Studies In The Illustration Of The Psalter

Psalters were editions of the Book of Psalms from the Old Testament which were important both as a prayer book and as a means of learning letters. Due to the latter, and the vivid imagery that the texts created, the initial letter became elaborate and additional miniature illustrations were added to mark important places in the text. These six papers, plus an introduction, are taken from a symposium held at St Andrews in 1997 and present discussions of the historical evolution of psalter illustrations and problems of interpretation. They deal with examples of various date and provenance, although largely focusing on Britain, including the Utrecht Psalter, the Book of Kells and the Corbie Psalter.