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Judging from repetitious appearances of her marital arms in the painted line-endings, the Psalter-Hours John Rylands Library Latin MS 117 probably belonged to Jeanne of Flanders (c.1272–1333), daughter of Count Robert III of Flanders and in 1288 second wife to Enguerrand IV of Coucy. Yet the line-endings also contain some 1,800 diminutive painted escutcheons, many of which refer to other members of the local nobility active during the 1280s. This study, based on an exhaustive survey of the total heraldic and codicological evidence, suggests that the majority of the extant Psalter predated the Hours and that the two parts were combined after the 1288 marriage. The ‘completed’ manuscript bears witness to major events that unfolded in and around the Coucy barony over the course of the decade. It suggests a complex relationship between Jeanne of Flanders and a lesser member of the local nobility, a certain Marien of Moÿ, who may have served as her attendant.
This paper analyses an unpublished Dutch-language Book of Hours in the John Rylands Library, focusing on unusual core texts the manuscript contains and distinctive features of its cycle of illumination. The miniatures and the richly painted decoration of the manuscript can be attributed to the Master of the Haarlem Bible and dated c.1450–75. The inserted full-page miniatures include iconographically noteworthy examples, and the placement of some in the volume is anomalous, suggesting that they may not have been planned when the volume was written. Our analyses of distinctive texts and images of the manuscript lead us to offer suggestions about the religious status or affiliations of its patron and to propose possible monastic settings in which it might have been used. We discuss the disparate character of its textual and illustrative components in relation to current reappraisals of the organisation of manuscript production in the Northern Netherlands.
This article examines cuttings from a now-lost manuscript decorated by the little-known Florentine illuminator Littifredi Corbizzi (1465–c.1515) at the turn of the sixteenth century. This manuscript, a choirbook produced for the monks at San Benedetto in Gubbio in 1499–1503, was dismembered in the nineteenth century. Until now, all but one of its cuttings were believed to be lost. Through the emergence of several key pieces of evidence, most notably the identification of tracings of the manuscript made by the German artist Johann Anton Ramboux in the mid-1830s before its dismemberment, I have been able to link definitively three initials to this largely unresearched commission. Two of these are in a previously unstudied manuscript album at the John Rylands Library, recently digitised. Considering the cuttings stylistically and, critically, interrogating their provenance, I propose that a further ten cuttings can also be linked to Littifredi’s work for the monastery, and argue that Ramboux played a significant role in their initial collection.
Taking inspiration from a famous manuscript illumination of Fortunes Wheel, this article argues for a reconsideration of diverse uses of repetition legible in accounts of medieval curiosity, and in the association of curiosity with the figure of the ape.
have received a long history of critical attention, which traces the history of the rebellious wife figure to the fourth century. 7 Finding early versions in Christian European manuscript illumination as well as in Jewish and Muslim folklore, these early enquiries demonstrate that her rebellion was rooted in earlier, and not exclusively Christian, contexts. Sandy Bardsley has charted her appearance in European folk legend, noting that, although often associated with the devil, the wife is also always defined by her relationship with Noah. 8 The most pervasive
Female performers exist in a shadowy and illusory state, fashioned as such by our histories. Medieval chronicles systematically exclude women, inhibiting an understanding of them as actors in Metz and beyond. Yet the performing women of the 1468 Catherine of Siena jeu staged an interplay among personal devotion, political affiliation, and gendered notions of urban sanctity; this multiform and yet cohesive undertaking becomes fully visible through the triangulation of new material and familiar narrative evidence. This chapter first uncovers the distorting effects of written histories upon the Saint Catherine actor and constructions of female performance. It then turns to the archives and material culture to reveal the hidden family identity and social status of the actor: the role transformed its player permanently, positioning her as the living symbol of the saint within Metz. The patron, Catherine Baudoche, also secured a lasting connection to the saint by referencing her personal foundations at the Dominican convent. It aligned her with an elite group of regional women who promoted Catherine of Siena through liturgy, architecture, and manuscript illumination. The Saint Catherine jeu thus situates the actor and patron amid a community of practice that depicted women at the forefront of shared devotions to Saint Catherine within the urban public sphere.
) 5.2 Anon. Italian, St Mary Magdalen buying spices , mid-fourteenth century. Manuscript illumination in St Bonaventure, Meditations on the life of Christ 5.3 Anon. Italian, The Marys preparing spices , mid-14th century. Manuscript illumination in St Bonaventure, Meditations on the
4 The ruler with the sword in the Utrecht Psalter Bart Jaski Introduction Of all the extant Carolingian manuscripts, the Utrecht Psalter stands out for its rich iconographic programme in which all the 150 Psalms and sixteen additional cantica are illustrated in a dynamic, sketchy style, executed by eight draughtsmen. This style is typical for the Reims school of manuscript illumination, of which the Utrecht Psalter and the Eb(b)o Gospels are the primary representatives. The way the Psalms are visually brought to life was influential in the time of Charles the
as he or she moves through creation: Christ above me, Christ below me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ beside me, the prayer goes. Emphasizing the divinity of circular patterns, and forming one part of a triskele—a kind of triple spiral, triangular in shape, prominent in Celtic metalwork and manuscript illumination—along with the basilica and the prayer beds, in 2004 a labyrinth was added to the pilgrimage site at Lough Derg. As explained in the visitors’ guide
, the Creator in the form of the Great Beast – or the empathetic self-sacrificed God become Man of the Crucifixion – might actually win after all, however contorted and potentially strangling the coils in which we become ensnared. For, as Psalm 91:13 proclaims, God is, ultimately, all powerful: ‘Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet’. 34 Notes 1 R. Deshman, The Benedictional of Æthelwold , Studies in Manuscript Illumination, 9