Kiev Psalter of 1397 (Spiridon Psalter)
Київський Псалтир 1397 року
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
The Kiev Psalter of 1397, also called the Spiridon Psalter, is one of the most magnificent surviving illuminated East Slavic manuscripts: 228 large parchment folios containing the complete Psalter with 293 colored miniatures following an 11th-century Byzantine model. It was written in Kiev by Archdeacon Spiridon 'at the command of Bishop Mikhail,' patron and scribe both recently arrived from Moscow, with decorations added in Moscow. Representing the apex of late-Kievan/early-Muscovite court devotional book-production, it is preserved at the Russian National Library (formerly Saltykov-Shchedrin Library), Saint Petersburg, and was published in facsimile in Moscow in 1978. It demonstrates the Psalter tradition of the Rurikid/Muscovite princely milieu at the transition from Kievan to Muscovite rule.
Why it still matters
The complete Psalter (Psalms 1-150 in the Septuagint tradition) used in this manuscript remains the same text prayed daily in Orthodox morning and evening prayer; the Holy Transfiguration Monastery's English Psalter renders it accessibly for devotional use today.
Kept alongside
Gertrude Psalter (Egbert Psalter / Codex Gertrudianus)
Psalterium Egberti / Codex Gertrudianus
This is the personal prayer book of Gertrude of Poland (c. 1025-1108), consort of Kievan Grand Prince Iziaslav I Yaroslavych and thus a member of the Rurikid household. She took the lavishly illuminated Egbert Psalter (created c. 980 at Reichenau for Archbishop Egbert of Trier) to Kiev as a family relic, then between 1078 and 1086 commissioned the addition of approximately ninety Latin personal prayers and five stunning Byzantine-influenced miniatures. Six of her prayers explicitly name her son Yaropolk ('unicus filius meus'), recording her maternal intercession for his safety and salvation. The manuscript now held at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cividale del Friuli, Italy, is the sole surviving personal prayer book of any Rurikid-court consort and the only direct devotional manuscript in a woman's hand from the entire Kievan period.
Psalter (for the Education of Giovanni de' Medici)
The documented use of the Latin Psalter as the basis of young Giovanni de' Medici's religious instruction by his mother Clarice Orsini is one of the most precisely attested Medici devotional education episodes. When Poliziano attempted to teach the Medici boys using Homer and classical authors, Clarice expelled him from the villa at Cafaggiolo (c. 1479) and substituted the Latin Psalter, insisting on traditional Catholic instruction. Giovanni later became Pope Leo X, giving the episode retrospective significance; it is documented through Poliziano's own letters and subsequent Renaissance scholarship. The underlying text — the Psalter itself — was the universal prayer book of medieval and Renaissance Christendom and carries the highest possible devotional relevance independent of this particular episode.
English Primer (The Prymer)
Prymer or Lay Folks' Prayer Book
The English Primer ('Prymer') was the standard lay devotional book in England from the 14th to 16th centuries, used by children and adults alike to learn both literacy and prayer. Beginning as a first reading book combining the alphabet, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Creed, it grew to include the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Seven Penitential Psalms, the Fifteen Gradual Psalms, the Litany of the Saints, and the Office of the Dead. Chaucer's reference in the Prioress's Tale (c. 1386) to a seven-year-old boy learning his 'primer' confirms its role in children's formation, and Eleanor of Castile purchased 'seven primers' in Cambridge in 1289 for royal household use. The royal culmination was Henry VIII's King's Primer (1545), principally compiled by Archbishop Cranmer and prescribed by royal proclamation as the only permitted primer in England.