Werden Psalter

Werden Psalter

The Werden Psalter belongs to the most significant and widely known deluxe medieval manuscripts kept in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz of Berlin. It is also called the “Luxury Psalter” because of its lavish decoration and bears splendid testimony to medieval illumination. The codex was made at Werden where Saint Liudger, Bishop of Münster, had founded an abbey around the year 800. This Benedictine abbey had its heyday in the 11th century and the Werden Psalter may be looked upon as the artistic expression of a proud monastery. The manuscript contains a psalter in an unusual form of text. The contents and artistic decoration of the Werden Psalter are extremely rich and remarkable in all aspects. Its outstanding miniatures, which have always been an object of admiration, its marvelous initials of great artistic importance with respect to illumination, the ornamental pages and titles, as well as the script are all important features of this unrivalled and perfectly harmonious work.

The Extravagant Splendor of a Sumptuous Psalter

The series of psalms contained in the book is preceded by the author’s portrait depicting the biblical King David in his two functions, as sovereign and as a composer of the Psalms (fol. 1v). This topic returns in two further episodes with the slaying of Goliath on fol. 74r and the presentation of his head to King Saul. The third full-page miniature shows Christ having won the fight against the dragon and the lion (fol. 64r). The strictly formal, symmetrical structure and balanced coloring of the title illustrations convey a feeling of peace and dignified sobriety, thus forming a charming contrast to the elaborate ornamental decoration of initials.

Gold and Silver Initials

The initial pages following the miniature pages introduce each subsequent Psalm with gold and silver tendrils, initials set against a purple background, as well as gold and silver initials. Furthermore, all 150 psalms as well as the subsequent cantica start with large initials composed of gold and silver tendrils. They are complete with particularly elaborate ornamental lines on a purple field with alternating gold and silver majuscules. The text is written without paragraphs in an even, elegant late Carolingian minuscule script; the verse incipits are marked with small purple squares containing gold and silver letters. A total of 190 interlaced initials consist of geometrically arranged bands, many of them enriched with floral elements. Architecture, dragons, birds, dogs, and depictions of humans embellish the bands in the ornamental letters, making them resourceful miniatures in their own right. They all lend the work an overall impression of invaluable luxury, which only a few other manuscripts may boast.

Text and Calendar

The Werden Psalter contains the text of the Psalterium Romanum**, an old Latin text which hardly differs from the Vulgate version, as well as related old Latin cantica and several prayers. The manuscript concludes with a comprehensive calendar and two calculation tables for the feast of Easter and the moon dates required for this purpose. The *Werden Psalter is no doubt a luxury psalter that was produced for a high-ranking and wealthy individual rather than serving liturgical purposes. Both the text and decorative apparatus of the book support this assumption.

The Binding

The manuscript is protected by a lavishly ornate leather binding which is not the original but was made in the second half of the 16th century. It was decorated using roulettes, i.e. metal rolls which were heated up before rolling them onto the humid leather. In a frame appear the inscribed busts of Fortitudo (Courage), Prudentia (Prudence), and Iustitia (Justice), as well as a fourth virtue Lucrecia, instead of Temperantia (Moderation) as one would expect.