Melisende Psalter - Date and Recipient

Date and Recipient

The exact date of the psalter, and for whom it was made, is unknown, although it is obviously made for a noble woman of the kingdom, based on the use of Byzantine styles (considered to be "aristocratic" by the crusaders), the depictions of kings, and the use of feminine word endings in the Latin prayers. Through circumstantial evidence Melisende can probably be identified as the recipient. The English influence in the calendar and elsewhere likely comes from Fulk, whose Angevin relatives ruled England at the time. It is also notable that aside from the capture of Jerusalem, the only crusader-specific dates in the calendar are the deaths of Melisende's parents. The mixture of Catholic and Orthodox elements in the psalter may reflect Melisende's mixed upbringing (Baldwin was Catholic and Morphia was an Armenian of the Greek Orthodox faith).

If Melisende was indeed the recipient, then the psalter was most likely commissioned by Fulk, probably around 1135. Prior to this, Fulk and Melisende had been fighting for superiority in the kingdom, and Melisende had allied with rebels against Fulk; by 1134 they had reconciled, and the psalter had to have been written after 1131, the date of Baldwin II's death. On the other hand, it could have been written anytime before Melisende's death in 1151. Palaeographical comparisons to other texts produced in Jerusalem suggest it was written in the 1140s (or even the 1150s), but the later texts may have used the Melisende Psalter as a source.

The manuscript was perhaps owned by Grande Chartreuse, Grenoble, in the early 19th century. By about 1840 it was owned by Ambroise Comarmond, director of the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, Lyon. Its next owner was Guiglielmo Libri (b. 1802, d. 1869), who is most famous for stealing medieval mansucripts from French public libraries; he sold it to the London book dealers Payne and Foss, who in turn sold to the British Museum in November 1845.