A book of Psalms from eleventh-century Byzantium. The complex of texts and images in Vat. gr. 752. Ediz. illustrata

Preface: Sweden and the Vatican Library -- Cesare Pasini Il Vat. Gr. 752: fattura materiale, scrittura, mise en page (con qualche osservazione sul Salterio Hierosol. S. Sepulcri 53 -- Francesco D'Aiuto Il "poema" di introduzione del Salterio Vat. Gr. 752 -- Augusta Acconcia Longo Codex Vat. Gr. 752: some remarks about its pictorial programme and its historical context -- Dirk Krausmüller The so-called Schism of 1054 and its impact on Byzantine society -- Christian Gastgeber Cum Davidi versari: the Psalter as acquired self-expression -- Erik Varden, OCSO David and Christ sing the Psalms: the Psalter as prophecy and liturgy -- Susan Gillingham The catena of Vat. Gr. 752 (with an appendix on Giovanni Mercati's unpublished notes on the MS) -- Reinhart Ceulemans How many authors? Hesychius on the Psalms -- Sever J. Voicu Hesychius of Jerusalem's Prologue to the Psalms revisited in the light of Vat. Gr. 752 and its illustrative program -- Barbara Crostini with Mariachiara Fincati Note sulla tecnica redazionale dei commenti scoliastici di Esichio di Gerusalemme -- Maria Antonietta Barbàra Il Commentarius in Leviticum di Esichio di Gerusalemme -- Stefano Tampellini The Greek fragment of the Commentary on Leviticus by Hesychius of Jerusalem -- Tomás Fernández Process and meaning: penitence, prayer and pedagogy in Vat. Gr. 752 -- Glenn Peers Make music with understanding: music, musicians and choristers in the miniatures of Vat. Gr. 752 -- Maja Kominko The limits of visual polemicism in Vat. Gr. 752 -- Cecily J. Hilsdale Urban topographies: representing space in Vat. Gr. 752 -- Mati Meyer -- Vat. Gr. 752 and Vat. Gr. 1927: related manuscripts? / -- Nicolette S. Trahoulia Meditation, translation, the liturgy, and the medieval illustrated Psalter in the West -- Diane Reilly-- Afterword /-- Timothy Janz. "This collection of essays offers new and deeper perspectives on a relatively little-studied manuscript of the Greek Psalter at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, codex Vaticanus graecus 752. As the title suggests, the perspective of the editors is an inter-disciplinary one. Thus, the volume covers three broad areas: the material aspects concerning the manuscript, the textual contents consisting of Psalms and their catena commentary, and the over two hundred images that illustrate the psalms. Barbara Crostini has been mainly responsible for Parts I-II, and Glenn Peers for Part III, and the writing of this introduction follows this basic division of tasks. Ultimately, however, the editors would like to see these parts not as divided, but as mutually integrated, each providing clues to the major unresolved issues of provenance and production of this codex. Thus, it is capturing the complexity of the interrelationship between these elements in the creation and use of the manuscript that remains our ideal aim.Consider Vat. gr. 752 as a particular edition of the sacred page. As such, it came about and first lived in a specific context. Grasping this reality, though a past and necessarily elusive one, is surely the historian's task,and his/her attempt at doing so is both limited and sharpened by the tools at his/her disposal. The first part of this volume is an attempt to address this historical context."-- Michael Shamansky, Bookseller Inc