Professor Pamela Berger's New Book, "Hebrew Psalms and the Utrecht Psalter: Veiled Origins"

Penn State University Press recently announced the publication of Hebrew Psalms and the Utrecht Psalter: Veiled Origins, by Professor Pamela Berger: "In a major departure from previous scholarship, this volume argues that the illustrations in the famous and widely influential Utrecht Psalter manuscript were inspired by a late antique Hebrew version of Psalms, rather than a Latin, Christian version of the text." The motifs illustrated in the Utrecht Psalter are largely literal renditions of words and phrases in the book of Psalms. However, more than three dozen motifs cannot be explained by either the Latin text that accompanies the imagery or the commentaries of the church fathers. Berger demonstrates that these motifs can be explained only by the Hebrew text, the Jewish commentary, or Jewish art. Drawing comparisons between the style and compositions of the Psalter images, and the style and composition of late antique Galilean mosaics, Berger argues that the model for those Psalter illustrations dependent on the Hebrew text was produced in the Galilee.