17 Nov 2025

Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life

I would love to see this exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum: Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life. Here is a description of the exhibit:

Sing a New Song traces the impact of the Psalms on men and women in medieval Europe from the sixth to the sixteenth century. It encompasses daily practices and performance, as well as the creation of Psalters (Books of Psalms), among the most richly ornamented manuscripts ever made. Stressing the integration of the Psalms in medieval life, topics range from children saying their prayers to people preparing to die.

The Morgan Library & Museum is located in midtown Manhattan in New York City. The exhibit runs from 12 September 2025 until 4 January 2026.

Here is more on the exhibit, taken from its website:

Sing a New Song traces the impact of the Psalms on men and women in medieval Europe from the sixth to the sixteenth century. It encompasses daily practices and performance, as well as the creation of Psalters (Books of Psalms), among the most richly ornamented manuscripts ever made. Stressing the integration of the Psalms in medieval life, topics range from children saying their prayers to people preparing to die.

The beginning of the exhibition is devoted to the Psalms’ origins, with special emphasis on David as composer. The following two sections show how Psalms permeated the intellectual culture of medieval Europe through translations into Latin and the vernacular. Children used Psalters to learn to read, patrons commissioned versions in their native languages, and theologians, glossing the Psalms, authored the most influential interpretive writings of the Middle Ages. The next section is dedicated to the medieval Psalter. More than any other text, Psalms informed the language of the liturgy, and the Psalter served effectively as the prayer book of the Church. Priests, monks, and nuns were required to pray all 150 Psalms weekly. Lay people across Europe, imitating these practices, fueled a demand for Psalters —often gloriously illuminated. Another section examines performance of the Psalms within the monastery, the church, and the private home. The final section examines the apotropaic function of Psalm texts, the use of Psalms as penitential atonement, and how Psalms comforted the dying.

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