Because of liturgical and devotional requirements, different types of manuscripts had a
greater currency during different periods of the Middle Ages. During the Carolingian
period, Gospel books and full Bibles were produced for imperial use. The Carolingian
illuminators, under the influence of early Christian manuscripts, developed lavish copies
of the Gospels, particularly at the courts of Charlemagne and of Charles the Bald,
containing a tabulation of concordances between the Gospels (Canon Tables), portraits of
the Evangelists inspired by late-antique or early Byzantine painting, and a variety of
decorative title pages. The most lavish of these is the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram
produced for Charles the Bald (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 14000),
completed in 870, with numerous gold and purple title pages and a text written entirely in
gold. Full copies of the Bible were produced at Saint-Martin at Tours, with pictorial
frontispieces, perhaps some emulating lost early Christian models, while others, such as
representations of Christ in Majesty, were Carolingian inventions. These frontispieces,
perhaps programmatic in their selection, introduced selected books of the Bible. The
Vivian Bible made for Charles the Bald (B.N. lat. 1) contains eight such frontispieces.
The tradition of illustrated Bibles continued in the Romanesque period in volumes that
were often large in scale, some with full-page frontispieces, others with decorative or
historiated initials opening each book.
Books for the celebration of the Mass, Sacramentaries that later evolved into the
Missal, were also developed during the Carolingian period. The most sumptuous of these
is a Sacramentary made for Archbishop Drogo of Metz (B.N. lat. 9428) containing
elaborate historiated or pictorial initials introducing the texts for major feast days and a
remarkable series of ornamental folios leading up to a decorative crescendo at the
beginning of the Canon of the Mass.
The Psalter, consisting of the Psalms of David, became the most commonly used book
for private devotions from the early Middle Ages until the 14th century. With the later
addition of Canticles, hymns, a Litany of the Saints, and other prayers, this book formed
the basis for the celebration of the Divine Office, which consisted of the eight canonical
hours during the day. Psalters were frequently decorated with prefatory scenes from the
Old and New Testament, and the eight divisions of the text, corresponding to the eight
hours of the day at which they were to be recited, would be introduced by historiated
initials. The Psalter of St. Louis (B.N. lat. 10525) contains seventyeight prefatory
miniatures.
Transformations of and further additions to the Psalter resulted in the formulation of
the book of hours, named after the eight canonical hours during the day in which a
section was to be recited. This transformation took place from the 10th to the 13th
century, and by the 14th the book of hours supplanted the Psalter as the most popular
devotional book. The basic text was the Hours of the Virgin, supplemented by other
Hours, such as the Hours of the Cross, as well the Seven Penitential Psalms, an Office of
the Dead, prayers to saints, excerpts from the four Gospels, and a calendar indicating the
principal feast days of the liturgical year. It became customary to illustrate these books
with miniatures depicting the infancy of Christ, the story of his crucifixion,
representations of saints, and, for the calendar, scenes of the labors of the months and
signs of the zodiac. One of the most remarkable 14th-century books of hours is the
minute (3⅝ inches by 2⅜ inches) Heures de Jeanne d’Évreux, queen of France (New
York, The Cloisters), with miniatures and marginalia attributed to Jean Pucelle executed
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