Stuttgart Psalter

Through paleographic analysis undertaken by Bernhard Bischoff in the 1960s it is now commonly accepted that the manuscript originated around 820 at the scriptorium at St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris, a royal monastery which enjoyed the personal patronage of Charlemagne.

The first mention of the manuscript's existence occurs in a letter dated in 1787 regarding its sale to Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, and its presence in the ducal library at Stuttgart is recorded for the first time in 1818.

[2] The Stuttgart Psalter contains 162 decorated initials, including one at the beginning of each psalm, which show floral, geometrical, zoomorphic, and interlaced patterns and motifs.

[3] The Stuttgart Psalter is of great interest to Carolingian historians because of the detail and variety of the contemporary objects it portrays, a partial list of which might include: plants and animals, architecture, battles and militaria, dress and fashion, gender roles, appearance of Frankish nobles, demonology, farming, representation of imagined Jews, hunting and farming techniques, church ritual and priestly vestments, musical instruments, and more.

The manuscript also features an array of monsters, unicorns, animals, allegorical figures, and likely the first depictions of a bellows-driven pipe organ and a "green man" in the early Middle Ages.