Antichrist as the Embodiment of the Insipiens in Thirteenth-Century French Psalters

While illustrations for many Holy Books are created especially for the relevant texts, the iconography of the Psalms has mostly been borrowed. In early manuscripts the rich imagery of the visual scenes occupied large portions of the page, but this changed as artists became increasingly involved with historiated initials. These, marking the liturgical division, were decorated with sequences borrowed from the New and Old Testaments, with the literal illustrations being confined to the opening verses. In contrast to the diversity that had characterized earlier endeavours, the picture cycles became static from the thirteenth century onward, with each production centre and its zone of influence embracing repetitive themes.