Psautier pourpré de saint Germain - BNF Lat11947

It is currently kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

• Name — Psalter of St Germain • Location — Bibliothèque nationale de France • Also Known As — Psautier pourpré de saint Germain, Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Latin 11947 • Type — Psalter • Date — 6th century • Language S — Latin • Material — Purple parchment • Size — 22 cm x 27.5 cm • Script — Uncial • Previously Kept — Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés • Accession — 1795–1796

According to legend, the manuscript was brought back by the Frankish king Childebert I from an expedition to Spain, and given (with the golden cross and the tunic of Saint Vincent) to the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. If so, it would have been used by the founder of the latter, Germain of Paris; however, there is no evidence to prove this. Its text is close to the versions of the psalms which circulated in Gallia Lugdunensis at the end of Antiquity, which is compatible with its being present at the origins of this abbey. The manuscript is attested in the inventories of relics of Saint-Germain Abbey from 1269. Jacques du Breul, librarian of the abbey, added a descriptive note at the beginning of the manuscript in 1560. He also made a complete copy of the text, which is still kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS Lat. 13163). This copy serves as the basis of the edition of the text included in the second volume of Bibliorum Sacrorum latinae versiones antiquae by the Benedictine Petrus Sabatier in 1743. After the closure of the abbey in 1791, the collection of manuscripts was sequestered, saved from a fire in 1794, then given to the Bibliothèque nationale in 1795–1796.