Description
Book SynopsisPresents a comprehensive art-historical study of the personal prayerbook of King Louis IX. This book approaches the St Louis Psalter through a range of perspectives and methodologies and positions it within the contexts of its production and use.
Trade Review“Harvey Stahl’s posthumous study of the St. Louis Psalter promises to take its place as one of the finest monographs ever published on a medieval illuminated manuscript. The psalter provided the backbone of the liturgy and the primary vehicle of private prayer and study before the Book of Hours. One of the best-known manuscripts of the entire Middle Ages, St. Louis’s psalter is also, astonishingly, among the least studied. Stahl’s monograph considers all aspects of the manuscript, from its codicology to its content. Above all, he expands our notion of the expressive and visual capacity of thirteenth-century illumination, which too often is dismissed as stylized mannerism. This is a glorious book on a glorious manuscript.”
—Jeffrey Hamburger,Harvard University
“The superlative Psalter of St. Louis was at the center of the late Harvey Stahl’s scholarly career. This study was conceived by him as a work that would do justice to that incomparable book. It is a worthy monument to scholar and subject.”
—John Lowden,Courtauld Institute of Art
“Stahl’s analysis is cognent and in the main persuasive, written with concise elegance and conviction. This handsome volume will be the fundamental point of departure for any further study of the psalter, and necessary reading for all interested in this famous, important king. It should be in every library.”
—L. Nees Choice
“Picturing Kingship—not a complete facsimile, but handsomely illustrated–-is the first full-scale monograph to be devoted to the manuscript. . . . Excellent colour plates reproduce all eight historiated psalm initials and three-quarters of the prefatory miniatures.”
—Ann Payne Art Newspaper
“Picturing Kingship is a handsomely produced volume, filled with sumptuous color images from the Saint Louis Psalter and other manuscript comparanda. It is a testament to the penetration of Harvey Stahl’s vision of the Saint Louis Psalter that his volume breathes new life into a well-known manuscript. With Picturing Kingship we have not only a major contribution to our understanding of this monument of Gothic painting but also an exemplar of what a monographic study of a single manuscript can achieve. Stahl’s compelling monograph has laid the groundwork for all future study of this important manuscript.”
—Aden Kumler Art Bulletin
“It will be difficult to surpass this study at the technical level.”
—Paul Binski Catholic Historical Review
“In a book as beautifully presented as a royal Psalter, Harvey Stahl has captured the singular contribution of the Psalter of Saint Louis to the field of medieval art history. The tone of the book is also admirable, for at times reading this work was like being in the presence of Origen. Stahl’s exegesis on the crowning of Saul as king of the Israelites and his excavation of meaning of the Beatus vir initial were profoundly moving as well as intellectually rewarding.”
—Donna L. Sadler Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies
“In a book as beautifully presented as a royal Psalter, Harvey Stahl has captured the singular contribution of the Psalter of Saint Louis to the field of medieval art history. . . . The tone of the book is also admirable, for at times reading this work was like being in the presence of Origen. Stahl’s exegesis on the crowning of Saul as king of the Israelites and his excavation of meaning of the Beatus vir initial were profoundly moving as well as intellectually rewarding.”
—Donna L. Sadler Ecclesiastical History
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Jacques Le Goff
Editor’s Note
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Manuscript and Its History
1. The Physical Manuscript
2. The Artists and Their Paintings
3. Constructions and Readings
4. Psalters and the Old Testament
5. A Royal Program
Conclusion: The King and His Psalter
Appendixes
Appendix I: Description
Appendix II: Legends
Appendix III: The Calendar (Folios 79r–84v)
Appendix IV: Text Signatures and Catchwords
Appendix V: Concordance of Attributions
Appendix VI: The Previous Binding and Its Textile Covering
Appendix VII: Prefatory Miniatures: Working Groups with Physical Variables
Bibliography
Index
