Tom,
You're tremendously helpful in all these books you find and post for us.
Thank you so much.
Could you please keep an eye out for books (probably art history books) on
the so-called "literal Psalter," which I believe dates from the fifth
century.
Psalms almost takes the form of a dramatic monologue, with lots of figurative
language that doesn't easily lend itself to pictorial representation. One way
of bridging the gap is to literalize similes, as is also done with similes in
other parts of the Bible. Three of the Gospels, for example, say that when
Christ was baptized, the holy spirit descended in the manner of a dove. One
can't paint a picture of something that isn't a dove but has the manner of a
dove, because one doesn't know what the "something" itself looks like. So
artists just painted a dove, and the iconology became traditional. In this
case, we can point to Luke, who actually says the holy spirit has the "form"
(not "manner") of a dove.
In literalizing a simile, one takes language that was meant figuratively and
interprets it in a literal manner. I don't think one is going to find any
theological precedent for doing this, and in a way it's primarily an aid to
artists. I think there's a lit on how the practice began, and, as above,
keywords would be literal Psalter. Thank you.
pat sloane
===============================================
In a message dated 01/19/2000 11:52:23 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> The most recent title I've seen on this.
> Tom Izbicki
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 11:45:48 -0500 (EST)
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: (1 of 1) The Utrecht psalter
>
>
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> PLEASE DO NOT REPLY OR SEND MESSAGES TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS.
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>
>
>
> SEARCH STRING: ti:(utrecht psalter)
>
> DATABASE: WorldCat
>
> ACCESSION: 37299779
> TITLE: The Utrecht psalter
> picturing the Psalms of David
> PLACE: Utrecht :
> PUBLISHER: Utrecht University Library,
> YEAR: 1996
> PUB TYPE: Machine-readable data
> FORMAT: 1 computer laser optical disc : ill. ; 4
> 3/4 in. + container insert ([8] p. ; 12 cm.)
> NOTES: Title from disc label.
> Contains digital images of the Latin text of the Utrecht
> Psalter (Gallican version); a program and database to access
> text and images; descriptions of the drawings from E.T.
> Dewald's 1932 ed. of manuscript; and more recent literature
> on the illustrations.
> System requirements: Microsoft Windows or Windows NT
> operating system: Windows 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups
> 3.11; minimum 30386DX processor at 20 MHz, 8 Mb RAM; SVGA
> monitor, MS-DOS 3.3 or later (version 5.0 or 6.x
> recommended); Microsoft compact disc extensions (MSCDEX) 2.2
> or later, and compatible CD-ROM driver; Windows 95; Windows
> NT 3.5x and any Intel system running Windows NT; CD-ROM drive
> compatible with the multimedia PC (MPC) specification; 2 MB
> (minimum) of free disc space; mouse or equivalent pointing
> device; displaycard and monitor displaying 256 colors at 800
> x 600 resolution.
> SUBJECT:
> Catholic Church -- Liturgy -- Texts -- Databases.
> Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht. -- Bibliotheek.
> Utrecht psalter -- Databases.
> Bible. -- O.T. -- Psalms -- Illustrations -- Databases.
> Illumination of books and manuscripts, Carolingian -- Databases.
> Art, Medieval -- Databases.
> ALT TITLE: Picturing the Pslams of David
> OTHER: Ankersmit, Frits.
> Horst, K. Van der.
> DeWald, Ernest T. (Ernest Theodore), 1891-1968.
> Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht. Bibliotheek.
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