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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2022
Among the best-known mediaeval women are literary and pictorial personifications of abstract concepts: Virtues and Vices, Fortune and Philosophy, and the Seven Liberal Arts. Male embodiments of these subjects are exceptional, flouting both iconographie convention and the gender of the Latin nouns. The artes liberales in particular might be expected to remain a female preserve. In literature, from their first appearance as personifications in Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae, they are uniformly female.
1 Martianus Capello, ed A. Dick, rev J. Préaux (Stuttgart 1969); English translation and commentary: Stahl, W. H., [Johnson, R., Burge, E. L.], Martianus [Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts] (New York 1971, 1977).Google Scholar
2 The battle of the seven arts. A French poem by Henri d’Andeli, trouvère of the thirteenth century, ed L. J. Paetow (Berkeley 1914).
3 Alain de Lille, Anticlaudianus, ed R. Bossuat (Paris 1955).
4 Le mariage des sept arts par Jehan le Teinturier d’Arras, ed A. Langfors (Paris 1923).
5 For the most recent general survey of the iconography of the artes, see Verdier, P., ‘L’iconographie des arts libéraux dans l’art du moyen âge jusqu’à la fin du quinzième siècle’, Arts libéraux et philosophie au moyen age. Actes du quatrième congres international de philosophie médiévale (Montréal/Paris 1969), p 305.Google Scholar
6 BL MS Add 30024; a description of this MS is given in the appendix.
7 The development of the divisio scientiae in the middle ages is described in Mariétan, J., Problème de la classification des sciences (Paris 1901)Google Scholar; for examples of diagrammatic divisiones, see Folda, J., Crusader manuscript illumination at Saint-Jean d’Acre, 1273-1291 (Princeton 1976) figs 24, 25.Google Scholar
8 For example Mâle, E., L’art religieux [du XIIIe siècle en France] (6 ed Paris 1925) pp 75 seq.Google Scholar
9 Katzenellenbogen, A., Allegories [of the virtues and vices in mediaeval art] (London 1939)Google Scholar
10 Webster, J. C., The labours of the months in antique and mediaeval art (Evanston/Chicago 1938).Google Scholar
11 Staatl Bibl MSC Class 5, fol 9v; Köhler, W., Die Schule von Tours, 1, 2 (Berlin 1933), pp 65Google Scholar seq, and Tafel 90.
12 BN MS lat 7900A; Wirth, K.-A., ‘[Eine illustrierte] Martianus [-Capella-Handschrift aus dem 13. Jahrhunderts]’, Städel-Jahrbuch NF 2 (1969) p 43Google Scholar and figs 15–19.
13 BN MS lat 3110, fol 60r; d’Alverny, M.-T., ‘La Sagesse et ses sept filles’, Mélanges Félix Grat 1 (Paris 1946) p 245Google Scholar. Arras, Bibl de la Ville MS 559, t. iii, fol Ir(c1070) shows seven heads on the entablature of a building, and it has been suggested that these represent the artes; the identification is plausible but unprovable; see Schulten, S., ‘Die Buchmalerei des 11. Jahrhunderts im Kloster St-Vaast in Arras’, Münchner Jahrbuch 7 (1956) p 80.Google Scholar
14 Carmen 46; MGH Poet [aev car] 1, p 544.
15 Carmen 20; ibid 1, p 408.
16 Schlosser, J. von, Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte aus den Schriftquellen des frühen Mittelalters (Vienna 1891) pp 128 seq.Google Scholar
17 For example those published as an ‘Appendix ad Theodulfum’ in MGH Poet 1, p 629; compare the stanza on sapientia, beginning me pater ingenitus, with the riddles de glacies (beginning me pater ex gelido; ibid 1, p 21) and de sale (beginning me pater ignitas; ibid 4, P 738, 3).
18 Corpet, E.-F., ‘Portraits des arts libéraux d’après les écrivains du moyen âge’. Annales archéologiques 17 (Paris 1857) p 89.Google Scholar
19 Compare Timmers, J. J. M., Christelijke symboliek en iconografie (rev ed Bussum 1974) p 194.Google Scholar
20 Hermann, H. J., Beschreibendes Verzeichnis [des illuminierten Handschriften in Oesterreich] 8, 1 (Leipzig 1928) p 183Google Scholar; the identification was perpetuated by F. Saxl, Verzeichnis des astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften…in Wien (Heidelberg 1926) p 79; compare Wirth, Martianus, p 57.
21 Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, sv Dialektik.
22 The MSS of Martianus arc catalogued in Leonardi, C., ‘I codici [di Marziano Capella’,] Aevum 33 (1959) p 433Google Scholar; 34 (1960) 1 p 411.
23 Florence, Bibl Mediceo-Laurenziana, MS S. Marco 190; Heydenreich, L. H., [‘Eine illustrierte] Martianus [Capella-Handschrift,’] Kunstgeschichtliche Studien für Hans Kaufmann (Berlin 1956) p 59Google Scholar; Wirth, Martianus, figs 23-9.
24 See Stahl, Martianus, 1, p 172, n 8.
25 Alternatively this may represent her siderens vertex; either way it is not a literal interpretation of the text.
26 Vat MS Urb lat 329; Venice, Marciana MS CI XIV, 35; Heydenreich, Martianus, figs 7-12.
27 See note 12 above.
28 The illustrated MSS are listed in Leonardi, I codici, p 477 n 202 and addenda.
29 Der Libellus Scolasticus des Walther von Speyer, ed P. Vossen (Berlin 1962) 1, p 206.
30 Des Adelard von Bath Traktat De eodem et diverso, ed H. Willner (Münster 1903) p 31.
31 MCH Poet I, p 629, 2.
32 L[exikon der] C[hristlichen] I[konographie] (Freiburg etc 1968-) sv Künste fig 2.
33 Ettlinger, L. D., ‘Muses and liberal arts’, Essays [in the history of art presented to Rudolf] Wittkower (London 1967) p 29.Google Scholar
34 For the attributes of the Virtues, see Katzenellenbogen, Allegories, p 55.
35 Chicago, Newberry Library MS F 9, fol 65w; Masi, M., ‘A Newberry diagram of the Liberal Arts’, Gesta 11/2 (1972) p 52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36 See Green, R., Evans, M., Bischoff, C., Curschmann, M., The Hortus deliciaram [of Herrad of Hohenbourg] (London 1979) p 104.Google Scholar
37 Katzenellenbogen, A., [The sculptural programs of] Chartres [cathedral] (Baltimore 1959) pp 15 seq.Google Scholar
38 The reliefs of the artes on the west facade of the cathedral at Auxerre (1280-1310) are untimately dependent on Chartres; Nordström, F., The Auxerre reliefs (Uppsala 1974).Google Scholar
39 Exemplified by the miniature in Milan, Bibl Ambros MS B 42 inf, fol Ir; see Coletti, L., ‘Un affresco, due miniature e tre problemi’, L’Arte 37 (1934) p 101.Google Scholar
40 Transcribed in Schlosser, J. von, ‘Giustos Fresken [in Padua und die Vorläufer der Stanza della Segnatura’], Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 17 (1896) p 92.Google Scholar
41 Compare Katzenellenbogen, Chartres, p 20.
42 Munich, Staatsbibl MS Clm 2599, fols 102r-4v, 106r; Hörmann, W., ‘Problème einer Aldersbacher Handschrift’, Buch und Welt, Festschrift für G. Hofmann (Wiesbaden 1965) p 335Google Scholar; Klemm, E., ‘Artes liberales und antike Autoren in der Aldersbacher Sammelhandschrift Clm 2599’, Z[eitschrift für] K[unstgeschichte] 41 (1978) p 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; The Hortus deliciarum p 104.
43 Munich, Staatsbib MS Clm 17405, fols 3r-4v; Damrich, J., Ein Künstlerdreiblatt des XIII. Jahrhunderts aus Kloster Scheyern (Strassburg 1904) pp 24, 84Google Scholar; Boeckler, A., ‘Zur Conrad v. Scheyern-Frage’, Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 1 (1923) p 83.Google Scholar
44 Vöge, W., Jörg Syrlin der Altere und seine Bildwerke, 2 (Berlin 1950) p 176.Google Scholar
45 Der meide kranz, ed W. Jahr (Borna/Leipzig 1908).
46 Vier Meistergesänge von Heinrich von Mügeln, ed U. Kube (Berlin 1932) p 92.
47 Salzburg, Univ Bibl MS M III 36, fols 239v-42v; Wirth, K.-A., ‘Neue Schriftquellen zur deutschen Kunst des 15. Jahrhunderts’, Städel-Jahrbuch, NF 6 (l977) p 319, figs 15-21.Google Scholar
48 Der Wälsche Gast des Thomasin von Zirclaria, ed H. Rückcrt (Quedlinburg/Leipzig 1852); von Kries, F. W., Textkritische Studien zum Welschen Cast Thomasins von Zerclaerc (Berlin 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49 Oechelhaeuser, A. von, Der Bilderkreis [zum Wälschen Gast] (Heidelberg 1890)Google Scholar; Fühmorgen-Voss, H., Text und Illustration im Mittelalter (Munich 1975) p 36.Google Scholar
50 Cod Pal Germ 389; facs with commentary by F. Neumann and E. Vetter (Wiesbaden 1974) - [Facsimilia Heidelbergensia 4].
51 Oswald, E., ‘Early German courtesy-books’, Queene EUzabethes Achademy, ed Furnivall, H., EETS, extra series 8 (1869).Google Scholar
52 Beer, E. J., Die Rose der Kathedrale von Lausanne (Bern 1952) p 68.Google Scholar
53 Watson, A., The early iconography of the Tree of Jesse (London 1934) p 77 and pl 24.Google Scholar
54 PL 198 col 1053.
55 Gauthier, M.-M., Émaux du moyen age occidental (Fribourg 1972) pp 14, 315.Google Scholar
56 For example Mâle, L’art religieux, p 82; but the artes also appeared on the facades of churches at places of no academic importance, like Déols and Loches. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the ‘School of Chartres’ was in fact based on Paris [ Southern, R. W. ‘Humanism and the School of Chartres’, Mediaeval Humanism and Other Studies (Oxford 1970) p 61Google Scholar; the reliefs of the artes on the central west portal of Notre-Dame are a nineteenth-century fabrication.
57 Sauerländer, W., Gotische Skulptur in Frankreich 1140-1270 (Munich 1970) p 99.Google Scholar
58 Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture (Paris 1854-) sv Arts; L. Broche, La cathedrale de Laon (Paris 1926).
59 L’image [du monde de maitre Gossouin], ed O. H. Prior (Lausanne/Paris 1913); for a list of MSS and discussion of the problem of the author’s name, see Destombes, M., Mappemondes [AD 1200-1500], Monumenta cartographica vetustioris aevi 1 (Amsterdam 1964) p 117.Google Scholar
60 MS 2200; Bulletin de la société Française de reproductions de manuscrits a peintures, 5 (Paris 1921) p 47.
61 BN MS fr 574; Destombes, Mappemondes p 137.
62 Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery MS 199; Illuminated books of the middle ages and renaissance (ex cat) (Baltimore 1949) p 50.
63 L’image 1, vii (pp 80-6).
64 Ibid 1, v, vi (pp 67-80).
65 Ibid 1, vi (p 79).
66 Ibid 3, ix (p 181).
67 Ibid 3, x (p 182).
68 Saxl, F., ‘Illustrated mediaeval encyclopaedias I’, Lectures (London 1957) p 228Google Scholar; E. Panofsky, ‘Hercules agricola: a further complication in the problem of the illustrated Hrabanus manuscripts,’ Essays Wittkower, p 20.
69 Bober, H., ‘The Liber Floridus: structure and content of its imagery (summary), ‘Liber Floridas colloquium, ed Derolez, A. (Ghent 1973) p 19Google Scholar; The Hortus deliciarum p 24.
70 Stuttgart, Landesbibl MS poet et phil 20 33; Löffler, K., Schwäbische Buchmalerei in romanischer Zeit (Augsburg 1928) p 69.Google Scholar
71 For example Vienna, Nat Bibl MS 1196, fol 209r; Hermann, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis 8, 7. (Leipzig 1935) p 62. Such initials to Proverbs are often described as showing Solomon and a scholar, but when the teacher is uncrowned this is questionable.
72 BN MS fr 25344; La librarne de Charles V (ex cat) (Paris 1968) p 82.
73 Caxton’s mirrour [of the world], ed O. H. Prior, EETS, extra series 110 (London 1913).
74 Caxton’s mirrour p 7.
75 Caxton’s mirrour p viii.
76 It is also found in Baltimore MS 199.
77 Ranquet, H. du, La cathédrale de Clermont-Ferrand (Paris nd) p 81.Google Scholar
78 BN MS fr 9220, fol 16r; illustrated in Levron, J., ‘La naissance des encyclopédies’, Le siècle de Saint Louis (Paris 1970) p 100.Google Scholar
79 New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library MS 404; James, M. R., Description of an illuminated manuscript in the possession of Bernard Quaritch (London 1904).Google Scholar
80 Li livres dou tresor de Brunetto Latini, ed F. J. Carmody (Berkeley/Los Angeles 1948). Carmody mentions the BL MS on p xlviii, but confuses it with a fifteenth-century copy of the text, MS Royal 17 E i. His remarks on the codicology of the MS refer to Add 30024, those on the text to the Royal MS.
81 LCI sv Tugenden und Laster, fig 6.
82 MS 269, fols 1r, 108r; Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, départements, 34, 1 (Paris 1901) p 142.
83 A.M.S. Boethii Philosophiae consolatio, ed L. Bieler (Turnhout 1957) 1 pr 1; Courcelle, [P.], La consolation [de philosophie dans la tradition tittéraire] (Paris 1967).Google Scholar
84 Ragusa, I., ‘Terror demonum and terror inimicorum: The two lions of the throne of Solomon and the open door of paradise’, ZK 40 (1977) p 93.Google Scholar
85 There is, however, a Solomonic allusion in the Admont diagram and the Aldersbach miniatures: philosophia tramples on Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus, the two destroyers of the Temple.
86 Leipzig, Univ Bibl MS 1253, fol 3r; Bruck, R., Die Malereien in den Handschriften des Konigreichs Sachsen (Dresden 1906), p 59.Google Scholar
87 BN MS fr 14965, fol 30r (fifteenth century); BN MS fr 1607, fol 41v (thirteenth century).
88 Berlin, Staatsbibl MS Hamilton 675 fol 82v (fifteenth century).
89 Heidelberg MS Pal Germ 320, fol 67v; Oechelhaeuser, Bilderkreis Tafel VI. The frames here are circular, but still serve to distinguish these pictures from others in the book. The only MS of the Welsche Gast in which all the miniatures are framed is the unusually luxurious copy made for archbishop Kuno von Falkenstein of Trier, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS Glazier 54; Plummer, J., The Glazier Collection of illuminated manuscripts (New York 1968) p 33.Google Scholar
90 Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel etc 1949 -) su Musik, Tafel 61.
91 For contemporary pictures of painters in the middle ages, see Egbert, V. W., The mediaeval artist at work (Princeton 1967).Google Scholar
92 The reliefs on the soffit of the outer arch of S. Marco in Venice belong to the same class, but seem to have a specifically local significance; see Demus, O., The church of S. Marco in Venice (Washington 1960) p 161.Google Scholar
93 Vienna, Nat Bibl MS 507; see Scheller, R. W., A survey of mediaeval model books (Haarlem 1963) p 84.Google Scholar
94 Bulteau, M. J., Monographie de la cathédrale de Chartres, 2 (2 ed Chartres 1892) p 255Google Scholar; Abdul-Hak, S., La sculpture des porches du transept de la cathédrale de Chartres (Paris 1942) p 144.Google Scholar
95 Genesis 4, 20-22; Historia scholastica, Genesis 28; PL 198 col 1079.
96 Schedel, H., Liber chronicarum (Nuremburg 1493) fol 10r.Google Scholar
97 Schlosser, Giustos Fresken, p 53.
98 Alessio, F., ‘La filosofia e le “artes mechanicae” nel secolo xii’, Studi Medievali 6, 1 (1965) p 71.Google Scholar
99 Hugonis de Sancto Victore Didascalicon de studio legendi, ed C. H. Buttimer (Washington 1939); English translation and commentary: Taylor, J., The Didascalicon of Hugh of St Victor (New York/London 1969).Google Scholar
100 Didascalicon bk 2, caps 20 seq.
101 See Baur, L., Dominicus Gundissalinus, De divisione philosophiae (Münster 1903) p 349.Google Scholar
102 For example Blome, Richard, The gentleman’s recreation (London 1686)Google Scholar: ‘The Seven Servile Arts were known by their several Professors, viz. the Agriculture, the Hunts man, the Military Person, the Navigator, the Chirurgeon, the Weaver, and that sort of Artificer which the Latins call Faber…’. Only the last is non-Victorine.
103 Schlosser, Giustos Fresken, p 70.
104 Ibid p 84.
105 BL MS Add 15692; the explicit giving Drutwyn’s name and the date occurs in MS Add 15693, a copy of the Etymachia in the same hand as the artes MS, and possibly once part of it.
106 Saxl, F., ‘A spiritual encyclopaedia of the later middle ages’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 5 (London 1942) pp 107 seq.Google Scholar
107 BL MS Arundel 83, fol 12r; L. F. Sandler’s PhD thesis on this MS (New York University 1964) is being prepared for publication.
108 For examples see note 7 above and Courcelle, La consolation pl 27.
109 See above note 81.
110 For example Aschaffenburg, Schlossbibl MS 13, fol 18r; Swarzenski, H., Die lateinischen illuminierten Handschriften des XIII. Jahrhunierts (Berlin 1936) p 101 and fig 222.Google Scholar
111 Historia scholastica, Genesis 28; PL 198 col 1079. Noema is the only specific female exponent of the artes to be represented by mediaeval artists (for example in the Egerton Genesis, BL MS Eg 1894, fol 2v). They totally ignored women scholars; I am glad of this opportunity to offer congratulations to so distinguished a one, and would also like to thank Carla Lord, Elizabeth McGrath and Elizabeth Sears for their advice in the preparation of this paper.
