The Logo

Utrecht Psalter

The Utrecht Psalter is one of the most important medieval manuscripts in the world. It was made in Reims around 830. All 150 psalms and 16 songs, prayers and creeds are illustrated in a dynamic, sketchy style, innovative for its time.

When it arrived in England around 1000 CE, this style was imitated in many manuscripts and artefacts. The Earl of Arundel took it to the Netherlands in 1642, and in 1716 a Utrecht patrician donated it to the University Library.

In 1873 the Utrecht Psalter became the first important manuscript to be published in a photographic facsimile, and in 1996 it was the first important manuscript digitized for an annotated edition on CD-ROM. A newly digitized annotated version was published online in 2013.

Click here to browse through the psalter!

In 2015 the Utrecht Psalter was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register for Documentary Heritage.

Depicted is the establishment of the Athanasian Creed by a congregation of clerics seated in a circle. In the middle copyists surround the bishop who is ready to speak at the lectern.

We see the logo as a digitized representation of dialogue among peers – that is, as a conference.