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Course: Medieval Europe + Byzantine > Unit 6
Lesson 1: England- Anglo-Saxon England
- Sutton Hoo ship burial
- The Sutton Hoo ship burial
- Sutton Hoo ship burial (quiz)
- The Sutton Hoo purse lid
- The Sutton Hoo helmet
- Decoding Anglo-Saxon art
- Great square-headed brooch from Chessell Down
- Fibulae
- Fibulae (quiz)
- The Franks Casket
- The Lindisfarne Gospels
- The Lindisfarne Gospels
- Lindisfarne Gospels (quiz)
- Codex Amiatinus, the oldest complete Latin Bible
- The Utrecht Psalter and its influence
- The Fuller Brooch
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The Utrecht Psalter and its influence
The Utrecht Psalter, c. 825, Hautvilliers, near Reims, France, 380 x 310 mm (Universiteitsbibliotheek, Utrecht, MS 32, ff. 7v–8r), courtesy Universiteitsbibliothek, Utrecht; The Harley Psalter, early 11th century, Christ Church, Canterbury, 380 x 310 mm (British Library, BL, Harley MS 603, ff. 7v 8r), © 2019 British Library, used by permission; and the The Eadwine Psalter, c. 1150, Christ Church, Canterbury, 460 x 330 mm (Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R. 17.1, ff. 23v–24r)
A conversation with Dr. Kathleen Doyle, Lead Curator, Illuminated Manuscripts, British Library and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Video transcript
(relaxing piano music) - [Beth] We're in the British Library, very fortunate to be looking
at the Utrecht Psalter. It's especially fascinating
today in this Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition to see this book near other manuscripts that it influenced. - [Kathleen] I'm tremendously
excited to conclude the exhibition with the
extraordinary Utrecht Psalter and two of its early copies. It was made in France during
the reign of Louis the Pious. So, in the early 9th century. - [Beth] We're referring to the time when Charlemagne and his
successors ruled much of Europe. - [Kathleen] And this must
be one of the most elaborate and creative and interesting
manuscripts ever made. - [Beth] We may be used to
seeing manuscript eliminations where you have, for
example, an evangelist page a page that introduces
the text of manuscript. But here what's so wonderful
about The Utrecht Psalter is that we have these
illustrations that tie very tightly to the text and really bring it alive. - [Kathleen] It's revolutionary approach. Every psalm gets it's own, it's almost like a comic
strip kind of layout. This horizontal register of images and this is a combination
of quite literal depictions of a word of phrase in the relevant psalm and also, a more
Christological interpretation. An understanding of the
psalms as a prefiguration of Christ's life, death, and resurection. For example, at the bottom of this page you see a man who's touching his lips and he's holding a cup. And this refers to a phrase in the psalm which says: the Lord is
my inheritance and my cup so it's very direct
picking up of that phrase, but other images are
much more interpretive. We have a man leaning down to pull two figures out of a hole. This is probably the harrowing of hell, Christ rescuing Adam and Eve. And comes from another verse in the psalm. That verse is: because thou
wilt not leave my soul in hell. - [Beth] So what we're seeing
here is this old testament, this Jewish Bible psalm
interpreted in the light of Christianity, of
Christ's descent into hell and bringing out souls from hell including those of Adam and Eve. And what I love especially
about these illustrations is these lovely fluid lines
that have a lot of energy, but they're also very
expressive of human emotion. And so Adam and Eve reaching up to Christ to save them from the mouth of hell or, one of my favorites, is in pslams 13 one of the lines is: you have confounded the
counsel of the poor man. And we see what looks like a
woman with smaller figures, perhaps children and a sense
of their being neglected. They seem in need of pity and sympathy, which the woman in front of
them is pleading with the ruler to provide to them, but
he is involved in evil and we see those serpents
twining around the canopy that he sits under and
the violence around him. These are people who are not
listening to the word of God. And we see God above them
surrounded by angels. - [Kathleen] This agitated,
gestural, very emotional, as you say, style had an
incredible impact on the art of Anglo-Saxon England which
is why it's in the exhibition. And we can see the influence
of this in the book that's placed right next to it. The Harley Psalter. The figures and what they're doing, the way they look is exactly the same. Almost an exact copy
of the Utrecht Psalter. So this is the evidence
that that earlier book was in England by around the year 1000 when this book was made, however, there's an immediate difference. - [Beth] Ink in different colors. - [Kathleen] Right. So we've gone from the
text in all capitols in the earlier book and all
of the illustrations have this very delicate ink line drawing,
but the ink was all black. Here it's been enlivened and the ink is in red, green, blue and it transforms how
it looks on the page. - [Beth] And we see again that
kind of fluttering drapery. - [Kathleen] Exactly - [Beth] And the enlarged hands
which are very expressive. So we can really read the story. - [Kathleen] They're
very sophisticated books as you've just articulated,
some of the visual commentary on the psalms are quite complicated. Moreover, we've got a change
in the actual text itself. By tradition, Saint Jerome, working at the behest of the pope, made 3 translations of
the psalms into Latin. The first one is the version that's here in the Harley Psalter, which is known as the Roman version because it was adopted
by the church in Rome. It was, in the Anglo-Saxon period, the version that most often
occurred in English Psalters. In contrast the Utrecht Psalter
has the Gallican version that was adopted in Gaul. In the Eadwine Psalter, we've
moved another century later. Here 3 versions appear in parallel columns so the Gallicanum, the
Roman, and the Hebraicum, but moreover, you've got two more versions in the column closest to the gutter, you have little translations
of the Latin words written in Anglo-Norman French. So this is the language
,after the Norman Conquest, of the new aristocracy. Next to it, above the Romanum version, you have little words in old English. This is the language
of the old aristocracy. And then all around are words and phrases and marginal glosses,
which is a Latin commentary explaining, in many cases, the Christological
understanding of the psalms. So this is a extraordinarily complex book. - [Beth] Although we see
a lot of similarities to the earlier illustrations, we do see some differences here. - [Kathleen] This is a much bigger book. So pslam 14, instead
of taking half a page, takes a whole page and a half. So on this one, you only
get one illustration. It's colored, it's line drawings, but we're seeing them move into, what we sometimes refer
to, as Romanesque art. The fluttering draperies
you mentioned, they're gone. Everything's straight, it's linear, it's more patterned, It's more static. The illustration has been put in a box so it's separated from the text. We're entering into, again,
a different aesthetic, but again, faithfully,
keeping the sort of details that man holding his cup, Christ reaching down
to rescue Adam and Eve, every time I come in
and look at the details I see something new. - [Beth] What a treat to
see these 3 manuscripts side by side here in this
remarkable exhibition of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
in the British Library. It's really wonderful to be here. - [Kathleen] Thank you. (piano music playing)