Psalter of Charles the Bald
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| Psalter of Charles the Bald | |
|---|---|
| Bibliothèque nationale de France | |
 The Psalter of Charles the Bald, folios 26v–27 | |
| Type | Psalter |
| Date | Mid 9th century |
| Place of origin | Scriptorium of the Carolingian palace |
| Language(s) | Latin |
| Scribe(s) | Liuthard |
| Patron | Charles the Bald |
| Material | Parchment |
| Size | 24 x 19.5 cm |
| Script | Uncial |
| Previously kept | Metz Cathedral |
| Accession | 1732 |
The Psalter of Charles the Bald (Latin: Psalterium Caroli Calvi; French: Psautier de Charles le Chauve) is a psalter copied by the illuminator Liuthard at the palace school of the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald, before 869. It notably presents a rare example of original binding in goldwork and ivory. It is kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS Latin 1152).
On folio 3 the recipient of the manuscript is represented on the throne: it is Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne. His name is mentioned again at the end of Psalm 100 and then at the end of the litanies. He is in fact invoked there in the company of his first wife Ermentrude of Orléans (f.172). The manuscript is therefore dated between the year of their marriage, 842, and the year of Ermentrude's death in 869, and undoubtedly closer to the latter date.[1]
The copyist signed at the end of the manuscript on folio 172v: Hic calamus facto Liuthardi fine quievit ("Here, its job done, Liuthard's pen rested"). Liuthard is in fact responsible for the copying of several manuscripts produced at the same time for the same sovereign: the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram in 870, or the gospels today preserved in Darmstadt (Landesbibliothek, MS 746). Liuthard could be responsible for the gold letter copy, the decorations of the text as well as the miniatures, according to Rosamond McKitterick.[2] The royal scriptorium in question, whose precise location is not known, need not have accommodated a large number of artists because the decorations of the manuscripts show great homogeneity.[1]
The manuscript was probably given by Charles the Bald to the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne in Metz after his coronation there as king of Lotharingia in 869. It was kept in the cathedral treasury until the 17th century. According to a note by the librarian Étienne Baluze, it was given by the Metz canons to Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1674. The latter's entire collection was acquired in 1732 by the Bibliothèque du Roi, predecessor of the current Bibliothèque nationale de France.[3]
