Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters

Abstract

A recent study of the “aristocratic” Psalter in Byzantium makes possible a reassessment of the role of this type of book and the way we study it. A series of separate inquiries into questions of date, size, and function, the combined text known as the New Testament/Psalter, the relationship of text and miniatures in Paris.gr.139, and terminology suggest that the “aristocratic” Psalters cannot be satisfactorily understood in isolation from other illustrated or unillustrated Psalters. A working list of eighty-four illustrated Byzantine Psalters is provided as a basis for further research.

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Notes on contributors

John Lowden

After undergraduate study at Cambridge University, John Lowden worked for his Master's and doctorate at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he has been on the faculty since 1982. He has published articles on Byzantine manuscripts in Dumbarton Oaks Papers and elsewhere; his first book, a study of the illuminated Prophet books, will be published by the Pennsylvania State University Press early in 1988. [Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 20 Portman Sq., London W1H OBE, England]