. 3-6
36. idem, 'Conquest of Evil', pp. 18 and 34. For the Southampton Psalter, see above, n. 5
37. J. J. G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts 6th to the 9th Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 1 (London, 1978), 80-1 (no. 61; figs. 279-80)
38. G. Henderson, From Durrow to Kells. The Insular Gospel-Books 650-800 (London, 1987), pp. 84-6, figs. 120-1
39. Deshman, 'Alfred', pp. 186-90, figs. 21-4
40. O'Reilly, 'Text and Image', pp. 86-7, briefly raised the possibility of a typological connection between the two compositions
41. Regarding this motif, see Openshaw, 'Images, Texts and Contexts', pp. 262-4
42. R. J. Peebles, The Legend of Longinus in Ecclesiastical Tradition and in English Literature, and its Connections with the Grail, Bryn Mawr College Monographs 9 (Baltimore, 1911)
43. The Durham Gospels, ed. C. D. Verey, T. J. Brown and E. Coatsworth, EEMF 20 (Copenhagen, 1980), 58-62, pl. 2 (383v)
44. O'Reilly, 'Text and Image', pp. 89-91, with pl. 9
45. O.-K. Werckmeister, Irisch-northumbrische Buchmalerei des 8. Jahrhunderts und monastische Spiritualität (Berlin, 1967), pp. 53-78, with figs. 14 and 16
46. see K. Weitzmann, The Miniatures of the Sacra Parallela, Stud. in Manuscript Illumination 8 (Princeton, NJ, 1979), 169-70, with fig. 441
47. See A. Effenberger, 'Eine frühe Kopie des Mosaiks aus San Michele in Affricisco', Studien zur spätantiken und byzantinischen Kunst: Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann gewidmet, ed. O. Feld and U. Peschlow, 3 vols. (Bonn, 1986) II, pp. 167-70, at 167 and 169, with pls. 36-7. It should not be ruled out (cf. Deshman, 'Alfred', p. 182) that Byzantine as well as earlier Insular art was a source of the Galba iconography. The placement of the instruments in the Anglo-Saxon miniature might be a modification of the Byzantine iconography of the instruments propped up against the empty throne, a motif that first appeared in the Last Judgement on a late-tenth-century Greek ivory plaque in the Victoria and Albert Museum
48. see B. Brenk, Tradition und Neuerung in der christlichen Kunst des ersten Jahrtausends, Wiener byzantinistische Studien 3 (Vienna, 1966), 84-6 and 99, with fig. 23. The miniature in the Sacra Parallela (see the previous note) provides a precedent for both the display of the stigmata and the depiction of the heavenly Jerusalem below the Judge. Finally, the Last Judgement composition in the late-ninth-century Constantinopolitan manuscript of Cosmas Indicopleustes' Topographia Christiana (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, gr. 699, 89r) generally resembles that of the first Galba picture (pl. X), especially since the damned are omitted in both
49. see H. L. Kessler, 'Gazing at the Future: the Parousia Miniature in Vatican gr. 699', Byzantine East, Latin West. Art-Historical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, ed. C. Moss and K. Kiefer (Princeton, NJ, 1995), pp. 365-71, and fig. 1
50. Some Irish high crosses have related typological programmes. In the tenth-century Monasterboice school the Crucifixion and Second Coming (or Last Judgement) were often sculpted opposite each other in the centres of the cross-head, and David with his harp is sometimes among the figures at the Judgement. See F. Henry, Irish Art during the Viking Invasions (800-1200 A.D.) (Ithaca, NY, 1967), pp. 156-8 and 171-4, with pls. 76, 86-7, 91, 98 and 106-10
51. Hibernica Minora, being a Fragment of an Old-Irish Treatise on the Psalter, ed. and trans. K. Meyer, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Med. and Modern Ser. 7 (Oxford, 1894), 30-3
52. See M. McNamara, 'Tradition and Creativity in Early Irish Psalter Study', Irland und Europa, ed. P. Ní Chathaín and M. Richter (Stuttgart, 1984), pp. 338-89, at 363-4
53. P. Ó Néill, 'The Old-Irish Treatise on the Psalter and its Hiberno-Latin Background', Ériu 30 (1979), 148-64
54. also idem, 'Airbertach Mac Cosse's Poem on the Psalter', Éigse 17 (1977), 19-46, at 35
55. The Old Irish Treatise on the Psalter says that the psalms prophesy 'the invitation of the heathen to faith' as well as the events in Christ's life and his Second Coming: Hibernica Minora, ed. Meyer, p. 31
56. This was a common early Christian motif. See B. Brenk, Die frühchristlichen Mosaiken in S. Maria Maggiore zu Rom (Wiesbaden, 1975), pp. 33-4 and 46-7
57. Regarding the exegesis of the cornerstone, see U. Maiburg, 'Christus der Eckstein', Vivarium. Festschrift für Theodor Klauser zum 90. Geburtstag (Münster, 1984), pp. 247-56
58. G. B. Ladner, 'The Symbolism of the Biblical Corner Stone in the Mediaeval West', MSA (1942), 43-60
59. Bede, Expositio actuum apostolorum IV.11 (CCSL 121 (Turnhout, 1983), 26)
60. The Durham Gospels, ed. Verey et al., pp. 58-61
61. Henderson, Durrow to Kells, pp. 80-3
62. Regarding the 'real presence' of images of the Crucifixion and other Christological iconography, see R. Deshman, 'Servants of the Mother of God in Byzantine and Medieval Art', Word & Image 5 (1989), 33-70
63. W. Loerke, '"Real Presence" in Early Christian Art', Monasticism and the Arts, ed. T. G. Verdon (Syracuse, NY, 1983), pp. 29-51
64. Bede, Homilia II.8 (CCSL 122 (Turnhout, 1955), 235-7), relates Christ's promise in Matt. XXVIII.20 to his presence in the Eucharist
65. Homilia II.3 (CCSL 122, 204-5)
66. Bede, In Marcum 3 (CCSL 120 (Turnhout, 1960), 574)
67. J. Hennig, 'Die Chöre der Heiligen', Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 8 (1963), 436-56
68. idem, 'Studies in Early Western Devotion to the Choirs of the Saints', Studia Patristica 8 (1963), 239-47
69. E. Kähler, Studien cum Te Deum (Göttingen, 1958)
70. Utrecht-Psalter, ed. K. van der Horst and J. H. A. Engelbregt, Codices Selecti phototypice expressi 75 (Graz, 1982-4), 88r
71. F. Mütherich, Das Sakramentar von Metz, Codices Selecti phototypice expressi 28 (Graz, 1972), 28-32, and 5v-6r
72. Regarding this theme in later tenth-century Anglo-Saxon art and literature, see R. Deshman, The Benedictional of Æthelwold, Stud. in Manuscript Illumination 9 (Princeton, NJ, 1995), 175-6
73. Deshman, 'Servants of the Mother of God', pp. 33-5
74. P. A. Patton, 'Et Partu Fontis Exceptum. The Typology of Birth and Baptism in an Unusual Spanish Image of Jesus Baptized in a Font', Gesta 23.2 (1994), 79-92
75. V. Juhel, 'Le Bain de l'Enfant-Jésus des origines à la fin du douzième siècle', Cahiers archéologiques 39 (1991), 111-32
76. Deshman, 'Living Ecclesia', pp. 262-7
77. See also K. Weitzmann, 'Loca Sancta and the Representational Arts of Palestine', Dumbarton Oaks Papers 28 (1974), 36-9
78. A. A. Barb, 'Krippe, Tisch und Grab', Mullus: Festschrift für Theodor Klauser, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, Ergänzungsband 1 (Münster, 1964), 17-27
79. O'Reilly, Text and Image', p. 93
80. idem, Precum Libelli Quattuor, pp. 44-5
81. L. Gjerløw, Adoratio Crucis (Oslo, 1961), pp. 16-24
82. Two Anglo-Saxon Pontificals, ed. H. M.J. Banting, HBS 104 (London, 1989), xxix-xxxii and 142
83. R. Deshman, 'The Exalted Servant: the Ruler Theology of the Prayerbook of Charles the Bald', Viator 11 (1980), 385-417, at 388, n. 16
84. W. Koehler and F. Mütherich, Die karolingischen Miniaturen, 5 vols. (Berlin, 1930-82) V, 81-2, with pl. 1b
85. For the text, see F. Ninguarada, Liber Praecationum Quas Carolus Calvus. . . Scribi Mandavit, 2nd ed. (Ingolstadt, 1853), pp. 122-3
86. W. Meyer, 'Über das Gebetbuch Karls des Kahlen in der königlichen Schatzkammer in München', Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, phil.-hist. Kl. (1853), p. 435
87. The Book of Cerne, ed. A. B. Kuypers (Cambridge, 1902), pp. 114-17
88. Gjerløw; Adoratio Crucis, pp. 16-24
89. T. H. Bestul, 'Continental Sources of Anglo-Saxon Devotional Writing', in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, ed. Szarmach, pp. 103-26, at 115-16
90. Bestul, 'Continental Sources', pp. 114-15
91. Wilmart, 'Prières médiévales', pp. 26-7
92. Raphael (23v): Deus qui [...] lacrimis aures and Deus qui Rafahele archangel
93. Mary (23v-24r): Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui terrenis corporibus verbi tui and Exaudi nos domine sancta omnipotens aeterne deus qui per beatae Mariae sacri uteri
94. Peter (25r): Deus cuius gratiam beatus Petrus mirabilis
95. Portiforium, ed. Hughes I, 103 (no. 1523))
96. martyrs and confessors (25v-26r): Impetret quesumus domine tuis auxilium pietatis
97. Regarding litanies, see M. Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Litanies of the Saints, HBS 106 (London, 1991)
98. McGurk, 'Metrical Calendar', pp. 90-1, lines 7, 8 and 15
99. J. C. Webster, The Labors of the Months in Ancient and Medieval Art, Northwestern University Stud. in the Humanities 4 (Evanston, IL, 1938)
100. See K. Weitzmann, 'Byzantine Miniature and Icon Painting in the Eleventh Century', in his Studies in Classical and Byzantine Manuscript Illumination, ed. H. L. Kessler (Chicago, 1971), pp. 281-3 and 295-7, with figs. 264-6, 268, 270, 280, 282-3 and 298-9. Byzantine influence is evident in the Psalter's style and New Testament iconography, but these genres of Greek hagiographic imagery seem to have developed in the later tenth and eleventh centuries, that is, after the execution of the Psalter's Anglo-Saxon illustrations
101. Trans. quoted by P. P. O'Neill, 'The Old English Introductions to the Prose Psalms of the Paris Psalter: Sources, Structure, and Composition', SP 78 (1981), 20-38, at 28
102. J. W. Bright and R. L. Ramsay, 'Notes on the "Introductions" of the West Saxon Psalms', JTS 13 (1912), 520-58
103. R. L. Ramsay, 'Theodore of Mopsuestia in England and Ireland', Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 8 (1912), 476-89
104. O'Neill, 'Old English Introductions', pp. 30-3
105. S. Keynes and M. Lapidge, Alfred the Great Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources (Harmondsworth, 1983), pp. 32-3 and 126: 'the most necessary for all men to know . . .'
106. See also J. M. Bately, The Literary Prose of King Alfred's Reign: Translation or Transformation? (London, 1980), p. 11
107. P. Riché, Écoles et enseignement dans le haut moyen âge, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1989), pp. 223-4
108. D. Whitelock, 'The Prose of Alfred's Reign', in Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature, ed. E. G. Stanley (London, 1966), pp. 67-103, at 71-3
109. idem, 'William of Malmesbury on the Works of King Alfred', Medieval Literature and Civilization: Studies in Memory of G. N. Garmonsway, ed. D.A. Pearsall and R. A. Waldron (London, 1968), pp. 78-93, at 90-2
110. P. Salmon, 'Liberets de prières de l'époque carolingienne', RB 86 (1976), 218-34
111. idem, Analecta Liturgica, Studi e testi 273 (Vatican City, 1974), 183 and 188-91
112. Regarding the central importance of wisdom for Alfred, see Bately, Literary Prose, pp. 7-10
113. P. E. Szarmach, 'The Meaning of Alfred's Preface to the Pastoral Care', Mediaevalia 6 (1980), 57-86
114. King Alfred's Version, ed. Carnicelli, pp. 47-8
115. Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, pp. 138-9
116. Regarding the interpretation of the preface, see M. McC. Gatch, 'King Alfred's Version of Augustine's Soliloquia: Some Suggestions on its Rationale and Unity', Studies in Earlier Old English Prose, ed. P. E. Szarmach (Albany, NY, 1986), pp. 17-45, at 22-5
117. Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius, ed. Sedgefield, pp. 40-1
118. See also S. Lerer, Literacy and Power in Anglo-Saxon Literature (Lincoln, NE and London, 1992), pp. 92-6
119. C. Plummer, The Life and Times of Alfred '(Oxford, 1902), pp. 46-7
120. ed. and trans. Thorpe, Homilies of Ælfric II, 580-1
121. T. H. Ohlgren, Anglo-Saxon Art: Texts and Contexts, OEN Subsidia 17 (Binghamton, NY, 1991), 17-18
122. J. B. Friedman, 'The Architect's Compass in Creation Miniatures of the Late Middle Ages', Traditio 30 (1974), 419-29
123. Asser's Life, cc. 76 and 91 (ed. Stevenson, pp. 55 and 77)
124. See Henry, Irish Art during the Viking Invasions
125. Regarding Anglo-Saxon manuscript production before Alfred, see H. Gneuss, 'King Alfred and the History of Anglo-Saxon Libraries', Modes of Interpretation in Old English Literature: Essays in Honour of Stanley B. Greenfield, ed. P. R. Brown, G. R. Crampton and F. C. Robinson (Toronto, 1986), pp. 29-49
126. Dumville, 'English Square Minuscule', p. 161
127. McGurk, 'Metrical Calendar', pp. 88-9
128. Lapidge, 'A Tenth-Century Metrical Calendar', pp. 346-7
129. E. Bishop, Liturgica Historica (Oxford, 1918), pp. 253-6. This possibility is also given credence by McGurk and Lapidge; see the preceding note. It cannot be excluded, however, that the author was an Englishman familiar with Irish material
130. M. Biddle, 'Felix Urbs Winthonia: Winchester in the Age of Monastic Reform", Tenth-Century Studies: Essays in Commemoration of the Millennium of the Council of Winchester and Regularis Concordia, ed. D. Parsons (London, 1975), pp. 123-40, at 127-31
131. Wessex and England, pp. 198-205
132. F. Wormald, 'Decorated Initials in English MSS. from A. D. 900 to 1100', Archaeologia 91 (1945), 107-35, at 112-15
133. R. Gameson, 'The Decoration of the Tanner Bede', ASE 21 (1992), 115-59, at 120-4
134. See also Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Litanies, pp. 13-14
135. In some ways the Galba Psalter looks back to the broader typological programmes that have recently been recognized in Carolingian Bibles. See H. L. Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles from Tours, Stud. in Manuscript Illumination 7 (Princeton, NJ, 1977)
136. idem, 'An Apostle in Armor and the Mission of Carolingian Art', Arte medievale 2nd ser. 4 (1990), 17-41
137. idem, '"Facies Bibliothecae Revelata": Carolingian Art as Spiritual Seeing', SettSpol 41 (1994), 533-94
138. It is revealing that the later Tiberius Psalter, which was influenced by the Galba manuscript, began its prefatory cycle with a creation image probably derived from an illustrated Bible; see Heimann, 'Three Illustrations', p. 53, with pis. 10a and 11a
139. Dumville, Wessex and England, pp. 74-7 and 87-8
140. idem. Liturgy and Ecclesiastical History, pp. 1-38
141. M. B. Parkes, 'The Palaeography of the Parker Manuscript of the Chronicle, Laws and Sedulius, and Historiography at Winchester in the Late Ninth and Tenth Centuries', ASE 5 (1976), 149-71
142. idem, 'A Fragment of an Early-Tenth-Century Anglo-Saxon Manuscript and its Significance', ASE 12 (1983), 12-40