The Christina Psalter: A Study of the Images and Texts in a French Early Thirteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscript

This book is the first detailed analysis of an exquisitely illuminated 13th-century Parisian manuscript psalter which was owned by Christina of Norway (1234-1262), daughter of Håkon IV and wife of Philip of Castile and León. New information is provided about the psalter's medieval and later components, its liturgical and other functions, missing illuminations and texts, as well as its provenance and date. Furthermore, the stylistic and iconographic similarities between the psalter and some of the most important manuscripts illuminated in Paris during the period—like the three volume Moralized Bibles—are discussed. Research suggestions are made about the meanings the texts and images might have had for their intended audience.