Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages

Nancy van Deusen is Professor of Music and Director of the Claremont Consortium in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at The Claremont Graduate School. She has written several books, including The Harp and the Soul: Studies in Medieval Music.

"One of the most attractive things about this book is the variety it contains, while still having a thematic focus. Each contributor has taken a particular approach and, in general, a specific cultural setting for the use/interpretation of the Psalms. Taken as a whole, the book gives a broad and useful assessment of the Psalms in medieval culture." — Grover A. Zinn, Oberlin College"This book fills a void. Although more and more books have been published that have delved into various aspects of the Bible in the Middle Ages, including two books on the Song of Songs and many on specific prophets and other biblical characters, no general book on the Psalms in the Middle Ages has been printed—even though the Psalms were more basic to the experience that most medieval people had of the Bible than any other book of scripture. The idea of putting together such a volume deserves applause." — Jan M. Ziolkowski, Harvard University

• List of Figures and Tables Chapter Contributors IntroductionGrover Zinn 1. The Psalm as the Foundation of Anglo-Saxon LearningGeorge Brown 2. Psalm as Praise Poem in Medieval Celtic TraditionsJoseph Falaky Nagy 3. The Book of Psalms, Monasticism, and the Western LiturgyJames W. McKinnon 4. The Psalms in Monastic PrayerJoseph Dyer 5. From Lectio Divina to the Lecture Room: The Psalm Commentary of Gilbert of PoitiersTheresa Gross-Diaz 6. Ex utroque et in utroque: Promissa mundo gaudia, Electrum and the SequenceNancy van Duesen and Marica I. Colish 7. A Mother's Psalter: Pslams in the Moral Instruction of Dhuoda of SeptimaniaMarie Anne Mayeski 8. The Psalter on the Way to the Reformation: The Fifteenth-Century Printed Psalter in the NorthMary Kay Duggan 9. The Psalm and Social Action in Late Medieval EnglandMichael P. Kuczynski Index