Kinesic intelligence, medieval illuminated psalters, and the poetics of the psalms

ABSTRACT

Kinesic intelligence enables humans to understand physical movements and produce complex meanings out of them and by means of them. Grounded in embodied cognition, it elicits perceptual simulations of sensorimotor events. An attention to perceptual simulations in literature and art helps not only address readers’ and audiences’ cognitive participation in their reception of artworks, it also helps account for historical traces of cognitive acts, perceptual simulations, and kinesic intelligence in the production of artworks. This essay tests this claim in two ways. Its first part studies the text-image relationships in four medieval manuscripts containing illustrations of the psalms (the Utrecht Psalter and its English derivatives, i.e., the Harley Psalter, the Eadwine Psalter, and the Paris Psalter), while its second part focuses on a challenging line in Psalm 16: adipem suum concluserunt, comparing various translations of it over centuries and showing that its core meaning is conveyed by a sensorimotor metaphor that calls for a sustained attention to the perceptual simulations it triggers.

KEYWORDS:

• Embodied cognition
• Utrecht Psalter
• sensorimotricity
• Psalms
• translation

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Thierry Dubois, Cédric Giraud, and Greg Walker for their precious help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ For an excellent discussion of originality and creativity in medieval art, see Lawrence Nees: ‘In the sphere of new expression it would be easy to cite many examples in Carolingian art alone which embody a fundamentally novel and deliberate evocation of emotional and psychological intensity. One immediately thinks of the wonderfully expressive figures of the Utrecht Psalter, or of Anglo-Saxon drawings stemming from the same tradition of rapid linear draughtsmanship. Even if certain aspects of this style owe something to an earlier model or models, as has frequently been suggested, it seems to me impossible to deny the freshness and impact of such works’ (1992: 93).

² The Utrecht Psalter contains the Psalterium Gallicanum. For more on this manuscript, see Panofsky (1943), Wormald (1952), Tselos (1959, 1960), Horst, Noel and Wüstefeld (1996), Chazelle (1997), and the website of Utrecht University Library, Curator Dr Bart Jaski: https://www.uu.nl/en/utrecht-university-library-special-collections/the-treasury/manuscripts-from-the-treasury/the-utrecht-psalter (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

³ The Harley Psalter contains the Psalterium Romanum. For more on this manuscript, see Temple (1976), Backhouse (1984), Gameson (1993), Noel (1995), and the British Library webpage: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/harley-psalter (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

⁴ The Eadwine Psalter is a psalterium triplex: the three translations of the psalter attributed to Jerome are juxtaposed (Romanum, Gallicanum, Hebraicum), along with interlinear translations in Old English and Anglo-Norman French. For more on this manuscript, see Gibson, Heslop and Pfaff (1992) and Karkov (2015). It is available in open access at: https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/news/wren-display-the-eadwine-psalter/ (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

⁵ The Paris Psalter is also a psalterium triplex. It was begun in Canterbury with fully painted miniatures instead of drawings, and it was finished in Spain around 1340–1350. It is also known as the Great Canterbury Psalter and the Anglo-Catalan Psalter. It is available in open access at: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10551125c/f1.item (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

⁶ Unless specified, Latin quotations of the psalms are from the Vulgate, and the English translation of the Vulgate is from the Douay-Rheims Bible.

⁷ In his discussion of the Utrecht Psalter, Bœspflug provides several examples of surprising representations of the Lord, who ‘is even depicted rising from his seat and departing from his mandorla which stays behind him like the back of a seat, in order to hand a spear to an angel already equipped with a shield’ (allant jusqu’à se lever de son siège et à quitter sa mandorle, laquelle reste sur place derrière lui comme le dossier d’un siège, pour tendre une lance à un ange déjà muni d’un bouclier) (2017: 151). Bœspflug does not offer further comments on this iconography, but it is clear that he considers it to be unusual.

⁸ Evans describes the style of the Utrecht illuminations as ‘full of nervous energy’ (1969: 7). For Holcomb, ‘the pages [of the Utrecht Psalter] are endowed with a palpable dynamism created by a restless line that seems to vibrate with excitement and by sprawling compositions brimming with commotion’ (2009: 7). According to the authors of the Utrecht Psalter website, the style of the Utrecht drawings ‘could be described as “nervous,” “dynamic,” “surrealistic,” and “baroque”’. (https://www.uu.nl/en/utrecht-university-library-special-collections/the-treasury/manuscripts-from-the-treasury/the-utrecht-psalter) (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

⁹ https://biblehub.com/interlinear/psalms/12-8.htm (last accessed on 15 February 2022). Same reference for all quotations in Hebrew.

¹⁰ https://www.academic-bible.com/en/online-bibles/septuagint-lxx/read-the-bible-text/bibel/text/lesen/stelle/19/110001/119999/ch/b7ebfa0071e86280e986b6ad6e602cb7/ (last accessed on 15 February 2022). Same reference for all quotations of the Septuagint. On the Septuagint Psalter, see Schaper (2014).

¹¹ On the three Latin translations attributed to Jerome, see Horst (1996: 36–37), Goins (2014) and Leneghan (2017). The versions are available at http://www.liberpsalmorum.info (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

¹² www.uu.nl/en/utrecht-university-library-special-collections/the-treasury/manuscripts-from-the-treasury/the-utrecht-psalter (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

¹³ On the Utrecht website, ‘freakish’ would not have the same appealing and humorous effect as ‘all freaked out.’ The authors of the website were of course right to opt for the latter in their caption.

¹⁴ William Noel provides the following description: ‘ … the Lord holds a book and shines a torch at the hunched psalmist, who has outspread the fingers of the hand that he has risen to his cheek’ (1996: 131).

¹⁵ Referring to the Utrecht Psalter, Nees writes: ‘Whether or not its unknown patron ever accorded it such attention, the imagery seems to expect, demand, and reward intimate and prolonged consideration from its beholder’ (2002: 201). On the issue of reception, see Carruthers (2010).

¹⁶ This translation comes from Bible Hub: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/psalms/73-7.htm (last accessed on 15 February 2022). It differs from the Vulgate, Prodiit quasi ex adipe iniquitas eorum; transierunt in affectum cordis, and the Douay-Rheims Bible, ‘Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of their heart’ (Ps 72:7).

¹⁷ This translation comes from Bible Hub: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/psalms/109-24.htm (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

¹⁸ On the numerous translations of the psalms written during the sixteenth century, see Jeanneret (1969); on Marot’s translation of the psalms, see Reuben (2000) as well as Wursten (2010), chap. 3: ‘Translating the psalms’ and chap. 13: ‘Calvin and Marot on the psalms’; on the importance of the psalms for Calvin and on his role in their translation, see Pitkin (1993), Weeda (2002), de Greef (2004), and Beeke (2004).

¹⁹ https://www.e-rara.ch/gep_g/doi/10.3931/e-rara-5690, p. 329 (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

²⁰ https://www.e-rara.ch/bau_1/doi/10.3931/e-rara-7524, p. 570 (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

²¹ https://www.e-rara.ch/gep_g/doi/10.3931/e-rara-5807, p. 35 (last accessed on 15 February 2022). The first edition came out in 1562.

²² https://www.e-rara.ch/gep_g/doi/10.3931/e-rara-5871, p. 719 (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

²³ https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/ (last accessed on 15 February 2022).

²⁴ In vol. VII: Psalms 1–72 of Reformation Commentary on Scripture, edited by Herman J. Selderhuis in 2015, pages 127–143 are devoted to Psalm 16(17), but line 10 is translated by ‘They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak arrogantly’. The reference to fat is avoided and the line is not discussed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guillemette Bolens

Guillemette Bolens is Professor of Medieval English Literature and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva. Her research interests are in the history of the body and kinesic analysis in literature and art.