Making the Psalter of Christina of Markyate (the St. Albans Psalter)

Abstract

Making the Psalter of Christina of Markyate (the St. Albans Psalter). MORGAN POWELL. The pictures and texts in the Psalter of Christina of Markyate, best known as the St. Albans Psalter, document a nascent fascination with a woman’s devotional reading and visionary powers in the first half of the twelfth century. They place the book on the threshold of an expansion of religious art and literature that will soon bring a dramatic turn in the relationship between the lay public and the book, between the receiving subject and the (written) Word. Proper assessment of the place of the book and its owner in these developments depends on a detailed understanding of the book’s assembly in relationship to the progress of Christina’s relationship to the Abbey of St. Albans. This article combines detailed study of the codex, full cognizance of the events reported in Christina’s contemporary Vita, and the observations of recent scholarship in order to place study of the book on a new foundation.