Picturing Kingship presents the first comprehensive art-historical study of the personal prayerbook of King Louis IX. The book approaches the St. Louis Psalter through a rich range of perspectives and methodologies and positions it within the contexts of its production and use. Not only is the manuscript’s production and structure given detailed study, but the king’s ways of handling his prayerbook—his habits of reading, looking, and praying—are also set forth in a compelling narrative of his view of his sacred responsibilities as king.
In the first half of the book, Stahl investigates the Psalter’s physical construction and development within the context of manuscript production in thirteenth-century Paris. The second half looks at the Psalter’s thematic and iconographic workings and the role of the king’s adviser—Vincent of Beauvais—in the Psalter’s shaping. Most important, though, the author delves into the meanings the Psalter might have held for the king, who was a crusader and so devout a Christian that he was canonized by Boniface VIII. Stahl makes it clear that the Psalter, already recognized as one of the true masterworks of thirteenth-century French culture, should also be recognized as a significant force in Louis IX’s life and reign.
Contents
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
“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.”
