Beatus vir

Psalm 1 naturally begins the text of the Book of Psalms. In illuminated manuscript psalters this start was traditionally marked by a large Beatus initial for the B of Beatus, and the two opening words are often much larger than the rest of the text. Between them these often take up a whole page. Beatus initials have been significant in the development of manuscript painting, as the location of several developments in the use of initials as the focus of painting. As the "initial par excellence it stimulated the ornamentalizing impulse of the medieval artist to ever-increasing heights of fantasy".[2] The 10th-century Anglo-Saxon Ramsey Psalter initial illustrated here is the first known to use the "lion mask" on the bar of the "B".[3]

In psalters of the Early and High Middle Ages there were often similarly large initials at the start of Psalm 52 ("Q" for "Quid gloriaris") and Psalm 102 ("D" for "Domine"),[lower-alpha 3] marking traditional groupings of the psalms. Other divisions of text produced different groupings, of eight or ten groups, but all had a group beginning at Psalm 1.[4] Often these initials were the only major illumination in the manuscript, as in the Stowe Psalter. In bibles the first letter of each book was also enlarged and illuminated in grand manuscripts, producing more beatus initials.

King David was regarded as the author of the psalms, and many initials included depictions of him, so serving also as author portraits;[5] the rounded compartments of the letter "B" often allowed two scenes to be shown. Greatly enlarged beatus initials go back as least as far as the Corbie Psalter, made at Corbie Abbey soon after 800. There were probably Insular examples but none have survived.[6] The Corbie example contains two large figures within a letter shape filled with geometric motifs, mostly interlace, but for some centuries after it is ornament that dominates, with large plant scrolls taking over from geometric ornament. Figures returned during the 11th century.[7] In some elaborate later initials more scenes were shown, allowing typological comparisons between the Old and New Testaments.[8] In some psalters after about 1200, especially English ones including both the Gorleston Psalter (illustrated) and Windmill Psalter, very large "B"s allowed room for a Tree of Jesse, which included David.[9]

Psalm 112 has been included in various places in Western Christian liturgy, especially in the context of vespers, and has been popular for musical settings, which are generally known by their opening words, Beatus vir. A database of psalm settings by Italian composers of the 17th and 18th centuries lists 81 settings of Psalm 112.[12]

Today probably the best known is Claudio Monteverdi's setting of 1640, SV 268, from his Selva morale e spirituale, also known as the Vespers of 1640. This piece is still often performed by itself, and has been described as "one of the most attractive and inspired settings of the Selva morale and one of the few sacred works of Monteverdi’s later years that has become widely known."[13]

Other examples include:

• Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), Beatus vir (RV597), the better known of his three settings, one now lost; RV598 is the other.[14]
• Mozart's Vesperae de Dominica (K. 321), third movement, also Vesperae solennes de confessore (K. 339).
• Beatus vir, ZWV 75, 76, and 77, by Jan Dismas Zelenka,[15]
• Beatus vir, MH 410, MH 398, by Michael Haydn,[16]
• Beatus vir, Seibel 26, 27, and 28 by Johann David Heinichen
• Beatus Vir, Opus 38, by Henryk Górecki
• Beatus Vir by Niccolo Jommelli

Other settings include those by Giammateo Asola,[17] Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 6 settings 1670 - 1690 (H.175, H.154, H.199, H.208, H.221, H.224), Michel-Richard Delalande,[18] and Johann Adolf Hasse.[19]

• Latin Psalters
• Vulgate

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• Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. 1983, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0500233756
• Otto Pächt, Book Illumination in the Middle Ages (trans fr German), 1986, Harvey Miller Publishers, London, ISBN 0199210608