This manuscript contains the so-called 'La Charité Psalter', named
after the Cluniac priory of La Charité-sur-Loire where the
manuscript was produced at the end of the 12th century. A prayer
for a community's abbess on f. 90v suggests that the Psalter was
written for a nunnery affiliated with the abbey, perhaps the
Benedictine nunnery of the Holy Cross in Poitiers. This manuscript
belongs to a small group of French Psalters in which an attempt was
made to illustrate each of the 150 psalms with a miniature instead
of a select number of psalms at the Psalter's divisions. The 'La
Charité Psalter', however, lost several of its initials, most
likely in the 17th century, when an owner mutilated the manuscript.
Contents: ff. 1r-6v: A Calendar of Saints. f. 7r: Calendric verses,
beginning: ‘Pocula Ianus amat sed februus algeo clamat’. ff.
7v-8r: Computistical tables in blue and green frames. ff. 9r-87v:
The Book of Psalms with prayers intersecting and following the
Psalms, imperfect due to the loss of folios or parts of folios,
beginning at Psalm 2:8. ff. 88r-93r: A Litany of Saints. The
manuscript contains a later addition:f. 87v: A copy of the final
prayer of the Book of Psalms, written in a 16th- or 17th-century
script. [ff. 8v, 93v are blank]. Decoration: 56 large historiated
initials in colours on gold or coloured grounds at the beginning of
most Psalms, featuring foliate decoration and zoomorphic figures
(ff. 7r, 7v, 10v, 12r, 12v, 15r, 15v, 17r, 19r, 19v, 20r, 20v, 21v,
22r, 22v, 24r, 25v, 27v, 28r, 34r, 34v, 36r, 36v, 38r, 39v
(damaged), 40r, 41r, 41v, 42v, 43v, 44v, 47v, 48v, 50v, 51r, 51v,
55r, 56r, 56v, 57v, 59r, 63r, 64r, 69r, 69v, 70r, 70v, 71r, 71v,
72r, 73v, 75v, 81r, 81v, 82v, 83r): for a list of the subjects of
the initials see Haseloff, Die Psalterillustration (1938), pp.
34-35; 1 large animal initial (two 'dragons') in red and blue
against a gold ground (f. 72r); 10 large initials in colours and
gold with foliate interlace and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic
figures (ff. 74r, 74v, 76r, 77v, 78r, 78v, 85r, 85v, 86r, 86v); at
least 29 other initials have been excised (ff. 10r, 14r, 14v, 18v,
23r, 25r, 26v, 29v, 30v, 31r, 31v, 32r, 33r, 35v, 37r, 39r, 42r,
46r, 46v, 49v, 54r, 60 [lower half], 61 [lower half], 62 [upper
half], 65v, 67v, 79 [lower half], 80v, 84 [lower half]). 12 large
miniatures in colours in roundels with gold grounds and inside blue
frames, containing combination of the Labours of the Months and
Signs of the Zodiac (ff. 1r-6v). Large 'KL' letters in gold on
coloured grounds with foliate decoration (ff. 1r-6v). Architectural
frame for a table in colours (f. 8r). Medium initials in red with
blue penwork decoration, or in blue or green with red penwork
decoration (some with penwork decoration in two or all of these
colours) (from f. 44v mainly without green). Small initials in red,
green, or blue (from f. 44v mainly without green). Rubrics in red.
Paraphs in red or blue, some in foliate forms in of heads or
objects, and with decoration in the other colour.
