What is "psalter"

Psalter \Psal"ter\, n. [OE. psauter, sauter, OF. sautier, psaltier, F. psautier, from L. psalterium. See Psaltery.]

1. The Book of Psalms; -- often applied to a book containing the Psalms separately printed.

2. Specifically, the Book of Psalms as printed in the Book of Common Prayer; among the Roman Catholics, the part of the Breviary which contains the Psalms arranged for each day of the week.

3. (R. C. Ch.) A rosary, consisting of a hundred and fifty beads, corresponding to the number of the psalms.

"the Book of Psalms," Old English saltere, psaltere, from Church Latin psalterium "the songs of David," in secular Latin, "stringed instrument played by twanging," from Greek psalterion "stringed instrument, psaltery, harp," from psallein "to pluck, play on a stringed instrument" (see psalm).

n. 1 The Book of psalm. Often applied to a book containing the Psalms separately printed. 2 Specifically for Anglicans, the Book of Common Prayer which contains the Book of Psalms. For Catholics, the Breviary containing the Psalms arranged for each day of the week. 3 In the Roman Catholic Church, a rosary consisting of one hundred and fifty beads, corresponding to the number of the Psalms.

A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.

The English term ( Old English psaltere, saltere) is from Church Latin psalterium, which is simply the name of the Book of Psalms (in secular Latin, it is the term for a stringed instrument, from Greek ψαλτήριον psalterion). The Book of Psalms contains the bulk of the Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church. The other books associated with it were the Lectionary, the Antiphonary, and Responsoriale, and the Hymnary. In modern English, psalter has mostly ceased to refer to the Book of Psalms (as the text of a book of the bible) and mostly refers to the dedicated physical volumes containing this text, especially in manuscript form.

Bamberg State Library, Msc.Bibl.44 is an early 10th century Psalter made for Salomo III, the Abbot of St. Gall in 909. The Psalter has parallel texts with texts in two Latin versions, a Hebrew version, and a Greek version. In 972, the future Otto II when he, at the age of about seventeen, visited the monastery with his father, Otto I, had found a locked chest in the Abbey treasury, which he had demanded opened. When he found that it was full of manuscripts, he took those manuscripts he found interesting, including this one. Although many of the manuscripts were later returned, this one apparently was not.

The Psalter (GKS 1605 4°) is a medieval illuminated manuscript, a psalter made in Flanders c. 1500-1535. It belongs to the Royal Library, Denmark. The quality of its illuminations has been described as "unique".

The origins of the book are not known, nor who commissioned it, though it may have been commissioned by Isabella of Austria, wife of Christian II of Denmark. It was probably illuminated by a follower of Gerard Horenbout and the scribe may have been one Anthonius van Damme, active in Bruges. It contains 150 psalms as well as other hymns, as well as minor texts and illustrations. The book was unexpectedly discovered in Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen in 1781, in a chest which had remained unopened for more than a hundred years.