The Psalter of Charles the Bald (Latin: Psalterium Caroli Calvi; French: Psautier de Charles le Chauve) is a psalter copied by the illuminator Liuthard at the palace school of the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald, before 869. It notably presents a rare example of original binding in goldwork and ivory. It is kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS Latin 1152).
History
editOn folio 3 the recipient of the manuscript is represented on the throne: it is Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne. His name is mentioned again at the end of Psalm 100 and then at the end of the litanies. He is in fact invoked there in the company of his first wife Ermentrude of Orléans (f.172). The manuscript is therefore dated between the year of their marriage, 842, and the year of Ermentrude's death in 869, and undoubtedly closer to the latter date.[1]
The copyist signed at the end of the manuscript on folio 172v: Hic calamus facto Liuthardi fine quievit ("Here, its job done, Liuthard's pen rested"). Liuthard is in fact responsible for the copying of several manuscripts produced at the same time for the same sovereign: the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram in 870, or the gospels today preserved in Darmstadt (Landesbibliothek, MS 746). Liuthard could be responsible for the gold letter copy, the decorations of the text as well as the miniatures, according to Rosamond McKitterick.[2] The royal scriptorium in question, whose precise location is not known, need not have accommodated a large number of artists because the decorations of the manuscripts show great homogeneity.[1]
Citations
edit- ^ a b Laffitte & Denoël 2007, pp. 108–112.
- ^ McKitterick, Rosamond (1990). "The Palace School of Charles the Bald". In Gibson, Margaret; Nelson, Janet (eds.). Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom. Papers Based on a Colloquium Held in London in April 1979. British Archaeological Reports International Series, 101 (2nd ed.). Aldershot: Variorum. pp. 326–339. ISBN 9780860782650. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
References
edit- Laffitte, Marie-Pierre; Denoël, Charlotte, eds. (2007). Trésors carolingiens: Livres manuscrits de Charlemagne à Charles le Chauve (in French). Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. ISBN 9782717723779. Retrieved 15 July 2024.