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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
This paper wishes to draw attention to a phenomenon which is of equal importance to the historian of art as to the ecclesiastical historian. In correlating facts which are largely known, it tries to explain the emergence of a new type of illustrated bible at the end of the eleventh century, chiefly in France and in Italy. These giant bibles, usually in more than one volume, were obviously not made for an individual reader who studied the bible in private. Their large size, as well as the richness and content of their decoration, indicate that they were conceived as visual symbols of the authority, the history, and the structure of the Church as an institution, as revealed in the Old and the New Testament. The origin of this new type of illustrated bible is closely connected with the Reform of the eleventh century, and it appears first in the diocese of Rheims, though its example was followed rapidly throughout western Europe.
page 154 note 1 Koehler, Wilhelm, Die Schule von Tours, Berlin 1933, 1, pt 2, 193-212.Google Scholar
page 155 note 1 Nordenfalk, C., Early Medieval Painting, Skira 1957, 97 Google Scholar: ‘Thus for the first time scenes based on Christian doctrine make their appearance in illumination and the basic difference between symbolical imagery and the narrative depictions, familiar in monumental art, becomes apparent in book illumination as well.’
page 155 note 2 Boutemy, A., ‘Une Bible enluminée de St. Vaast à Arras (Ms. 559),’ Scriptorium, iv (1950), 67–81 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schulten, Sigrid, ‘Die Buchmalerei im Kloster St. Vaast in Arras,’ Münchner Jahrb.d.bild.Kunst, vii (1956), 49–90 Google Scholar.
page 155 note 3 Nordenfalk supposes the existence of a Franco-Saxon Bible as a model for Arras MS 559; see Acta Archaeologica, II, 1931, no. 54.
page 156 note 1 Boutemy, art. cit. pl. II
page 156 note 2 Ibid. pl. 7.
page 157 note 1 Ibid. pl. 5.
page 157 note 2 See Riedinger, H., Die Makellosigkeit der Kirche in den lateinischen Hohelied-Kommentaren des Mittelalters, Münster Westf. 1958, 18–106.Google Scholar With reference to St Augustine the author speaks of the ‘ekklesiologische Denken, auf verschiedenen Stufen, das immer wieder vom unvollkommenen, sinnlich erfahrbaren Schein-Sein der Kirche aufsteigt zum unsichtbaren, geistigen und schliesslich zum ewigen, unveränderlichen, wahren Sein,’ 56.
page 157 note 3 PL, 91, col. 1183C, quoted by Riedlinger, op. cit. 81, n.29: ‘Cui nimirum matri ac genetrici una columba Christi ac perfecta electa est, quia nimirum relictis schismaticorum turbis omnibus, solam, quam in unitate catholicae pacis nunc alit et custodii, tune ad gaudia coelestis patriae ecclesiam gratia spiritualis sublevat.’
page 157 note 4 Paris, B.N. MS lat. 2822, f. 141 quoted by Riedlinger, op. cit. 92, n.13: ‘Tigna donorum nostrarum cedrina: Tetta domorum corda sunt electorum, quae per incorruptionem cedris comparantur, in his enim Christus velut sub tecto quiescit.’
page 157 note 5 Ibid. f. 147, quoted by Riedlinger, op. cit. 92, n.: ‘Una est matri suae, eletta genetricis suae; matri suae codesti scilicet Jerusalem, una est ergo illi sancta electorum ecclesia, quia expulsis cunctis reprobis, quos sub nomine concubinarum et adulescentularum appellat, ipsi tantummodo sociabuntur illi.’
page 158 note 1 See D’Alverny, Marie Thérèse, ‘La Sagesse et ses sept filles,’ in Mélanges dédiés à la mémoire de Félix Grat, I, Paris 1946, 268.Google Scholar
page 158 note 2 Boutemy, art. cit. pl. 6.
page 158 note 3 D’Alverny art. cit. 245-78, and ‘La Sainte Sagesse et le Christ de St. Dunstan,’ Bodleian Library Record, v (1956), 232–44 Google Scholar; with reference to the Arras picture, 242-3.
page 158 note 4 PL, 101, col. 853, quoted by Alverny, D’, Mélanges, 245, n.2.Google Scholar
page 158 note 5 D’Alverny, , Mélanges, 251, n.2.Google Scholar
page 159 note 1 The figure of Wisdom, enthroned, in the mosaic of St Remi is also described as holding a pointed staff touching two figures lying at her feet.
page 159 note 2 Hefele-LeClercq, , Histoire des Conciles, IV, Paris 1911, 927.Google Scholar
page 159 note 3 da Milano, Ilarino, ‘Le eresie del sec. XL nell’ Europa occidentale,’ Studi Gregoriani, II (1947), 43–89.Google Scholar
page 160 note 1 Hefele-LeClercq, op. cit. 940-2.
page 160 note 2 Hefele-LeClercq, op. cit. 1024.
page 160 note 3 Fichtenau, H., ‘Neues zum Problem der italienischen “Riesenbibeln,”’ Mitt. Inst. f. oesterr. Geschichtsforschung, LVIII (1950), 50–67 Google Scholar.
page 161 note 1 Catal. Gén. des Mss. des Bibi. Pubi, de France, Départements, Tome XXXVIII Rheims 1-2. The opinion of S. Berger, that this ‘ordo’ was inserted in the eleventh century has been confirmed by Professor Bernhard Bischoff in a letter to the author.
page 161 note 2 Knowles, D., The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, 1951.Google Scholar
page 161 note 3 PL, 149. cols 643-4. ‘In Adventu Domini propheta ponitur Isaias; de quo dum quaererem et ad certum scire vellem quot noctibus et ipse perlegeretur ex more, non potni audire ab aliquo, nisi dicam quod meipsum vidisse memini et audisse; me quidem audiente aliquando sex privatis noctibus perlegebatur.’ For Hirsau see: PL, 150, col. 1028. The statement ‘Librum in quo legendum est, in refectorium portat et reportât is qui legit et servitores, adjuvante eum ipso, si opus est, mensae lectore’ may refer to a large Bible.
page 161 note 4 D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 940, 515.
page 162 note 1 D’Alverny, M. Th., Mélanges, pl. II.Google Scholar
page 163 note 1 The poem begins with the following verses:
page 163 note 2 The Bible which was made at Cluny under Abbot Pons (1109-22) was destroyed. It was produced by Peter the Precentor, with the collaboration of the Italian Opizon and the German Albert of Trier. See: PL, 163, col. 415.
page 163 note 3 PL, 189, col. 741.
