The Stuttgart Psalter: "A Perfect Relationship between Text and Picture"

The Stuttgart Psalter(Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, Bibl. fol. 23) is the earliest surviving psalter with a full set of illustrations—316 in all. It was written in Carolingian minuscule and probably originated in the scriptorium at St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris.

"Unlike similar codices, which restrict the illustrations to the margins, or the Utrecht Psalter, where they are placed at the beginning of each Psalm, the Stuttgart Psalter has on the average a picture for every ten verses, and often two or more lively scenes represented in each. The multi-colored initials and beginning words, and the elegant, open minuscule text in two colors add further dimensions to this brilliant book design. [It is] ". . . the first codex to be designed so that there is a perfect relationship between text and picture" (Wilson. The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle [1976] 30, 31).

Digital facsimile from Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart at this link.