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Concept
Psalter
Summary
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons. They were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated, and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.
The English term (Old English psaltere, saltere) derives from Church Latin. The source term is psalterium, which is simply the name of the Book of Psalms (in secular Latin, it is the term for a stringed instrument, from ψαλτήριον psalterion).
The Book of Psalms contains the bulk of the Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church.
The other books associated with it were the Lectionary, the Antiphonary, and Responsoriale, and the Hymnary.
In Late Modern English, psalter has mostly ceased to refer to the Book of Psalms (as the text of a book of the Bible) and mostly refers to the dedicated physical volumes containing this text.
Latin Psalters
Dedicated psalters, as distinct from copies of the Psalms in other formats, e.g. as part of a full edition of the Old Testament, were first developed in the Latin West in the 6th century in Ireland and from about 700 on the continent.
The extensively illustrated Utrecht Psalter is one of the most important surviving Carolingian manuscripts and exercised a major influence on the later development of Anglo-Saxon art. In the Middle Ages psalters were among the most popular types of illuminated manuscripts, rivaled only by the Gospel Books, from which they gradually took over as the type of manuscript chosen for lavish illumination. From the late 11th century onwards they became particularly widespread - Psalms were recited by the clergy at various points in the liturgy, so psalters were a key part of the liturgical equipment in major churches.
Various different schemes existed for the arrangement of the Psalms into groups (see Latin Psalters).
Official source
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