St. Albans Psalter
The St Albans Psalter or St. Albans Psalter Psalter of Christina of Markyate also, is a major work of English Romanesque book illumination. It originated in the 12th century at the Abbey of St. Alban in Hertfordshire. Today he is in the Cathedral Library Hildesheim and constitutes one of its most precious treasures
Description
The over four hundred page book belongs to the genre of medieval Psalter, which were intended for domestic devotion or liturgical prayer. Literary Main content are the psalms of the Vulgate, to the Old French Alexiuslied and the beginning of a liturgical calendar. The image program includes more than forty full-page miniatures from the Gospel, various depictions of saints and ornate jewelry paintings, including more than 200 gold decorated initials.
The St Albans Psalter stands at ext effort and iconography as almost without precedent and has in turn influenced the later pictorial tradition sustainable.
History
Presumably, the St Albans Psalter between about 1120 and 1145 was created during the abbacy of Geoffrey Gorham. According to some researchers the factory for hermit Christina of Markyate was determined to have stood to the Geoffrey in a close spiritual friendship. More likely the book for the choir service of the Convention monk in the Abbey was intended. During the Civil War of 1642-1649 English Benedictine brought the Psalter with other treasures in their new refuge, the monastery Lamspringe near Hildesheim. Probably at its dissolution in 1803, he came into possession of the Basilica of St. Godehard in Hildesheim, whose collection of books is kept in the Cathedral Library since 1908.
From 12 September 2009 to January 24, 2010 all the leaves of the Psalter were shown side by side, after the handwriting on the restoration had to be dismantled in the Cathedral Museum Hildesheim. In the fall of 2013 they had an exhibition at the Getty Museum is planned.
Literary editor
The Historical novel by Peter Dyckhoff Albani. The outrageous adventures, the background of which is the history of the Psalter, published in 1998 ( Steinkopf Verlag, Stuttgart).