Abstract
An English Psalter in Paris (Bibl. Nat., MS lat. 770) has never been seriously studied by art historians.1 Even the challenge of unidentified scenes has been neglected.2 Yet the extraordinary program of pictures contained in this book forms a unique historical document: the pictures present an allegory of the conflicts between regnum and sacerdotium, the Crown and the Church, in the period around 1200, and especially in the reign of King John. Political allegory was safely veiled by scriptural imagery and exegesis and hidden in a private liturgical book, but once deciphered the pictures appear as outspoken as the most extreme of contemporary treatises on kingship, and more powerful in their impact than the written word. The Psalter also deserves interest as a transitional production, made at a time when secular painters were beginning to provide illuminations for monastic books.
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