The Tiberius Psalter (British Library Cotton MS. Tiberius C.vi) is one of at least four surviving Gallican psalters produced at New Minster, Winchester in the years around the Norman conquest of England (the other three being the Stowe Psalter, Vitellius Psalter and Lambeth Psalter). The manuscript can now be seen in full online at the British Library website.[1]
It has the earliest known cycle of prefatory miniatures in a psalter (f. 7v–16r), a form which became very popular over the following centuries;[2] the 12th-century St. Albans Psalter has one of the best known and fullest of such cycles. The Tiberius cycle depicts the lives of David and Christ, linking them typologically. The miniatures are in a so-called "third style" of late Anglo-Saxon art, "in which the Winchester and Utrecht styles fused and assumed an even greater monumentality". Most of them use with great expressiveness the English tinted outline drawing style which had developed over the previous century;[3] a few use a fully painted style, for example f. 30v, with a portrait of the enthroned David.
Its estimated date has been rather mobile in recent years, moving from "mid-11th century",[4] or "around 1050",[5] to "3rd quarter of the 11th century" according to the British Library in 2016.[6]
The manuscript is incomplete and was damaged in the Cotton Library fire of 1731, removing the top corners of each of the first few pages. It was rebound in 1894, with the folios mounted individually into a book with a larger page size.[7] The 129 original pages are about 248 x 146 mm. After initial material, there are 24 pages with drawings, 5 illustrating the life of David and 11 that of Christ.[8] There is a large initial and illuminated border with Winchester style acanthus foliage at the beginning of the main sections of the book, such as the start of Psalm 1 (f. 31r).
There is a continuous interlinear gloss in Old English of the psalms, and other vernacular material.[9]
F. 8r, David and the Lion
F. 8v, David, facing Goliath
F. 9r, Goliath slain
F. 9v, Saul and David
F. 10v, Temptation of Christ
F. 12r, Arrest of Christ
F. 13v, Women at the tomb
f. 14r. Doubting Thomas
F. 18v, Christ in Majesty
F. 30v, Enthroned David
F. 31r Beatus initial
F. 31v Psalm text page
^British Library : Collection items : Tiberius Psalter
^Backhouse et al., 83
^Brown, 132-133
^Backhouse et al., 83
^Brown, 133; Openshaw, 14, citing Wormald
^BL, noting other later additions from "2nd half of the 12th century"; a date in the 3rd quarter is also preferred by: Michael Lapidge, Simon Keynes, Malcolm Godden, Anglo-Saxon England, Volume 20, Cambridge University Press (2007), p. 161
^BL
^Backhouse et al., 83
^Backhouse et al., 83; "he Production and Use of English Manuscripts, 1060 to 1220" database
The TiberiusPsalter (British Library Cotton MS. Tiberius C.vi) is one of at least four surviving Gallican psalters produced at New Minster, Winchester...
in "Southumbria" to survive. The Psalter belongs to a group of manuscripts from Southern England known as the Tiberius group, also including the Stockholm...
at Lorsch Abbey, Germany (1000–1050) TiberiusPsalter and Stowe Psalter, two of four surviving Gallican psalters produced at the New Minster, Winchester...
English gloss. This Psalter is closely related to the TiberiusPsalter (British Library Cotton MS. Tiberius C.VI). Both Psalters have identical prayers...
British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C. II, or the Tiberius Bede, is an 8th-century illuminated manuscript of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum...
included in the Tiberius group, a group of manuscripts from Southern England stylistically related to the Tiberius Bede (such as Vespasian Psalter, Stockholm...
the 12th-century Eadwine Psalter. The Old English material in the TiberiusPsalter of around 1050 includes a continuous interlinear gloss of the psalms...
are the Psalter of Emmeran, 10th century, described by Martin Gerbert, who gives a few illustrations from it; the Cotton manuscript of Tiberius C. VI in...
to be judged by Tiberius. Tiberius, however, had died before his arrival. This dates the end of Pilate's governorship to 36/37. Tiberius died in Misenum...
London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A. XIV (Bede, Ecclesiastical History) London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C. II (Bede, Ecclesiastical History)...
thirteen mappamundi: Cotton World Map (BL Cotton Tiberius B.v, f. 56v) Cotton Zonal Map (BL Cotton Tiberius B.v., f. 29r) Hereford Map (Hereford Cathedral)...
territories on maps. Dragons appear on a few other historical maps: The T-O Psalter world map (c. 1250 AD) has dragons, as symbols of sin, in a lower "frame"...
to as the Canterbury or Tiberius Group, which is composed of several other well-known examples, such as the Vespasian Psalter (London, British Library...
Psalter, the Stockholm Codex Aureus, three Mercian prayer books (the Royal Prayer book, the Book of Nunnaminster and the Book of Cerne), the Tiberius...
Other important maps in this group are the Cotton or Anglo-Saxon map, the Psalter map and the Henry of Mainz map. The somewhat later mappae mundi that accompany...
determining when the reign of Tiberius Caesar started. The traditional approach is that of assuming that the reign of Tiberius started when he became co-regent...
to be their ancestor. An image of Cernunnos survives in the Stuttgart Psalter, a 9th century Christian manuscript. The god is recognizably depicted with...
Additional Glosses to the Glossary in Ælfric's Grammar Galba A.xviii Athelstan Psalter Julius A.vi Julius Work Calendar A.x Old English Martyrology E.vii Ælfric's...
Canterbury. In the Vespasian Psalter it is clear which element is coming to dominate. All these and other members of the "Tiberius" group of manuscripts were...
art began to show the risen Christ himself. Examples are the Melisende Psalter and Peter von Cornelius's The Three Marys at the Tomb. Eastern icons continue...
(1998). The Psalms of the Return (Book V, Psalms 107-150): Studies in the Psalter, IV. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-567-38896-4. Holden, Andrew (2012). Jehovah's...
a type of Christ. In later Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, such as the Tiberius C. VI Psalter (British Library), the figure standing on a similar beast is Christ...
further depiction is that of the Flaying of St. Bartholomew in the Luttrell Psalter c. 1325–1340. There, Bartholomew is depicted lying on a surgical table...
Global Information
F. 8r, David and the Lion
F. 8v, David, facing Goliath
F. 9r, Goliath slain
F. 9v, Saul and David
F. 10v, Temptation of Christ
F. 12r, Arrest of Christ
F. 13v, Women at the tomb
f. 14r. Doubting Thomas
F. 18v, Christ in Majesty
F. 30v, Enthroned David
F. 31r Beatus initial
F. 31v Psalm text page
