ABSTRACT
The St Albans Psalter is one of the most spectacular illuminated manuscripts of twelfth-century England. It consists of five separate sections involving several scribes and artists: the calendar; the miniatures of the Life of Christ; the Alexis Quire; the Psalms; and finally a diptych of St Alban and David. Because her name appears in the calendar, the book has been, to varying degrees, associated with Christina of Markyate. Research stretching back over many decades has suggested numerous links and scholars are able now to piece together an increasingly rich context for the production of the book.1 The theme to have emerged most prominently from current investigations is this: in almost all aspects, the Psalter is a book created for Christina, but its contents are strongly controlled by her mentor and patron, Abbot Geoffrey de Gorran.2 Once a worldly French schoolmaster, now an ambitious but troubled administrator,3 Geoffrey was creating not exactly the book Christina wanted, but the book he thought she should have. In some instances the images seem even to contradict her own stated preferences. Using the wealth of personal information which is available about the abbot and the anchoress,4 I will be looking at each section of the Psalter to explore motives for its creation, and its reception.
