Paris Psalter

Byzantine illuminated manuscript. Comprised of 449 folios (360*260 mm; Paris, Bib. N., MS. gr. 139), it contains the Psalter with a catena. It has occupied a key position in the study of Byzantine art since the late 19th century. The prefatory image of the youthful shepherd David, in the guise of Orpheus, charming the natural world and accompanied by a personification of Melody (fol. 1v; see fig.), bears comparison to late Roman works in the Hellenistic tradition. Once thought to be a product of the 6th or 7th century AD and hence to some extent still in touch with antiquity, Weitzmann and Buchthal, working independently, redated the manuscript convincingly to the 10th century. It thus stands as the apogee of a highly self-conscious classicizing trend in Byzantine art, termed by Weitzmann the 'Macedonian Renaissance'. Some controversy remains over whether the 14 surviving full-page miniatures reproduce older images (Buchthal) or were newly created in the 10th century from older elements (Weitzmann).

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Prophet Isaiah and "Nyx", a female figure whose inverted torch and drapery blown over her head follow Hellenistic conventions.

David playing the harp. For other illustrations, see Wikimedia Commons.

The Paris Psalter (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. gr. 139) is a Byzantine illuminated manuscript containing 449 folios and 14 full-page miniatures "in a grand, almost classical style", as the Encyclopaedia Britannica put it. Together with Basil I's Homilies of St Gregory Nazianzus, the Paris Psalter is considered a key monument of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance in Byzantine art.

The most famous miniature depicts David playing the harp at the side of the seated female figure of "Melody" (illustrated, to the right). Around this central group are the figure of Echo, various animals charmed by music, and even a male figure symbolising the town of Bethlehem. The whole composition was likely modelled on a Greco-Roman wall painting representing Orpheus charming the world with his music.

This and other miniatures are so Hellenistic in execution and so unlike the received notion of what medieval art in general and Byzantine art in particular should look like, that most 19th-century authorities dated the manuscript to the time of Justinian. The Byzantists Hugo Buchthal and Kurt Weitzmann conclusively demonstrated that the book was created in the 10th century, however.

References

• Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Köln, TASCHEN, 2005.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paris psalter

See also

Castelseprio - Frescoes in a related style

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