International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Engelina Smirnova
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation; 
[e-mail]
On the Miniatures of the Novgorod Psalter of Simon of the 2
nd
Quarter 
of the 14
th
Century (Moscow, State Historical Museum, Chlud. 3)
Russian Psalter of Simon (the manuscript got its name after the presumed 
ktitor
) is one of 
the most lavishly illuminated manuscripts that have come down to us from the Byzantine world. It 
contains 26 headpieces (mostly in teratological style), a great number of decorative initials, three 
full-page frontispieces (one of them was painted by a prominent miniaturist who worked in the 
Paleologan style), 25 scenes inserted in the text illustrating mostly the life of King David, and 
dozens of marginal miniatures that, according to a recent hypothesis, reflect the commentaries on 
the Psalter text by Athanasius of Alexandria. Despite the abundance of decoration and important 
place of the manuscript among the works of art belonging to the Byzantine tradition, both in Greek 
and in Slavonic languages, the Psalter of Simon has not yet got a printed edition. Only a few of its 
miniatures are known to scientific community.
The study of the Psalter of Simon is not yet completed. At the present state of research it can 
be claimed that various components of its decoration are connected with different iconographic 
traditions. Thus, the miniatures of the Bible Odes belong to the tradition based on the Byzantine 
prototypes of the Macedonian period (including motives from the Paris Psalter, BNF, gr. 139 of the 
mid-10
th
century, and Vatican Menologium, Vat. gr. 1613). The miniatures replicate ancient models 
in a markedly simplified manner and replace the ancient personifications (e.g. of the Night and of 
the Mount Sinai) with images of angel and demon. Ancient models were also sometimes used for the 
illustrations to the life of King David, for instance, the scene with David playing lire near sleeping 
Saul (cf. the Psalter, Marc. gr. 17 of 1004). Some miniatures of the manuscript have extremely rare 
subjects, which, it seems, have no counterparts in Byzantine cycles of images (e.g. David’s refusal 
to drink water courageously brought by the three mighty men from the well of Bethlehem – see 2 
Sam. 23:16; silver bucket in the illustration to the story with cutting off a corner of Saul’s robe – see 
1 Sam. 24: 3-8). Among the marginal images there are some groups that follow some particular 
concept. One of them is Christianization of peoples (pagans). In a number of miniatures the unity 
of divine and human natures in Christ and the presence of the image of God in a human being are 
emphasized. Numerous images of churches (several variants) not only illustrate the ideas expressed 
in the text, but also symbolize the presence of the Divine grace. 
The style of most part of the miniatures reveals tendency to primitivization apparent in the 
Russian art of the 13
th
century, which laid beyond the Paleologan artistic concept. It is known 
that in 1330s-1340s in Novgorod there have appeared works of art based on the principles of the 
Palaeologan art. The miniaturists, who embellished the Psalter of Simon, knew such works. In one 
of the marginal miniatures the iconography of the icon of Christ Enthroned (1337) was used; its 
composition goes back to the Paleologan principles. So, we may define the dating of the Psalter of 
Simon – after 1337. However, the miniatures have frontal compositional structures, accentuated 
gestures and juxtaposition of contrast tints. The illumination of the Psalter of Simon is one of the 
brilliant examples of the pre-Paleologan style in the Russian art.

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