The Aberdeen Bestiary: a Medieval Bestiary

The Aberdeen Bestiary is housed in the Aberdeen University Library, Univ Lib. MS 24
It is a 12th-century English illuminated manuscript, as is The Ashmole Bestiary
It consists of 103 folios measuring , 30.2 cm (height) 21 cm (width)
It is made of parchment (probably goatskin or sheepskin)
The calligraphy (not specified), probably littera textualis formata
The Aberdeen Bestiary includes an illustrated cycle of the Creation
Codex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex

Sources:

Aberdeen Bestiary (Wikipedia);

Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Project & The Medieval Bestiary).

Bestiaries

Bestiaries are allegorical illuminated manuscripts in which animals, plants and stones are therefore given a symbolic meaning. Bestiaries differ from Books of Hours and other illuminated manuscripts in that they are not devotional or liturgical in meaning. However, they are moralizing in tone and reflect the ideology of early Christianity. As indicated in Wikipedia’s entry, three days after their death, pelicans give their very blood to bring back to life their dead offsprings, just as Christ rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion, a martyrdom and death he suffered to redeem flawed and sinful humanity.

The meaning of each animal — I am excluding plants and stones — is pre-determined as each possess the attributes given in a

2nd-century BCE, a Greek compilation entitled the Physiologus.

Other sources are:

Rabanus Maurus (c. 780 – 4 February 856) the author of the encyclopaedia De rerum naturis (On the Nature of Things) and De Universo, moralisations added to Isidore’s Etymologies;
Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636 CE), the author of Etymologiae;
Saint Ambrose (c. 340 – 4 April 397 CE), a father of the Church and the author of the Hexæmeron, a fourth century commentary on the six days of creation;
early third-century Gaius Julius Solinus, the author of De mirabilibus mundi also known as the Collectanea rerum memorabilium (‘Collection of Curiosities’), and Polyhistor, a third-century travel guide, incorporating much of Pliny’s Natural History;
2nd-century Claudius Aelianus or Aelian, who authored On the Nature of Animals.

Other and older sources are:

Pliny the Elder, or Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 CE – August 25, 79 CE), the author of a Naturalis Historia; Greek philosopher
Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE), the author of Historia Animalium;
Herodotus, the author of Histories, who lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484 – 425 BCE) and is considered the “Father of History.”

Although the treatises of these gentlemen imposed a meaning on animals, they were not necessarily discussing real animals. In fact, among the animals featured in Bestiaries some do not exist or have a poetical reality: the unicorn, the phœnix, the dragon and the griffin are legendary animals and at least two, the unicorn and the dragon are cross-cultural beasts and two of which straddle the mythical and the mythological: the griffin and the phœnix. The others, such as the mythological Centaur, half man, half horse and, therefore, a zoomorphic as well as a mythological animal. In fact, even “real” animals have fantastical attributes. “Real” bears do not lick their cubs into shape.

Christ in Majesty, (F4v)
Creation, (F2r)

Christ in Majesty

However, there is a sense in which Christ in Majesty (F4v) belongs to a bestiary. The mythologies I am familiar with all feature Creation tales. Amerindians believed in a Manitou and the Haida Amerindians of the northwest Pacific Coast carve(d) totem poles that suggested animal ancestry, which may point to a belief in evolutionism, except that, as I have already mentioned, Amerindians also had a Manitou (as in Manitoba). These totem poles were at times so beautiful that patrons commissioned Totem poles as Jean de France (30 November 1340 – 15 June 1416) commissioned his Très Riches Heures. (See Totem pole s, Wikipedia.)

The Aberdeen Bestiary

The Paper: Parchment, but not vellum (calfskin)

The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library, Univ Lib. MS 24)[i] is a 12th century English illuminated manuscript bestiary. It was first listed in 1542 in the inventory of the Old Royal Library at the Palace of Westminster in 1542. (See Aberdeen, History.) It was made on parchment (parchemin), which means that the paper used by the artists and scribes was probably sheepskin or goatskin. Although calfskin is called parchment, vellum (calfskin) is the superior parchment, and when vellum is used, the paper is called vellum. This does not lessen the quality of the Aberdeen Bestiary.

From the Old Royal Library to the Aberdeen University, via Thomas Reid

The history of the illuminated manuscript is somewhat mysterious. According to scholars and researchers involved in the Aberdeen Project, the manuscript was listed as No 518 Liber de bestiarum natura in the inventory of the Old Royal Library, at Westminster Palace (1542). This library was assembled by Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547), with the assistance of antiquary John Leland, to house manuscripts and documents rescued from the dissolution of the monasteries. However, the manuscript may have been part of the royal collection. Many books “escaped” from the Royal Library. (See Aberdeen, History.)

The Aberdeen Bestiary was probably given to Thomas Reid[ii] by Patrick Young, the son of Royal Librarian, Sir Peter Young. Thomas Reid was Regent of Marischal College, Aberdeen and Latin Secretary to James VI. As for Thomas Reid, he gave the precious illuminated manuscript, along with about 1350 books and manuscripts, to Marischal College in 1624-1625. In the 1720s, the books of Marischal College Library were reorganised into presses and the Aberdeen Bestiary was catalogued MS M 72, in 1726. When the Library was catalogued by Thomas Gray in c. 1670, the book had the shelfmark 2.B.XV Sc. Excisions were first recorded at that time, but mutilations stopped. “When Marischal College amalgamated with Aberdeen University in 1860, the Bestiary became part of the University collection[,]” which is probably the moment when the Aberdeen Bestiary acquired the shelfmark MS 24. (See Aberdeen Bestiary, Wikipedia.) However, this may not be exact as there is disagreement among scholars. (See Aberdeen, History.)

Sources

Isidori physiologia: Isidore of Seville‘s Etymologiae

When the Library was catalogued by Thomas Gray in c. 1670, the Aberdeen Bestiary was called Isidori physiologia, which suggests that many descriptions of animals were borrowed from Isidore of Seville rather than the compiler of the Physiologus. Isidore of Seville is the author of several books, the most famous of which is the Etymologiae, 184,[iii] “an encyclopedia of all knowledge.” (See Aberdeen, History.)

The Artist or Artists and the Patron

The Artist or artists: The Ashmole or Ashmolean Bestiary

We do not know who illuminated the Aberdeen Bestiary, but experts believe that the miniatures of the Aberdeen Bestiary were painted by the same artist, or artists, as the miniatures that adorn the Ashmole Bestiary. The Ashmole Bestiary[iv] (Bodleian Library [Oxford University] MS. Ashmole 1511) is a late 12th or early 13th century English illuminated manuscript Bestiary containing a creation story and detailed allegorical descriptions of over 100 animals. The anonymous artist probably lived near his patron, in Lincolnshire or Yorkshire.

As for the Patron of MS 24, the Aberdeen Bestiary, he is believed to have been an ecclesiastic on the basis of F32r (turtle doves), F34r (cedars of Lebanon). It seems our patron was Geoffrey Plantagenet, the illegitimate son of King Henry II and therefore half-brother to Kings Richard and John. Geoffrey Plantagenet was Bishop-elect of Lincoln (1173-82) and later Archbishop of York (1189-1212). Moreover, he owned the St Louis Psalter (Leiden U.L. MS 76A), which means he was wealthy. Luxurious illuminated manuscripts were usually commissioned by members of royal families.

Conclusion

When I discovered the Aberdeen Bestiary site, I felt I should perhaps refrain from writing a post on this famous bestiary. A few Aberdeen Bestiary illuminated folios are online. They can be investigated at leisure but images posted on the Bestiary cannot be used without violating copyright legislation. Fortunately Wikipedia has a site containing a good selection of the Aberdeen Wiki Commons.

There was an exceptional interest for animal fables and beast epics beginning with the publication of Nivardus of Ghent’s 1148 or 1149 Ysengrimus. The Ysengrimus (6,574 lines of elegiac couplet) is Reynard the Fox ‘s birthplace. Reynard is called Reinardus and his foe, the wolf, Ysengrimus. In Reynard the Fox, they become Reynard and Isengrim (Renart and Ysengrin [FR]). However, although the animals inhabiting medieval Beast Epics and Fables are anthropomorphic, i.e. humans in disguise, the wolf looks like a wolf and the fox, like a fox.

However, in illuminated Bestiaries not only are animals fanciful, but they are often grotesquely obscene. In fact, when I was a student, the various Reynard the Fox beast epics were not even mentioned in the curriculum. Nor were Bestiaries. If one visits Beverley Minster, in Beverley (Yorkshire), one wonders whether parents should allow their children to see the cathedral’s misericords. I was copiously entertained, but I was also busy looking up members of my husband’s ancestors several of whom have found their final resting place in Beverley Minster.

Bestiaries were commissioned by the wealthy for the wealthy and were not intended for children. Children were probably told children Æsop’s fables as these passed down from generation to generation in an oral rather than learned (written) tradition. In fact, bestiaries circulated in courtly milieux next to the Roman de la Rose, c. 1230, part of which Chaucer translated into English. Let us pause here.

Tiny Gallery

I cannot copy images from the Aberdeen Library site as I would be in violation of copyright laws. But you may see the illuminated manuscripts by clicking on Bestiary.ca. However, images are available at the above-mentioned Aberdeen Wiki Commons, Wikipedia. (Also see the the top of this post.)

Allegorical Illuminated Manuscripts: Medieval Bestiaries (michelinewalker.com)
Medieval Bestiaries: the Background (michelinewalker.com)
The Dragon East & West (michelinewalker.com)
The Phœnix: on the Importance of Symbols & Myths (michelinewalker.com)

______________________________

[i] Aberdeen Bestiary, Aberdeen

[ii] “Thomas Reid”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/496464/Thomas-Reid>.

[iii] Etymologiae (ljs184): 184 folios; height: 35.6 cm; width: 24.2 cm, located at the Annenberg Rare Book &
Manuscript Library (University of Pennsylvania), Philadelphia, PA, United States

[iv] Ashmole Bestiary, Wikipedia (The Ashmole Bestiary includes an illustrated cycle of the Creation)

Adam names the Animals (F5r)
The Unicorn and the Bear (F15r)
The Dragon and the Elephant (F65v)
The Lamb (F21r)
The Female Vulture (F44v)
The Yale (F16v)

The Yale F16v

26 February 2013

WordPress

The Physiologus & Animals Depicted in Bestiaries

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beasts

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Beasts, Bestiary, India, John Chrysostom, Medieval Bestiary, Middle age, Physiologus

The Physiologus

Bestiaries: sources

For the complete lists of animals featured in the Physiologus, see Physiologus, Wikipedia. For a shorter list of these animals as well as their attributes, go to Medieval Bestiary: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast1345.htm.

For pictures featured in the Physiologus, go to Medieval Bestiary, Gallery: http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery218.htm

To access manuscripts other than the Physiologus, click on tab labelled Manuscripts: Medieval Bestiary, Gallery: http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery218.htm

—ooo—

In a post dated 22 February, I indicated that writers and artists who produced the bestiaries of the Middle Ages used as their main source a book entitled The Physiologus (‘The Natural Scientist’). “It consists of stories based on the ‘facts’ of natural science as accepted by someone called Physiologus (Latin: “Naturalist”), about whom nothing further , and from the compiler’s own religious ideas.”[i]

There is no doubt concerning the authenticity of our unknown “naturalist,” i.e. the person who compiled the texts contained in the Physiologus. But there is some disagreement with respect to the authorship of the texts included in the Physiologus. The Physiologus “is ascribed to one or other of the 4th-century bishops Basil and Epiphanius.” Peter of Alexandria, Basil, John Chrysostom, Athanasius, Ambrose, and Jerome; even pre-Christian authors like Solomon and Aristotle were said to have written parts of it (Curley, p. xvi). (See Medieval Bestiary)

However, for our purposes, we need simply know that “medieval bestiaries ultimately are derived from the Greek Physiologus.”[ii] but that India “may also be a source:”

Some Indian influence is clear—for example, in the introduction of the elephant and of the Peridexion tree, actually called Indian in the Physiologus. India may also be the source of the story of the unicorn, which became very popular in the West.[iii]

The Popularity & Dissemination of the Physiologus

The Physiologus may not have been as popular as the Bible, but nearly so. “It was translated into Latin (first in the 4th or 5th century), Ethiopian, Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, and Armenian. Early translations from the Greek also were made into Georgian and into Slavic languages.”[iv] It was then translated into several other languages. However, the symbolism attached to these allegorical animals may have changed and new symbols may have been added as various manuscripts wound their way through translations and possible “editions” of some original Physiologus. A thousand years elapsed between the publication of the Physiologus and that of the Aberdeen Bestiary.

According to Britannica, The Physiologus would have “48 sections, each dealing with one creature, plant, or stone and each linked to a biblical text.” As for animals featured in the Physiologus, they are listed in Wikipedia. In its list, Wikipedia names the dragon and the unicorn, both of whom are “fantastic” animals, as are the griffin, the phœnix, and other animals . (See Physiologus, Wikipedia and Medieval Bestiary)

Griffin couchant facing throne at Knossos (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Dragon, the Griffin, the Unicorn, and the Phoenix

In the Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion, the Physiologus is described as “an exposition of the marvellous properties of some 50 animals, plants and stones, with a Christian interpretation of each.”[v] In this statement, the key word is “marvellous.” It matches the word used to describe the “fantastic” aspects of certain documents dating back to the French Middle Ages. Several mediavelists speak of the “merveilleux [marvellous] chrétien.”

Truth be told, among animals described in the Physiologus, some do not exist. The dragon and the unicorn, who are listed in Wikipedia’s entry on the Physiologus, are legendary animals that I call “mythical animals.” There are other mythical animals, two of whom are the afore-mentioned dragon and unicorn, but the Physiologus does not feature the phœnix, a mythical creature who was adopted as a symbol in Early Christianity. Nor does it mention the griffin. However, somehow I discovered the above fresco of the griffin while reading about the Physiologus. It is so lovely that I could not resist inserting it in this post. Although there are several mythical animals, the dragon, the griffin, the phœnix, and the unicorn are the more familiar. They are the four animals I call “mythical animals.”

Mythical vs Mythological Animals

Mythical animals may inhabit mythologies, east and west, but unlike the Minotaur of Greek mythology, they are legendary beasts who do not have a lineage. In this regard, they differ from Greek mythology’s Minotaur who is the son of a bull and Phasiphaë, the daughter of Helios and the wife of Theseus, the mythical and mythological — Greek mythology — founder-king of Athens. As for Pegasus, the winged horse, he is the offspring of Poseidon and Medusa. However, among the fifty or so beast Physiologus depicts, there is a Centaur, a zoomorphic — half human, half horse — mythological animal as well as the Siren of Greek mythology.

(please click on the image to enlarge it)

A phœnix depicted in a book of mythological creatures by F. J. Bertuch* (1747-1822)

*F. J. Bertuch

(please click on the image to enlarge it)

Theseus fighting the Minotaur by Jean-Etienne Ramey, marble, 1826, Tuileries Gardens, Paris

Theseus fighting the Minotaur by Jean-Étienne Ramey, marble, 1826, Tuileries Gardens,* Paris

*Jean-Étienne Ramey

A Poetical Reality

The reality of these “fantastic” animals is poetical. It is the reality that J. K. Rowling used when she wrote the Harry Potter series. For instance, she featured the mythical phœnix, who is described in the Physiologus as an animal that rises from its own ashes and therefore represents Christ rising from the dead three days after his crucifixion. Similarly, the legendary pelican kills its off springs and, three days later, revives them by feeding them her blood.[viii] The author of the Physiologus may have borrowed from “pagan” sources, but his interpretation of the 50 animals, plants and stones is a Christian interpretation, which would suit medieval and Christian authors of bestiaries and artists depicting the fanciful animals bestiaries featured.

The animals featured in the Physiologus are in fact all the more “marvellous” and poetical in that they are zoomorphic, i.e. combining human and animal features, which is the case with the Centaur. But mythical and mythological animals may also combine the features of several animals, which is the case with Pegasus, the winged horse. However, whatever their appearance, these animals all stand for human beings or all symbolize human attributes. They are not humans in disguise, but allegorical or animals depicting mankind.

Conclusion

I wanted to write on the Aberdeen Bestiary, but many of the animals featured in the Aberdeen Bestiary originate in the Physiologus, as does the symbolism attached to them. It would appear that the “religious sections of the Physiologus (and of the bestiaries derived from the Physiologus) are concerned primarily with abstinence and chastity; they also warn against heresies.”[ix]

However, what is most fascinating about these animals is that they are part of our world. They are fanciful and the iconography attached to them, mostly delightful, but it could be that we actually need the phœnix. If the phœnix rises from its ashes, we can also rise again, whatever ordeal has befallen us. As for the pelicans who stretch maternal love to the point of reviving dead off springs by feeding them their blood, they are quintessential motherhood. In other words, both the Physiologus and bestiaries it inspired tell our story, and that story is one we created.

The Physiologus is an “illuminated” manuscript. Artists and scribes transformed it into a work of art. Second-century artists may have used techniques that differ from the manner in which the Book of Kells and the Aberdeen Bestiary are illuminated, but the Lascaux Cave is a splendid testimonial to a motivation to “picture” our world and, in particular, the animals we require. Several manuscripts of the Physiologus have survived. The Bern Physiologus may well be the most notorious extant illuminated manuscript of the Physiologus. For pictures, click on Bern Physiologus (Wikimedia commons) and Medieval Bestiary: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast1345.htm)

Angels have wings, yet we swear on the Bible.

: Bellerophon riding Pegasus (1914); ‘Arrival to the Oxford market’: Anonymous (XIII century)

Main Source: Medieval Bestiary: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast1345.htm

Photo credit: Wikipedia (all images)

[i] “bestiary”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63117/bestiary>.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] “Physiologus”, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion (Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 2003).

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Donald Ray Schwartz, Noah’s Ark, An Annotated Encyclopedia of every Animal Species in the Hebrew Bible (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 2000).

[viii] “Physiologus”, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion (Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 2003)

[ix] Britannica, loc. cit.

The Unicorn in the Physiologus

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

24 February 2013

WordPress

Medieval Bestiaries: the Background

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Illuminated Manuscripts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Beasts, Book of Kells, British Isles, Insular art, Johannes Gutenberg, Kashefi's Lights of Canopus, La Conduite des Rois, The Panchatantra, Très Riches Heures

The Panchatantra, an illustration from a Syrian edition dated 1354. The rabbit fools the elephant king by showing him the reflection of the moon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Age of Illuminated Manuscripts

The fall of the Western Roman Empire

The Middle Ages is a period of European History that began in the 5th century CE. On the 4th of September 476, Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire occurred gradually as nomadic tribes: Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vikings, Vandals, Franks, Gauls, etc. invaded the various regions the Romans had conquered.

The new age, known as the Middle Ages and, pejoratively, as the “dark ages,” would last until the 15th century CE and was not entirely dark. In Western European countries, it was the golden age of illuminated manuscripts, many of which featured fanciful and even mythical beasts and are called bestiaries.

It would appear that Celtic monks were among the first artists to produce illuminated manuscripts, but the movement spread south and reached a pinnacle in the 15th century, in the current Netherlands, then known as the Franco-Flemish or Burgundian lands.

The Fall of the Byzantine Empire and the invention of the printing press

However, a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire, in 1453, the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks and, three years earlier, in 1450, the printing press had been invented. These two events changed the course of history. The fall of the Byzantine Empire brought about a rebirth (Renaissance) in European culture and it so happens that Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1395 – 3 February 1468) invented the printing press as the Greek scholars of the Byzantine Empire fled west, first to Italy, carrying precious Greek manuscripts. So the invasion of the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Turks, the last invasion, ushered in a new age. Europe entered its Renaissance (literally: rebirth) and, as it did, works that had been hand copied mostly by monks in the scriptorium of monasteries would henceforth be printed at a rapid rate, putting an end, however, to the long reign of illuminated manuscripts.

The reign of illuminated manuscripts had, indeed, been a long one. The Book of Kells, a Gospel book in Latin, was created by Celtic Monks in c. 800. The Book of Kells is the finest illuminated manuscript belonging to Insular or Hiberno-Saxon art, the art of the British Isles, and predates the Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry (c. 1412 and 1416), a Book of Hours. Moreover, the Book of Kells had antecedents. It was a pinnacle.

Suleiman in a portrait attributed to Titian c.1530

Süleiman the Magnificent, in a portrait attributed to Titian c. 1530

Titian, Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576)

The Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450. (See Johannes Gutenberg, Wikipedia.) The Pope (1458 – 1464), Pius II (18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464) was delighted because the Bible could be printed quickly and disseminated widely. However, despite the invention of the printing press, illuminated manuscripts had a period of grace. Between 1450 and 1501, books could be printed, but blank spaces were left so the book could be illuminated. Books printed during this fifty-year period are called “incunables.”

The Aberdeen Bestiary

Medieval Beast Literature: two traditions

But the Aberdeen Bestiary, one of several medieval bestiaries, was not an incunable and it belonged to one of at least two traditions in beast literature and visual arts. Medieval beast literature includes allegorical bestiaries, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, beast epics and fables originating, to a greater or lesser extent, in India’s Panchatantra, written in the 3rd century BCE, if not earlier. The Panchatantra could belong to a learned tradition stemming from an oral, i.e. unwritten, tradition.

Aberdeen Bestiary, The Beaver (F11r)

**The Aberdeen Bestiary: an Allegory**

The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library, Univ Lib. MS 24) is a 12th-century English illuminated manuscript bestiary that was first listed in 1542 in the inventory of the Old Royal Library at the Palace of Westminster. Bestiaries[i] are not Gospel books, nor are they Books of Hours. They are allegories, which means that each beast, plant or stone is a symbol. Britannica defines allegories as “a symbolic fictional narrative.”[ii] For instance, in Western literature, the Unicorn, a fantastical animal, represents Christ and the Phœnix, an immortal bird, represents the resurrection of Christ. Each animal is a symbol.

Reynard the Fox & Fables

Worldly Wisdom

However, as bestiaries — allegorical texts — flourished, so did various beast epics and fables. As noted above, this tradition is rooted, to a significant extent, in the Sanskrit Pañcatantra, [iii] attributed to Vishnu Sharma, translated into Pahlavi in 570 CE (AD), by Borzūya, and into Arabic, in 750 CE, by Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa. Ibn al-Muqaffa’s translation is entitled Kalīlah wa Dimnah. A 12th-century version became known as Kalīleh o Demneh and would be the basis of Ḥoseyn Wāʿeẓ-e Kāshefī,[iv] or Kāshefī‘s 15th century the Lights of Canopus and The Fables of Bidpai (The Morall Philosophie of Doni [English, 1570]. (See Panchatantra, Wikipedia.)

Bidpai is the storyteller. Moreover, several Æsopic fables and the many versions of Reynard the Fox (Le Roman de Renart FR) are associated with that tradition, but not completely. Æ sop (c. 620–564 BCE), if indeed there was an Æsop, did borrow from Bidpai, but he also drew from several other sources. In his second volume of fables, Jean de La Fontaine retold fables by Bidpai. His source was, in all likelihood, Kāshefī’s Lights of Canopus, translated by Gilbert Gaulmin, a pseudonym, and entitled Le Livre des lumières ou La Conduite des Rois (1644). (See Pañcatantra FR, Wikipedia.)

The Education of the Prince

Interestingly, tales stemming from the five books of the Pañcatantra (pancha: five; tantra: treatises) are, first and foremost, about “the wise conduct of life,” i.e. a nītiśāstra, and, consequently, closer to Machiavelli‘s Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli [3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527]) Prince than to allegorical medieval bestiaries. (See Pañcatantra, Wikipedia.)

Reynard the Fox, first written in the 12th century, is filled with trickster tales and tales pointing to the need to consider the consequences of one’s actions, the moral of countless fables. Fables are moralizing, but in a worldly fashion, as befits stories that will guide a prince. As mentioned above, the Panchatantra, or Pañcatantra, has been linked to Machiavelli’s Prince. Yet, the Pañcatantra is not unethical, nor, for that matter, is The Prince, if one keeps in mind that the world Machiavelli lived in was factious and that his prince would have to live in that very world. Machiavelli had worked for the Medici family who were bloodthirsty and in whose quest for power “the end justifie[d] the means.”

Aberdeen Bestiary, The Yale (F16v)

Animals, Plants and Stones as Symbols

There are, nevertheless, similarities between the allegorical bestiary, where animals are symbols, and beast stories rooted, in part, in the Pañcatantra. In both traditions animals are anthropomorphic. The word anthromorphism is derived from the Greek ánthrōpos, meaning human, and morphē, meaning shape. In other words, literary beast are humans in disguise and, in both traditions, they are also stereotypes. The fox is wily and the phœnix symbolizes the resurrection of Christ.

However, bestiaries differ from Reynard the Fox. In bestiaries, we have zoomorphic animals, or animals that combine human and animal features (satyrs, the Centaur and the Minotaur of Greek mythology) or animals that combine the features of many animals (Pegasus, the winged horse). In other words, our allegorical animals are as fanciful as many of Jacobus de Voragine‘s saints and martyrs. Strictly rather than poetically speaking, there is no St George. Moreover, strictly rather than poetically speaking, there are no unicorns, griffins, or dragons. Yet, fantastic animals, the phœnix, unicorns, griffins, dragons and others, are the denizens of bestiaries and have a reality of their own, a poetical, symbolic reality.

Fanciful or “Fantastic” Animals

Most of the artists who created illuminated bestiaries had never seen the animals they depicted. In fact, historians themselves relied on the reports of travelers, from ancient Greece down to Marco Polo (15 September 1254 – 9 January 1324). The Travels of Marco Polo (Il Milione and Le Livre des merveilles du monde) and the accounts of other travelers no doubt contained descriptions of animals, but a picture is worth a thousand words. There is a Marco Polo sheep, but it could be that a traveler described an animal with one horn, not two. That animal might have been a rhinoceros, a real animal, but, short of a picture, our animal could take on characteristics that transformed it into a unicorn, a mythical, or fantastical, animal.

The Physiologus: A Source

Therefore, our artists based their illuminations mostly on descriptions found in books. Their most important source was a 2nd-century CE Greek book entitled the Physiologus. In the Physiologus, the pelican feeds her young with her own blood, the phœnix rises from its own ashes, etc. They were symbols before entering bestiaries. Authors of bestiaries also borrowed from Isidore of Seville‘s (c. 560 – 4 April 636) Etymologiae or Origins. Finally, although they may not have been accurate, there were books on animals written by historians. The main ones are listed in From Bestiaries to… Harry Potter.

Conclusion

I must close, but we have the backdrop. My next post will be on the Aberdeen Bestiary.

Love to everyone. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Allegorical Illuminated Manuscripts: Medieval Bestiaries (22 February 2013)
The Golden Legend Revisited (12 February 2013)
From Bestiaries to… Harry Potter (29 October 2011)

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[i] bestiary”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63117/bestiary>.

[ii] “allegory”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16078/allegory>.

[iii] “Panchatantra”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/440899/Panchatantra>.

[iv] “Hoseyn Wa’ez-e Kashefi”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2013

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/312873/Hoseyn-Waez-e-Kashefi>.

Kalīlah wa Dimnah

colophon

21 February 2013

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Allegorical Illuminated Manuscripts: Medieval Bestiaries

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beasts, Myths

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Allegories, Ashmole Bestiary, Beasts, Bestiary, Book of Hours, Book of Kells, Illuminated Masnuscripts, Insular art, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Illumination from the Ashmole Bestiary, Monoceros and Bear (Folio21r)

We have seen Books of Hours and I provided a list of other illuminated manuscripts, most of which are liturgical and/ or devotional. However, we will now be looking at allegories called Bestiaries. In Bestiaries, an animal stands for jealousy, virginity, evil, aspects of love, depending on the subject of the masnuscripts.

So there are areas of illuminated manuscripts

Books of Hours: Les Très Riches Heures, etc. (Flemish, 1415-1416);
liturgical and devotional books, The Book of Kells, a gospel book (Insular art [British Isles], 800s);
allegories, one of which depicts aspects of love.

We will concentrate on

the Aberdeen Bestiary, (12th century), Insular art [Celtic, mostly]),
the Ashmole Bestiary (12th and 13th century, English) and
Richard de Fournival‘s “Bestiaire d’Amour” (Love Bestiary, 13th century, France).

We already have a post on the Phœnix (listed below) and a very short post on the Aberdeen Bestiary, the richest illuminated bestiary, and at the same time we will look at the history of printing and the history of books. We know that illuminations became our illustrations, common in children’s literature. We also know that medieval calligraphy gave us many of the fonts we still use, but there are other elements.

CLOSELY RELATED ARTICLES

From Bestiaries to… Harry Potter (29 October 2011)

The Phœnix: on the Importance of Symbols and Myths (2 February 2012)

The Dragon East & West (4 February 2012)

—ooo—

20 February 2013

WordPress

Ashmole Bestiary, The Unicorn

(Please click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Monsters By Email – A New Level of Bestiary (rpg-creatures.blogspot.com)
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings (callumjhackett.com)
From Bestiaries to… Harry Potter (michelinewalker.com)
The Phœnix: on the Importance of Symbols and Myths (michelinewalker.com)
The Dragon East & West (michelinewalker.com)
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (michelinewalker.com)
Other Illuminated Manuscripts (michelinewalker.com)
Books of Hours, a Rich Legacy (michelinewalker.com)

Nikolai Timkov’s Russian Winters

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Fine Arts, Leningrad Union of Artists, Lyrical landscape, Nikolai Timkov, Russia, Russian Winter Hoarfroast, Saint Petersburg, the colour blue

Winter in Petrovsaya, by Nikolai Timkov

Nikolai Efimovich Timkov (12 August 1912, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Empire – 25 December 1993, Saint Petersburg, Russia).

Gallery

Academicheskaya Dacha, 1972

Academicheskaya Dacha, 1972

Sunny Day, 1973

Russian Winter. Hoarfrost, 1969

Nikolai Timkov’s Winters

Nikolai Timkov often depicted winter. However, the painting above is a fine but very personal portrayal of winter. As we will see, it is reminiscent of the “lyrical landscapes” of nineteenth-century Russia. Moreover, it can be associated with impressionism, a French art movement that flourished during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

Yet, the creator of this winter landscape, Nikolai Timkov, is a twentieth-century artist, born at settlement of Nakhichevanskaya Dacha, close to Rostov-on-Don, in the Russian Empire. He studied art at the Repin Institute of Arts and graduated in 1939. Four years later, he became a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists (St Petersburg), beginning in 1943. Although Tomkin has explored other areas of painting, such as genre art, the portrayal of people engaged in everyday activity, he is known mainly for his lyrical landscapes.

Russian Lyrical Landscapes

Alexei Savrasov (24 May 1830 – 8 October 1897) is the creator of this mellow style that also characterizes the art of Isaac Levitan‘s (30 August 1860 – 4 August 1900) mood landscape. So how is the above painting, by Timkov, a lyrical landscape? Well, Timkov has colored winter in a lyrical or poetical manner. For him winter is essentially blue. In this regard, “Russian Winter. Hoarfrost” resembles the paintings associated with impressionism, an art movement developed in France in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

Impressionism

Impressionism was a French art movement, but it had considerable influence outside France. Its masters are Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissaro, Manet, Sisler, Berthe Morisot, Marie Bracquemont, American-born Mary Cassat, etc. Starting with Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, who are labelled post-impressionists, paintings present distortions, but were otherwise precise.

Impression. soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), 1872, oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan

Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), by Claude Monet, 1872, oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan

However, the goal of earlier impressionists was to convey the essence of the object or subject they depicted: landscapes, still lifes, persons, etc. Such a goal can lead to a more personal depiction of objects or subjects, but during the early years of the movement, works produced by impressionists were characterized by a degree of imprecision. They were impressions and “suggestions” of objects or subjects.

The Colour Blue

But let us return to Timkov. Timkov provides us with mostly realistic paintings, i.e. the various components of his paintings are not impressions. Yet, in one painting, Russian Winter. Hoarfrost, he has transformed a winter landscape into a study in blue, where details are a relatively secondary element. For instance, there are very few details to his trees. Timkov uses little black or indigo lines that “suggest” branches and give depth to the landscape. Moreover, to the right of the painting, we see roofs and houses. They are almost imperceptible unless one looks closely, but they “suggest” the presence of a village and, because they are small, they too give depth, or perspective, to the painting.

As for the river, in the foreground, Timkov has used a very dark blue to carve it out of the canvas. This dark blue lends the painting a very firm and mostly horizontal base, except to the right, where the river bends in the direction of the village. There is texture to the river and to every component of the painting. The river, its shore or banks, the foliage of the tree, all combine a dark and paler shade of the same blue. This confers not only texture to the painting, but also dimensionality, particularly the trees. The same is true of the banks and the sky.

Yet, this painting is mainly monochromatic: shades of blue, and it cannot be considered a truly realistic portrayal of winter. It is not foggy or blurry, but it is nevertheless an impression of winter and subjective. In this one painting, Timkov’s winter is essentially blue, which gives Russian Winter. Hoarfrost a certain intimacy. This is not winter; this is Timkov’s Russian winter.

If the painting were realistic, a little blue would help shape the snow. But fir trees, the evergreens, would be green, and deciduous trees would not have foliage, which they do in Timkov’s painting, blue foliage.

As a result, the painting is both representational: a landscape, and fanciful and poetical, or an impression of winter seen as essentially blue and, therefore, a subjective impression.

composer: Dmitri Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975)

piece: Valse N° 2

Academicheskaya Dacha, 1972

February 19, 2013

WordPress

A Frivolous Love Story: “histoire de coeur”

16 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, History

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Battle of Agincourt, Charles as poet, Charles d'Orléans, Encyclopædia Britannica, England, France, Geoffrey Chaucer, Valentine's Day

Vases with Red Poppies, by Van Gogh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been doing maintenance work on my posts and ended up reinserting images that had disappeared and revising certain blogs. I also discovered a missing blog on Chaucer & Valentine’s Day and rediscovered Charles d’Orléans.

Charles d’Orléans (24 November 1394, Paris – 5 January 1465, Amboise) was a French Duke who was taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt, on the 25th of October 1415, and spent nearly 25 years in England, as a “prisoner.” Because he was a possible heir to the throne of France, the English king, Henry V, would not allow him to leave England.

Charles’ first wife died in childbirth, but their daughter Joan survived. His second wife died while he was a prisoner in England. But when he returned to France, he married 14-year-old Marie de Clèves (19 September 1426 – 23 August 1487). He was then 46. She gave birth to the first of their three children, Marie d’Orléans, in 1457. Their second child, born in 1462, would be Louis XII, king of France. Their third child, Anne of Orleans, was born in 1464.

When Charles was released, in 1440, “speaking better English than French,” according to the English chronicler Raphael Holinshed (Charles d’Orléans, Wikipedia), he had become not only a poet, but an excellent poet. One of his poems is exquisite. It’s about winter: Le temps a laissé son manteau… (The weather left its coat…). It is included in my now relatively old, but updated post. However, for this post, I have chosen a frivolous song.

Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) wrote music based on this poem, but we also have a Dutch song, mixing French and Dutch. Moreover, there is a site that features Charles singing a St Valentine’s song. When he returned to France, Charles d’Orléans made Valentine’s Day known in courtly circles.

It seems Geoffrey Chaucer is the father of Valentine’s day. He wrote that Valentine’s Day was the day on which birds mated. This myth probably existed long before Chaucer, but he made it official, so to speak. It is included in his Parlement of Fowles, 1382.

Chaucer & Valentine’s Day (michelinewalker.com)
Valentine’s Day: Martyrs and Birds (michelinewalker.com)
Charles d’Orléans: Portrait of an Unlikely Poet (michelinewalker.com)

_________________________
“Geoffrey Chaucer”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/108024/Geoffrey-Chaucer>.

Histoire de cœur, by Michel Polnareff (born 1944)

16 February 2013

WordPress

Chaucer on Valentine’s Day & the Art of Antonio Canova

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Love, Metamorphosis, Winged Creatures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Antonio Canova, birds mating on February 14th, courtly love, Ellesmere Chaucer, Geoffrey Chaucer, Huntington Library, Roman de la Rose, Valentine's Day

Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, by Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova (1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822)

More on Valentine’s Day

You will find below, among related articles, a post that tells about the origin of Saint Valentine’s Day. It’s the final and rather amusing post in a short series of posts on St Valentine’s Day. We’ve discussed the Lupercalia, pastorals, préciosité, pancakes, etc., and all these posts are related to Valentine’s Day.

For Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), the 14th of February was the day when birds mated. It’s a lovely legend. Othon III de Grandson devoted a third of his poems on stories surrounding St Valentine’s Day.

Moreover, Chaucer was familiar with the French courtly love tradition as he had translated, but not in its entirety, the Roman de la Rose, by Guillaume de Lorris, who wrote the first 4058 lines circa 1230.The poem was completed by Jean de Meun who composed an additional 17,724 lines. Chaucer’s Romaunt of the Rose is included in his Legend of Good Women, a poem.

The six tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn are also associated with Valentine’s day and Chaucer. They were commissioned by Jean le Viste, described as a “powerful nobleman at the court of Charles VII” (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461). (See The Lady and the Unicorn, Wikipedia.) The tapestries belong, in part, to the courtly love tradition. Only a virgin could capture a unicorn, which suggests platonic love. However, the horn of the unicorn is a phallic symbol.

As for cards, the first was written by a saint and martyr. According to Britannica, “[f]ormal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used.”[i] They became popular in the 19th century.

Concerning Charles d’Orléans, he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt, on 25 October 1415, and spent twenty-five years in England. After he returned to France, he helped disseminate Othon III de Grandson’s Valentine stories in courtly circles.

We have several incunables (books printed between 1450 and 1501) combining the printed text and illuminations. They cannot be shown in this blog if it is to posted on or near 14 February 2013. Chaucer’s Tales of Canterbury is an incunable printed by William Caxton, a fascinating gentleman. But the Ellesmere Chaucer is a famous illuminated manuscript, housed in the Huntington Library, in San Marino, California. (See Ellesmere Chaucer, Wikipedia.)

The Golden Legend Revisited
Chaucer & Valentine’s Day (michelinewalker.com)
Valentine’s Day: Martyrs and Birds (michelinewalker.com)
Charles d’Orléans: Portrait of an Unlikely Poet (michelinewalker.com)
The Lady and the Unicorn: the Six Senses (michelinewalker.com)
The Lady and the Unicorn: a Tapestry (michelinewalker.com)

_________________________
[i] “Valentine’s Day.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/858512/Valentines-Day>.

Antonio Canova – Musica Mozart

Sonata en Do mayor – K 303 (293c) Adagio Molto allegro

(musicyarte)

14 February 2013

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Pastorals: of Shepherds & Shepherdesses

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Literature

≈ Comments Off on Pastorals: of Shepherds & Shepherdesses

Tags

Alfred Bierstadt, Beethoven's 6th, Christopher Marlowe, Lupercus, Marie-Antoinette, Molière's Précieuses ridicules, Pastoral, Roman Lupercalia, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Thomas Cole, Titian, Virgil

Giorgione, Pastoral Concert. Louvre, Paris. A work which the Louvre now attributes to Titian, c. 1509.[9]

Giorgione, Pastoral Concert. Louvre, Paris. A work which the Louvre now attributes to Titian, c. 1509. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Giorgione, born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (c. 1477/8–1510)

Titian, born Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576)

(Italian High Renaissance)

Pastorals: a Genre and a Movement

Pan is the “Greek god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs” (Pan, Wikipedia) whose Roman counterpart is Faunus as well as Lupercus, the God of Shepherds.

Greek and Roman Antiquity: Theocritus and Virgil

Pan is also the god of all things “pastoral,” such as pastoral music. The Pastorale is a form of Italian music and the word “pastoral” is also used to describe Beethoven’s 6th symphony. Moreover, there is a pastoral literature.

Pastoral literature is rooted in Greek and Roman Antiquity, as is the Lupercalia. Its two Greek and Roman authors are Theocritus[i] (born c. 300 bc, Syracuse, Sicily [Italy]—died after 260 bc), the creator of pastoral poetry[ii], and Virgil.[iii] Virgil or Vergil wrote not only the Aeneid, but also the Egloges or Bucolics and the Georgics. The Egloges can be read online at Egloges, a Gutenberg publication.

Closer to us pastoral literature begins with Battista Guarini‘s bucolic tragicomedy Il Pastor Fido[iv] (1580 to 1585), The Faithful Shepherd, set in Arcadia, literally, a region of Greece; metaphorically, an idyllic countryside.

La Préciosité: French 17th-Century Salons

Moreover, pastoral, also describes the “perfect” world of 17th-century salonniers and salonnières who made believe they were shepherds and shepherdesses. Préciosité was escapism at its worst or its best, depending on one’s point of view. Seventeenth-century Précieuses (literally, precious) put such a high price on marriage and sexuality, that they often made suitors wait a very long time. French dramatist Molière[v] ridiculed the Précieuses in Les Précieuses ridicules (Théâtre du Petit-Bourbon, 18 November 1659).

Préciosité was a lifestyle. It was courtly love carried to an extreme, i.e. platonic love precluding sexuality. Préciosité is therefore at the opposite end of the Lupercalia which celebrated fertility. Lupercus was god of shepherds, but not the imaginary shepherds and shepherdesses of précieux convention, nor the raucous Luperci of the Lupercalia, but Christopher Marlowe‘s well-mannered yet “passionate” shepherd, associated with courtly love, idyllic love that does not exclude sexuality.

Christopher Marlowe’s Shepherds and Sheperdhesses

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love by Christopher Marlowe (baptised on 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) is perhaps the most celebrated of English pastoral poems:

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

(Pastoral, Wikipedia)

The Course of Empire, Arcadian or Pastoral State by Thomas Cole, 1836

Marie-Antoinette & Geoffrey Chaucer

Earlier in my new career as blogger, I wrote a post about Marie-Antoinette, an accomplished musician who composed a lovely “pastorale” that straddles the less rigid conventions of courtly love and Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.” Courtly love’s masterpiece, sometimes considered too daring, is the Roman de la Rose, The Romaunt of the Rose, an allegory of love translated, though not in its entirety, by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Valentine’s Day

Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) can in fact be credited with the birth of Valentine’s Day as we know it, a matter discussed in my next post. However, Chaucer was influenced by a tapestry, La Dame à la licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn), housed at the Cluny Museum, in Paris. The Unicorn is a mythical animal that can only be captured by a virgin. However, the Unicorn is also a trans–cultural figure, hence multi-faceted.

RELATED ARTICLES

“C’est mon ami,” composed by Marie Antoinette (michelinewalker.com)
Tea at Trianon: C’est mon ami (Elena Maria Vidal)
The Lady and the Unicorn: the Six Senses (michelinewalker.com)
The Lady and the Unicorn: a Tapestry (michelinewalker.com)

_________________________

[i] “Theocritus”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590569/Theocritus>.

[ii] “Pastoral literature”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia BritannicaOnline. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/446078/pastoral-literature>.

[iii] “Virgil”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629832/Virgil/24449/Literary-career>.

[iv] Battista Guarini (born 10 Dec. 1538, Ferrara—died 7 Oct. 1612, Venice) and Torquato Tasso (born 11 March 1544, Sorrento, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]—died 25 April 1595, Rome) are “credited with establishing the form of a new literary genre, the pastoral drama.” (See footnote [ii].)

[v] born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, baptised 15 January 1622 – 17 February (1673).

composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827)

piece: “Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, “Pastoral,” 4th and 5th movements, “the Storm”

performers: Wiener Philharmoniker

conductor: Karl Böhm (28 August 1894 in Graz – 14 August 1981 in Salzburg)

featured artist: Albert Bierstadt (7 January 1830 – 18 February 1902)

Cabbage and Vine, by William Morris

14 February 2013

WordPress

From Lupercalia to Valentine’s Day

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Feasts, Love

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Capitoline Wolf, Lupercalia, Rhea Silvia, Rome, Saint Valentine, Valentine, Valentine's Day, Vestal Virgin

Capitoline Wolf. Traditional scholarship says the wolf-figure is Etruscan, 5th century BC, with figures of Romulus and Remus added in the 15th century AD by Antonio Pollaiuolo. Recent studies suggest that the wolf may be a medieval sculpture dating from the 13th century AD.

Romulus and Remus suckling Lupa (Photo credit: Google Images)

This is an older post, I am posting again, while I finish my new post on Candlemas.

The above image shows Romulus and Remus, born to Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia and the god Mars or the demi-God Hercules. Amulius had seized power from his brother Numitor and had forced Rhea Silvia, Numitor’s daughter, to become a Vestal Virgin so she would not bear children.

After the birth of Romulus and Remus, Amulius threw the babies into the river Tiber and sent their mother to jail. However, Romulus and Remus were saved by shepherds and fed by a she-wolf, Lupa, in a cave called Lupercal, perhaps located at the foot of Palatine Hill. They were then discovered by Faustulus, a shepherd.

The feral twins killed Amulius when they learned about their mother, but Romulus killed Remus who wanted Rome founded on Aventile Hill rather than Palatine Hill. Whence, the existence of Lupercus (from lupus: wolf), the Roman god of shepherds, and that of the Lupercalia, a yearly Roman festival honoring Lupa.

Romulus and Remus being given shelter by Faustulus, oil by Pietro da Cortona (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lupercalia & Candlemas

In ancient Rome, the Lupercalia (Lupercus) took place between February 13th and 15th. This “pagan” feast is sometimes associated with Candlemas, celebrated on February 2nd, using the Gregorian calendar as opposed to the Julian calendar, called O.S., old style. In the Gregorian calendar, feasts were celebrated about 12 days earlier, than in the Julian calendar. The Eastern Church reflects this discrepancy.

As we will see, there was a motivation to transform the Lupercalia into a Christian feast. However, the Lupercalia endured until the 5th century CE and was celebrated beginning on the Ides of February, i.e. the 13th, ending two days later, on the 15th.

At the start of the Lupercalia, two goats and a dog were sacrificed. Next, two young Luperci, members of a corporation of priests, were led to the altar and anointed with the blood of the sacrificed animals. Luperci then dressed themselves in thongs, called februa, taken from skin of the of the sacrificed goats and dog and ran around the walls of the old Palatine city carrying thongs and striking the crowd.

Pancake Day or La fête des crêpes

Later, salt mealcakes prepared by the Vestal Virgins were burnt, which is interesting because in France, Candlemas, celebrated on 2nd February, is “la fête des crêpes” or Pancake Day and today, 12th February is International Pancake Day. It would be my opinion that pan of pancakes is the pan of pots and pans, but would that it were the Pan of the “Greek god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs” (Pan, Wikipedia).

Pan’s Roman counterpart was Faunus. But Pan protected the flocks from wolves, which would suggest that he was also the counterpart of Lupercus, the above-mentioned Roman god of shepherds who replaced an earlier god named Februus (see Lupercalia, Wikipedia).

A fourth-century Roman depiction of Hylas and the Nymphs, from the basilica of Junius Bassus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Valentine’s Day

However, for our purposes, the ancient and “pagan” Lupercalia was a raucous event which Pope Saint Gelasius I (494–96) wanted to abolish. Senators opposed him so he invited them to run nude themselves. After a long dispute, Gelasius replaced the Lupercalia with a “Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” to be observed on Candlemas. It was a noble thought, but eventually the “pagan” feast became Saint Valentine’s Day or Valentine’s Day, celebrated on the 14th of February, near the Ides of February. According to Britannica, “[i]t came to be celebrated as a day of romance from about the 14th century.”[i] That would be in Chaucer’s (born c. 1342/43, London?, England—died 25 October 1400, London) lifetime.

The many Saints called Valentine

There was a St Valentine a convert and a physician, who may have restored the sight of his gaoler’s blind daughter. According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, this Valentine was clubbed to death c. 270. His feast day is the 14th of February. However, there could be other beatified Valentines. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia there are three saints named Valentine, one of whom would the bishop of Terni, formerly Interamna. However, Roman Martyrology recognizes only one St Valentine, a martyr who died on the Via Flaminia and whose feast day is the 14th of February. (See Saint Valentine, Wikipedia.)

Conclusion

I will break here. We have gone from the Lupercalia to Valentine’s Day and stumbled upon la fête des crêpes (2nd February) or Pancake Day, which is quite a journey. Let us return to the Lupercalia. Pope Saint Gelasius I did abolish disorderly “pagan” festival. However, though there is at least one saint named Valentine, Valentine’s Day is very much as escribed in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. It is a “relic” of the Lupercalia. It is no longer the Lupercalia of old, but it remains a celebration of love and friendship and a bit of a carnival. In fact, not only is today, 12th February 2013, International Pancake Day, but it is also Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday), which is the end of the carnival season.

Capitoline Wolf, bronze, 13th and late 15th century CE or c. 500 – 480 BCE. Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

______________________________

[i] “Valentine’s Day”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/858512/Valentines-Day>

—ooo—

composer: Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880)

piece: Barcarolle

performers:

Philippe Jaroussky (born 13 February 1978 in Maisons-Laffitte, France) countertenor

Natalie Dessay (19 April 1965, in Lyon) coloratura soprano

The Golden Legend Revisited

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Literature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bible, Golden Legend, Gutenberg Bible, illuminated manuscript, Jacobus, Jacobus de Voragine, Middle Ages, Nuremberg Chronicle

: Saints Primus and Felician, from a 14th century manuscript of the Golden Legend. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Golden Legend

There is no mention of Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend,[i] or Legenda aurea, in my list of other illuminated manuscripts, my last post. Yet hagiographies and martyrologies, the lives of saints and martyrs, were among illuminated manuscripts and the Golden Legend, compiled around the year 1260, was the bestseller of the Middle Ages.

Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230 – July 13 or July 16, 1298), also known as Giacomo da Varazze, Jacopo da Varazze and Jacques de Voragine, was an Italian chronicler and, reluctantly, the Archbishop of Genoa. As a chronicler, he wrote a Chronicle of Genoa. However, he is also the author of Sermones de omnibus evangeliis, discourses on all the Gospels, and several other texts. In fact, Voragine was a prolific writer and may have translated the Bible. If he did, that translation has disappeared. In short, although it is illuminated, the Golden Legend, or Légende dorée, is first and foremost a text.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

: “Crucifixion” (showing also the archbishop Jacobus de Voragine with his book the Golden Legend in his hands), by Ottaviano Nelli, Chapel of the Trinci Palace, Foligno, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hagiographies and Martyrologies

However, as a text, the Golden Legend was not just any text. In the Middle Ages, lives of saints and martyrs were a favourite. Saints perform miracles and some kill mythical animals. St George slayed a dragon, which made him a popular saint during the Middle Ages. Miracles are manifestations of the supernatural and dragons, a mythical creature born of the collective human imagination. The Golden Legend has an apocryphal St Sylvester who goes down a dungeon, tames a dragon and climbs out carrying the dragon.

The Subject Matter

So, there can be little doubt that the Golden Legend owes its popularity in part to its subject matter. Hagiographies belong, to a large extent, to that special realm of literature we call the “fantastic” and, in Voragine’s case, a Christian fantastic, or “merveilleux [marvellous] chrétien,” a term used by scholars to describe “fantastic” aspects of French medieval literature. In short, Voragine wrote legends, golden legends. Miracles and martyrdom constitute another “reality.”

Fiction: a Legend

Moreover, Voragine wrote extremely well. He knew the merits of fiction and style, which may be the real key to the success of the Golden Legend. Other authors wrote hagiographies and martyrologies, but not in a way that truly engaged readers. As for Jacobus, he “embellished” his texts to the delight of readers. Voragine is also said to have “borrowed” from other writers such as Jean de Mailly[ii] and Bartholomew of Trent,[iii] but did he “borrow” or retell?

Vincent de Beauvais, the author of the Speculum Maius (The Great Mirror), “the compendium of all of the knowledge of the Middle Ages” also borrowed from Mailly, Bartholomew of Trent and other authors. (See Speculum Maius, Wikipedia.) Borrowing need not be plagiarism. Although a large number of La Fontaine’s Fables are Æsopic in origin, Jean de La Fontaine is one of the finest French authors.

A Calendar

Finally, the Golden Legend was yet another calendar, a liturgical calendar. Every day of the year, a saint or an event, such as the birth of Christ, is commemorated. Voragine himself was beatified in 1816 and his feast day is July 16th. The Golden Legend’s calendar is divided into five seasons.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

: A Golden Legend illumination (Photo credit: Google images)

An Illuminated Manuscript and an Incunable

Yet, The Golden Legend was illuminated, not by Voragine but by several Italian artists. Moreover, it was copied (calligraphy), again not by Voragine, but by different scribes, probably monks working in a scriptorium.[iv] So The Golden Legend could have been listed in Other Illuminated Manuscripts as several copies were made between 1260 and 1450, the year Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1395 – February 3, 1468) invented the printing press. However, it also constitutes an incunable (sometimes called a “fifteener,” fifteenth century).

Incunables or incunabula (incunabulum, singular: “in the cradle”) are books printed between 1450 and 1501, of which the best known is the Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42). To see the facsimile, click on Gutenberg Bible. Another famous incunable is the Hartmann Schedel Weltchronik (a German translation of the Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle). But The Golden Legend is also, and not negligibly, an incunable.

One characteristic of incunables is that the printer often left room on the printed page so an artist could illuminate the text. For instance, incunables often featured rubricated (from red) letters. Rubricated letters are slightly different than historiated letters, a matter that can be discussed later.

Page from Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, printed in red and black by Peter Schöffer (Mainz, 1471). The page exhibits a rubricated initial letter “U” and decorations, marginalia, and ownership stamps of the “Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani” (Hamburg). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

I will pause by saying that The Golden Legend tells far more than the lives of saints and martyrs and does so because Voragine embellished his accounts to the point of creating saints and martyrs. He was a storyteller and that may well be the reason his hagiography has endured. However, for the record, The Golden Legend is