The Christina Psalter: A Study of the Images and Texts in a French Early Thirteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscript

by Marina Vidas

Overview

This book is the first detailed analysis of an exquisitely illuminated thirteenth-century Parisian manuscript (The Royal Library, Copenhagen) which was owned by Christina of Norway (1234-1262), daughter of Håkon IV and wife of Philip of Castile and León. New information is provided about the Psalter?'s medieval and later components, its liturgical and other functions, missing illuminations and texts, as well as its provenance and date. Furthermore, the stylistic and iconographic similarities between the Psalter and some of the most important manuscripts illuminated in Paris in the Period, like the three-volume Moralized Bibles, are discussed. Suggestions also are made about the meanings the texts and images might have had for their intended audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788763501279
Publisher:	Museum Tusculanum Press
Publication date:	12/09/2006
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Marina Vidas is senior researcher at the Royal Library, Copenhagen.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of Plates and Figures

Introduction
1. Description of the Manuscript
2. The Artistic Background
3. The Artists, Style and Iconography of the Prefatory Cycle
4. The Intended Reader
5. Catalogue of the Prefatory and Psalm Illuminations
Conclusion
Summary

Appendix I: The Christina Psalter, GKS 1606, 4°
Appendix II: Calendar
Notes
Manuscripts Cited
Bibliography
Index of Names, Places and Manuscripts

Editorial Reviews

... this first extensive investigation of the Christina Psalter. ... Marina Vidas has made a solid contribution to sholarship in her full study of the Christina Psalter. She has drawn attention to a number of issues that will merit further research, both with regard to the Psalter and to the larger context of thirteenth-century royal and aristocratic patronage.- Elizabeth A. Peterson, Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies, Jan. 2008.

From the Publisher