Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations of books of the Bible
- Table of Psalm numbering
- Introduction
- Part I Texts and Versions
- Part II Format and Transmission
- 17 The Bibles of the Christian East
- 18 Carolingian Bibles
- 19 The Latin gospelbook, c. 600–1200
- 20 The Glossed Bible
- 21 The thirteenth century and the Paris Bible
- 22 Romanesque display Bibles
- 23 Latin and vernacular Apocalypses
- 24 The Latin psalter
- 25 Illustration in biblical manuscripts
- Part III The Bible Interpreted
- Part IV The Bible in Use
- Part V The Bible Transformed
- Bibliography
- Index of biblical manuscripts
- Index of scriptural sources
- General index
- References
25 - Illustration in biblical manuscripts
from Part II - Format and Transmission
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations of books of the Bible
- Table of Psalm numbering
- Introduction
- Part I Texts and Versions
- Part II Format and Transmission
- 17 The Bibles of the Christian East
- 18 Carolingian Bibles
- 19 The Latin gospelbook, c. 600–1200
- 20 The Glossed Bible
- 21 The thirteenth century and the Paris Bible
- 22 Romanesque display Bibles
- 23 Latin and vernacular Apocalypses
- 24 The Latin psalter
- 25 Illustration in biblical manuscripts
- Part III The Bible Interpreted
- Part IV The Bible in Use
- Part V The Bible Transformed
- Bibliography
- Index of biblical manuscripts
- Index of scriptural sources
- General index
- References
Summary
In the beginning…and after
Christianity has always been a religion of the book. But unlike Judaism or Islam, Christianity, for most of its history, has also been to an extraordinary extent a religion of the image. Study of the combination of words and images in illustrated biblical manuscripts – how such illustration began, how it developed, how it was produced, how it was understood – thus forms a subject, or numerous subjects, of importance. The material with which to explore these subjects is vast and complex, and whereas the main features of the landscape have been mapped, much detailed exploration, notably in individual manuscripts, still remains to be undertaken.
Unlike the Babylonian religious leader Mani (d. 276), who taught his disciples with the aid of a ‘picture book’ (Middle Persian ardahang / Greek εἰκών), Jesus made little use of images for instruction. The sole exception was the representation (εἰκών / Latin imago) of Caesar on a coin, which Jesus employed to distinguish between the worldly and the divine (Matt. 22:20; Mark 12:16; Luke 20:24). Yet the ubiquity of the public and private use of images in the Graeco-Roman world, together with other factors not yet fully understood, meant that Christian themes, such as the promise of personal salvation, and simple narratives, for example Christ's healing of a paralytic, escaped the shackles of the written word and came to be given visual form from a surprisingly early date (as in the mid-third-century wall paintings at Dura Europos). By the fifth century we find the first examples of images included in biblical manuscripts (‘Quedlinburg Itala’, a fragment of the books of Kings with illustrations). And by the end of the sixth century a wide range of approaches to biblical illustration in biblical manuscripts had been explored in the Mediterranean world. It was on these foundations that traditions of biblical illustration were built, traditions that would last throughout the manuscript era, and which, as visual formulae, retain their familiarity and power to a great extent today. The complex interplay of visual tradition and visual invention over a long period gives the topic of biblical illustration its special character.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge History of the Bible , pp. 446 - 482Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
References
Apocalipsis Gulbenkian, ed. , et al. (Barcelona: Moleiro, 2002)
Apokalypse. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 180, ed. , Codices Selecti 52–52* (Graz: ADEVA, 1981–3)
Die Bamberger Apokalypse, ed. and , 2 vols. (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 2000)
La Bibbia Amiatina. Riproduzione integrale su CD-ROM del codice Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1, ed. (Florence: SISMEL, 2000)
Die Bibel des Patricius Leo. Codex Reginensis Graecus 1B, ed. and , Codices e Vaticanis Selecti 75 (Zurich: Belser, 1988)
Bible moralisée. Codex Vindobonensis 2554 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, ed. , Codices Selecti 40–40* (Graz: ADEVA, 1973)
La Bible moralisée illustrée conservée à Oxford, Paris et Londres, ed. , 5 vols. (Paris: Société Française de Reproductions de Manuscripts à Peintures, 1911–27)
Biblia de San Luis. Catedral Primada de Toledo, ed. , 5 vols. (Barcelona: Moleiro, 2001–4)
The Book of Kells. Fine Art Facsimile, ed. (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1990)
Das Buch von Lindisfarne. Cotton Ms Nero D. iv der British Library, London, ed. , 3 vols. (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 2002)
Codex Egberti der Stadtbibliothek Trier, ed. (Basle: Alkuin-Verlag, 1960)
Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, ed., and , 2 vols., Codices Selecti 81–81* (Graz: ADEVA / Rome: Salerno, 1985–7)
Das Evangeliar Ottos III Clm 4453 der Bayerischen Stantsbibliothek München, ed. , and , 2 vols. (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1977–8)
Das goldene Evangelienbuch Heinrichs III, ed. (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1933)
Das goldene Evangelienbuch von Echternach. Codex Aureus Epternacensis Hs. 156 142 aus dem Germanischen Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, ed. , 2 vols. (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1982)
Kievskaia Psaltir, ed. , 2 vols. (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1978)
The Lambeth Apocalypse. Manuscript 209 in Lambeth Palace Library, ed. and (London: Harvey Miller, 1990)Google Scholar
The Lorsch Gospels, ed. (New York: Braziller, 1967)
Miniatyri Khludovskoi Psaltiri, ed. (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977)
El Pentateucho Ashburnham, ed. , 2 vols. (Valencia: Patrimonio Ediciones, 2003–7)
Psalterium Glosatum. Salterio Anglo-Catalán, ed. (Barcelona: Moleiro, 2004)
Le Psautier de Saint Louis, Codices Selecti 37 (Graz: ADEVA, 1972)
The Rabbula Gospels, ed. , and (Olten and Lausanne: Urs Graf, 1959)
A Spanish Apocalypse. The Morgan Beatus Manuscript, ed. (New York: Braziller, 1991)
Der Stuttgarter Bilderpsalter, ed., et al., 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Schreiber Graphische Kunstanstalten, 1968)
Theodore Psalter. Electronic Facsimile, ed. (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000)
Trierer Apokalypse, ed. and , 2 vols., Codices Selecti 48–48* (Graz: ADEVA, 1975)
Utrecht Psalter, ed. and , Codices Selecti 75–75* (Graz: ADEVA, 1984)
(ed.), L’art au temps des rois maudits. Philippe le Bel et ses fils 1285–1328, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1998)
, and D. Gaborit-Chopin (eds.), Les fastes du gothique. Le siècle de Charles V (Paris: Éditions des Musées Nationaux, 1981)Google Scholar
, and (eds.), Medieval Mastery. Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bald, 800–1475, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002)
, and (eds.), Bernward von Hildesheim und die Zeitalter der Ottonen. Katalog der Ausstellung Hildesheim 1993, 2 vols. (Hildesheim: Bernward / Mainz: von Zabern, 1993)
(ed.), In the Beginning. Bibles Before the Year 1000 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2006)
, Romanesque Manuscripts. The Twelfth Century, 2 vols., A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in France 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1996)
(ed.), The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come (London: British Museum, 1999)
, and (eds.), I Vangeli dei popoli. La parola e l’immagine del Cristo nelle culture e nella storia (Rome: Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo / Vatican City: BAV, 2000)
(ed.), Byzantium Faith and Power 1261–1557 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004)
, and (eds.), La Bibbia di S. Paolo fuori le mura (Rome: De Luca, 1981)
, et al. (eds.), Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessaloniki: Museum of Byzantine Culture, 1997)
, (ed.), Kaiser Heinrich II, 1002–1024 (Augsburg: Haus der bayerischen Geschichte, 2002)
, and (eds.), Armenian Miniatures of the 13th and 14th Centuries (Leningrad: Aurora, 1984)
, and (eds.), Trésors carolingiens. Livres manuscrits de Charlemagne à Charles le Chauve (Paris: BNF, 2007)
, et al. (eds.), The Treasures of Mount Athos. Illuminated Manuscripts (Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1973)
(ed.), Paris 1400. Les arts sous Charles VI, (Paris: Fayard, 2004)
, and (eds.), The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art. Picturing the Psalms of David (Tuurdijk: HES / London: Harvey Miller, 1996)
, The Christian Building. The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Final Report, vol. viii, pt. 2 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1967Google Scholar
and , The Frescoes of the Dura Synagogue and Christian Art (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1990).Google Scholar
, ‘The Beginnings of Biblical Illustration’, in J. Williams (ed.), Imaging the Early Medieval Bible (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), pp. 9–59.Google Scholar
, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
, Die kirchliche Prachteinband im frühen Mittelalter (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1965)Google Scholar
, ‘The Word Made Visible. The Exterior of the Early Christian Book as Visual Argument’, in W. Klingshirn and L. Safran (eds.), The Early Christian Book (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007), pp. 13–47Google Scholar
, Insular Manuscripts from the 6th to the 9th Century, SMIBI 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), nos. 9, 58.Google Scholar
, Early Gothic Manuscripts 1250–1285, SMIBI 4.1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1988), no. 153Google Scholar
Apokalypse. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 180, ed. , Codices Selecti 52–52* (Graz: ADEVA, 1981–3).Google Scholar
and , Manuscripts and their Makers. Commercial Book Producers in Medieval Paris, 1200–1500, 2 vols. (Turnhout: Harvey Miller and Brepols, 2000).Google Scholar
, Gothic Manuscripts 1285–1385, 2 vols., SMIBI 5 (London: Harvey Miller, 1986), no. 75.Google Scholar
, ‘Was Art Really the “Book of the Illiterate”?’ and ‘Reflections on “Was Art Really the ‘Book of the Illiterate’?”’, in M. Hageman and M. Mostert (eds.), Reading Images and Texts. Medieval Images and Texts as Forms of Communication, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), pp. 63–107 and 109–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312–1453. Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972; repr. University of Toronto Press, 1986), pp. 172–3.Google Scholar
, Les manuscripts syriaques à peintures conserves dans les bibliothèques d’Europe et d’Orient (Paris: Geuthner, 1964), pp. 208–19, pls. 43–8Google Scholar
La Bibbia Amiatina. Riproduzione integrale su CD-ROM del codice Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1, ed. L. Ricci (Florence: SISMEL, 2000).
and (eds.), Trésors carolingiens. Livres manuscrits de Charlemagne à Charles le Chauve (Paris: BNF, 2007)Google Scholar
(and ), Die karolingischen Miniaturen (Berlin: Deutscher Verein (later Verlag) für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930–99), vol. i.1, pp. 94–209, 377–8; vol. i.2, pp. 13–26Google Scholar
, The Illustrated Bibles from Tours, Studies in Manuscript Illumination 7 (PrincetonUniversity Press, 1977), passim, and figs. 1, 48, 87, 107.Google Scholar
and , The Poetry and Paintings of the First Bible of Charles the Bald (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997).Google Scholar
, Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch (CambridgeUniversity Press, 2004).Google Scholar
, ‘L’inventaire – dressé en septembre 1200 – du trésor et de la bibliothèque de Patmos,’ Travaux et Mémoires 8 (1981), 15–30, at p. 25, line 124.Google Scholar
Die Bibel des Patricius Leo. Codex Reginensis Graecus 1B, ed. and , Codices e Vaticanis Selecti 75 (Zurich: Belser, 1988).Google Scholar
, ‘The Epigrams of Leo Sacellarios and an Exegetical Approach to the Miniatures of Vat. Reg. Gr. 1’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 43 (1977), 96–133.Google Scholar
, and (eds.), Armenian Miniatures of the 13th and 14th Centuries (Leningrad: Aurora, 1984), pls. 140–1.Google Scholar
and (eds.), Bernward von Hildesheim und die Zeitalter der Ottonen. Katalog der Ausstellung Hildesheim 1993, 2 vols. (Hildesheim: Bernward / Mainz: von Zabern, 1993), vol. i, no. viii. 29.Google Scholar
, and (eds.), I Vangeli dei popoli. La parola e l’immagine del Cristo nelle culture e nella storia (Rome: Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo / Vatican City: BAV, 2000), no. 43.Google Scholar
, Die katalanische Bibelillustration um die Wende des ersten Jahrtausends und die altspanische Buchmalerei (Bonn and Leipzig: Kurt Schroeder, 1922).Google Scholar
, Early Gothic Manuscripts 1190–1250, SMIBI 4.1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1982), no. 32.Google Scholar
, Romanesque Manuscripts. The Twelfth Century, 2 vols., A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in France 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1996)Google Scholar
, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis. A Study of Styles, California Studies in the History of Art 18 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 198–9Google Scholar
, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390–1490, 2 vols., SMIBI 6 (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), no. 26.Google Scholar
(ed.), L’art au temps des rois maudits. Philippe le Bel et ses fils 1285–1328, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1998), no. 219.Google Scholar
, L. Preedy and W. Noel (eds.), Medieval Mastery. Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bald, 800–1475, Stedelijk Museum Leuven (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), no. 71.Google Scholar
, Neapolitanische Bilderbibeln des Trecento. Anjou-Buchmalerei von Robert dem Weisen zu Johann I, 2 vols. (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2007).Google Scholar
E. Taburet-Delahaye (ed.), Paris 1400. Les arts sous Charles VI, (Paris: Fayard, 2004), no. 44Google Scholar
, The Making of the Bibles moralisées, 2 vols. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).Google Scholar
Bible moralisée. Codex Vindobonensis 2554 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, ed. , Codices Selecti 40–40* (Graz: ADEVA, 1973).Google Scholar
Biblia de San Luis. Catedral Primada de Toledo, ed. , 5 vols. (Barcelona: Moleiro, 2001–4).Google Scholar
La Bible moralisée conservée à Oxford, Paris et Londres, ed. , 5 vols. (Paris: Société Française de Reproductions de Manuscripts à Peintures, 1911–27).Google Scholar
, La Bible française au moyen âge. Étude sur les plus anciennes versions de la Bible écrite en prose en langue d’oïl (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1884; repr. Geneva: Slatkine, 1967).Google Scholar
, ‘Une Bible historiale de Charles V’, Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen 14–15 (1970), 45–76.
, ‘The Bibles moralisées in the Fifteenth Century and the Challenge of the Bible historiale’, JWCI 68 (2005), 73–136.Google Scholar
(ed.), In the Beginning. Bibles Before the Year 1000 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2006), no. 62Google Scholar
Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, ed. , and , 2 vols., Codices Selecti 81–81* (Graz: ADEVA / Rome: Salerno, 1985–7).Google Scholar
et al. (eds.), Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessaloniki: Museum of Byzantine Culture, 1997), no. 5.17.Google Scholar
et al. (eds.), The Treasures of Mount Athos. Illuminated Manuscripts (Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1973)Google Scholar
, Byzantine Miniature. Masterpieces of Byzantine Miniative of IXth–XIth Centuries in Soviet Collections (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977), pls. 5–10.Google Scholar
, Le Tétraévangile de la Laurentienne, Florence, Laur. VI. 23, Bibliothèque des Cahiers Archéologiques 6 (Paris: Klincksieck, 1971); D’Aiuto, Morello and Piazzoni (eds.),Google Scholar
, ‘Manuscript Illumination in Byzantium, 1261–1557’, in H. C. Evans (ed.), Byzantium Faith and Power 1261–1557 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), pp. 258–69, at pp. 266–7Google Scholar
Das Buch von Lindisfarne. Cotton MS Nero D. iv der British Library, London, ed. M. P. Brown (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 2002)
, From Durrow to Kells. The Insular Gospel-Books 650–800 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1987).Google Scholar
and , Les plus beaux manuscrits de l’abbaye d’Echternach conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris (Paris: BNF, 1989).Google Scholar
Das goldene Evangelienbuch von Echternach. Codex Aureus Epternacensis Hs. 156 142 aus dem Germanischen Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, ed. (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1982).Google Scholar
Kaiser Heinrich II, 1002–1024 (Augsburg: Haus der bayerischen Geschichte, 2002), no. 75.
Das Evangeliar Ottos III Clm. 4453 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München, ed. , and (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1977–8).Google Scholar
Das goldene Evangelienbuch Heinrichs III, ed. (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1933).Google Scholar
, Buchmalerei für Metz und Trier im 14. Jahrhundert (Grevenbroich: Bernardus-Verlag, 2003), pp. 45–52, 121–5.Google Scholar
, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1992).Google Scholar
Theodore Psalter: Electronic Facsimile, ed. (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000).Google Scholar
, ‘The State of the Walters’ Marginal Psalter and its Implications for Art History,’ Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004), 35–44.Google Scholar
Stuttgart, Württemburgische Landesbibliothek, Bibl. Fol. 23: Der Stuttgarter Bilderpsalter, ed. , et al., 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Schreiber Graphische Kunstanstalten, 1968).Google Scholar
Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliothek, 32: Utrecht Psalter, ed. and , Codices Selecti 75–75* (Graz: ADEVA, 1984)Google Scholar
, W. Noel and W. C. M. Wüstefeld (eds.), The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art. Picturing the Psalms of David (Tuurdijk: HES / London: Harvey Miller, 1996)Google Scholar
, T. A. Heslop and R. W. Pfaff (eds.), The Eadwine Psalter. Text, Image and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury (London and University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
(ed.), The Illuminated Psalter. Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004).Google Scholar
Le Psautier de Saint Louis, Codices Selecti 37 (Graz: ADEVA, 1972)
, Picturing Kingship. History and Painting in the Psalter of Saint Louis (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
, Mirror in Parchment. The Luttrell Psalter and the Making of Medieval England (London: Reaktion, 1998).Google Scholar
Les fastes du gothique. Le siècle de Charles V (Paris: Éditions des Musées Nationaux, 1981), no. 296.
, The Illustrated Beatus. A Corpus of the Illustrations of the Commentary on the Apocalypse, 5 vols. (London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller, 1994–2003).Google Scholar
The Lambeth Apocalypse. Manuscript 209 in Lambeth Palace Library, ed. and (London: Harvey Miller, 1990)Google Scholar
, ‘The Apocalypse in the Early Thirteenth-Century Bibles moralisées. A Reassessment’, in (ed.), Prophecy, Apocalypse and the Day of Doom, Harlaxton Medieval Studies 12 (Stamford: Shaun Dyas, 2004), pp. 195–219Google Scholar
(ed.), La tenture de l’Apocalypse d’Angers, 2nd edn, rev. A. Erlande-Brandenbourg (Nantes: Inventaire Général, 1987).Google Scholar
, ‘Concerning the Cotton Genesis and Other Illustrated Manuscripts of Genesis’, Gesta 31 (1992), 40–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , The Byzantine Octateuchs, 2 vols., The Illustrations in the Manusctipts of the Septuagint 2 (PrincetonUniversity Press, 1999)Google Scholar
, The Octateuchs. A Study in Byzantine Manuscript Illustration (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
, Illuminated Prophet Books (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988).Google Scholar
, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700–1550 (London: Harvey Miller / Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), pp. 56–72.Google Scholar
and , In the Beginning Was the Word. The Power and Glory of Illuminated Bibles (Cologne: Taschen, 2003), pp. 118–31.Google Scholar