6533b85bfe1ef96bd12ba7ac

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Voir et entendre la foi de David. Le roi musicien dans les psautiers et les livres d’heures (xiii e-xiv e siècles)‪

subject

description

The figure of King David as listener, musician and speaker, which appears very frequently in psalters and books of hours (13‪‪th‪‪-14‪‪th‪‪ c.), is contemporaneous with the foundation of the university and with secular and mendicant preaching. This is a part of the visual and verbal communication used by scholars for the moral edification of the educated elites. As illustrations of the psalms, the illuminators have associated this figure with musical instruments, gestures and others figures – the juggler and the ‪‪insipiens‪‪ (madman) –, and have made perceptible his divine hearing, his harmony and faith. Based on the culture of the Word of God specific to medieval society and on scientific innovations of the time involving sound, movement and the senses, they have created an exemplary and performative image of this ‪‪Præfigura Christi‪‪.‪