Beatus vir in the context of Beatus initial

In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is derived from Latin: initiālis, which means of the beginning. An initial is often several lines in height, and, in older books or manuscripts, may take the form of an inhabited or historiated initial. There are certain important initials, such as the Beatus initial, or B, of Beatus vir... at the opening of Psalm 1 at the start of a Vulgate (Bible). These specific initials in an illuminated manuscript were also called initia (sg.: initium).
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The Stuttgart Psalter (Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, Bibl. fol. 23) is a richly illuminated 9th-century psalter, considered one of the most significant of the Carolingian period. Written in Carolingian minuscule, it contains 316 images illustrating the Book of Psalms according to the Gallican Rite. It has been archived since the late 18th century at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart.

The Ludwig Psalter is an illuminated psalter produced between about 825 and 850 at the Abbey of Saint Bertin. It was made for a King Louis, generally thought to be Louis the German, although Louis the Pious has also been suggested. It is illustrated in the Franco-Saxon style and probably served as Louis's private prayer book. Although kept for a time at the Abbey of Fulda, it is now in the Berlin State Library (shelfmark Theol. lat. fol. 58).

At a later date, a "Prayer to Be Recited Before the Cross" was added to some blank pages at the end (folios 119r–v) of the psalter, along with an illustration of a king before the cross (folio 120r). The style is very similar to that of Otfrid of Wissembourg's Liber evangeliorum, and was probably made about the same time (between 863 and 871) by the same illustrator at Wissembourg Abbey. Eric Goldberg associates it with Louis the German's illness in 869, and interprets the king in the illustration as Louis. Simon MacLean, on the other hand, believes the year was 873 and the king Louis's son, Charles the Fat.

Psalm 1 is the first psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in the English King James Version with "Blessed is the man"; Alexander Kirkpatrick argued that it formed "an appropriate prologue" to the whole collection. The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible. It is also a book of the Christian Old Testament. In Latin, the psalm is known as "Beatus vir" or "Beatus vir, qui non abiit".

The psalm is a regular part of the Jewish liturgy as well as the liturgies of the Catholic Church and Lutheran, Anglican, and other Protestant forms of Christianity.