Novum Psalterium XII

A beat poet and sometimes friar, who spent most of his life here in the local hamlet of Santa Cruz while printing various books, created the William Everson Psalter. The William Everson Psalter was originally constructed by William Everson, a Dominican monk who was also known as Brother Antonius, in modern day California who was a part of the San Fransisco Renaissance after and during the Cultural Revolution. William Everson was born in 1912 and lived the majority of his life here in California until his passing in 1994.

The Novum Psalterium is in many ways similar to other Psalters that have been produced as they usually contain the Psalms from the Old Testament, however, unlike the Utrecht, St. Alban’s and Luttrell Psalters the William Everson Psalter has zero illustrations throughout the entirety of the text.

The Novum Psalterium is a modern day psalter. The text within the book is of a religious nature. Brother Antoninus worked hard to format this book so that each psalm would be well balanced on each page with the empty space. The Novum Psalterium was well-recieved by the church community even though it was from California.

The copy of the Novum Psalterium that they have will only increase in value with the passage of time. According to the lengthy introduction to the Novum Psalterium by Brother Antonius himself, William Everson worked singlehandedly on this extensive project including mixing the inks himself to create the effect of the red inked titles.

The William Everson Psalter, although incomplete, was published and printed in 1955. Only 48 copies of the Novum Psalterium are in circulation and UCSC is lucky yo have one of the originals in the special collections archive.

Brother Antonius was the poet-in-residence at UCSC from the 1970s to the 1980s where he founded the Lime Kiln Press while he lived in a cabin north Santa Cruz, which he had named “the Kingfisher Flat”. Unfortunately, in 1972 William Everson was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, which unsurprisingly affected his public speaking. Despite his condition, William Everson actively continued to keep writing and share his valuable opinions with the community at large. Some of William Everson many achievements during his lifetime of distinguished works are a Guggenheim Fellowship, A Pulitzer nomination, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and the Body of Work Award.

The WIlliam Everson iPsalter is 15.5 X10 cm and has a blue binding and the pages are approximately the same dimensions as the support binding.

The text of the Novum Psalterium is written entirely in Latin aside from the lengthy introduction given by Brother Antoninus himself.

The Novum Psalterium, like the Luttrell Psalter, is a book of psalms which are the musical part of the Christian liturgy.