MEDIAEVAL FRESCO from VAL GARDENA



I came across this by accident; the only information I have about it is that it is in the Church of St. James in Urtijëi, and that the Station of the Cross painted over the gouged-out portion is from the 18th century.

A large Christ stands in the manner of a Man of Sorrows. About His head, where the instruments of the Passion might be expected, are a sickle, a thresher, and adze and other tools. His wounds emit long thin strands of blood that connect to people engaged in various activities, all of them accosted by demons (although seemingly oblivious to both the blood and the demons). A priest celebrating Mass is not affected. A larger kneeling figure, a donor perhaps, is connected by white strands to a bedridden man and something in an open chest beside the bed. The inscription below him is only partly legible.

I have not encountered this iconography before, and I really do not know its proper interpretation. My first guess is that it is a moralizing picture on the sinfulness of neglecting and profaning the Lord's Day.

ENTOMBMENT ~ VIKTOR VASNETSOV

HOURS of SIMON VOSTRE



Henri Bouchot & Anton Einsle:

Printing had been established about twenty years in Paris when Philip Pigouchet, printer and engraver on wood, began to exercise his trade for himself or on account of other publishers. Formerly bookseller in the University, he transported his presses to the Rue de la Harpe, and took for his mark the curious figure here reproduced. At this moment a true shopkeeper, Simon Vostre conceived the idea of launching forth Books of Hours, until then disdained in France, and of publishing them in fine editions with figures, borders, ornaments, large separate plates, and all the resources of typography. The attempts made at Venice and Naples between 1473 and 1476 warranted the enterprise.

Entering into partnership with Pigouchet, the two were able on the 17th of April, 1488, to publish the Heures a L' Usaige de Rome, octavo, with varied ornaments and figures. The operation having succeeded beyond their hopes, thanks to the combination of the subjects of the borders, subjects that could be turned about in all manner of ways so as to obtain the greatest variety. Simon Vostre applied to the work, and ordered new cuts to augment the number of his decorations...

According to his wants, Simon Vostre designed new series of ornaments. Among them were histories of the saints, biblical figures, even caricatures directed against Churchmen, after the manner of the old sculptors, who thought that sin was rendered more horrible in the garb of a monk.

Honorés sont saiges et sots,
Augustins, carmes et bigots,

says the legend. Then there were the Dance of Death and sibyls, allying sacred with profane, even the trades, all forming a medley of little figures in the margins, in the borders, nestled among acanthus leaves, distorted men, fantastic animals, and saints piously praying. The Middle Ages live again in these bright and charming books, so French in their origin, yet withal imbued with good sense and a tolerant spirit...

Pigouchet and Simon Vostre emanated the art of book illustration in France; they worked together for eighteen years, in steady collaboration, and, as far as we know, without a cloud. When Vostre started in business in 1488 he lived in the Rue Neuve Notre Dame, at the sign of St. Jean l'Evangeliste, and in 1520 he was still there, having published more than three hundred editions of the Hours for the use of the several cities.

Below are page images of a Portuguese language Book of Hours for the Use of Rome published by Simon Vostre around 1500. The book is now owned by the Library of Congress:

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

OUR LADY of MT. CARMEL



Sequence by Simon Stock:

Flos Carmeli,

Vitis florigera,

Splendor caeli,

Virgo puerpera

Singularis.

Mater mitis

Sed viri nescia

Carmelitis

Esto propitia

Stella maris.

Radix Iesse

Germinans flosculum

Nos ad esse

Tecum in saeculum

Patiaris.

Inter spinas

Quae crescis lilium

Serva puras

Mentes fragilium

Tutelaris. 

Armatura

Fortis pugnantium

Furunt bella

Tende praesidium

Scapularis.

Per incerta

Prudens consilium

Per adversa

Iuge solatium

Largiaris.

Mater dulcis

Carmeli domina,

Plebem tuam

Reple laetitia

Qua bearis.

Paradisi

Clavis et ianua,

Fac nos duci

Quo, Mater, gloria

Coronaris. Amen.

TWO ILLUSTRATIONS from the HORTUS DELICIARUM


The Liberal Arts


The Damned in Hell

Other Women's Voices:

[Herrad of Hohenburg's] canonesses already had access to Scripture; what she did was present them with the latest interpretations on the meaning of that Scripture. Therefore, she used not only the older theological authorities but also the new scholars of the 1100s, such as Anselm and Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as her own contemporaries, Peter Lombard and Peter Comestor, whose works now formed part of the core curriculum of the new all-male schools.

Herrad's goal seems to have been to bring together the best of the old and the new theology in a teaching manual - of both words and pictures - that would also be an aid to meditation for the canonesses, especially the novices, and perhaps also for the lay students. Besides the theological texts, the book also contained poetry and hymns (some accompanied by musical notation).

The result of all this was the Hortus deliciarum (Garden of Delight). It consisted of over 300 parchment leaves of folio size. In addition to the Latin texts, over 344 illustrations were used: at least 130 of these were brightly colored full-page illuminations, while smaller ones were put on the same pages as text; there were also drawings and tables. Many of the illustrations were given explanatory rubrics and in some cases detailed captions placed around the figures. In case the Latin terms weren't clear to the younger readers, German was frequently added.

The major part of the work may have been completed by 1185 although additions appear to have been made until Herrad's death. The manuscript (and one complete copy) survived fires and suppression of monasteries, only to be destroyed in an 1870 bombardment during a siege of the city of Strausbourg. All that exists now are copies of part of the text and some tracings and engravings that were made before 1870.

ROTHSCHILD CANTICLES



Beinecke Library:

Of exceptional visual and iconographic sophistication, the Rothschild Canticles is one of the most unusual illuminated manuscripts to have survived from the Middle Ages. Produced for a nun at the turn of the fourteenth century, it served as an aid to mystical devotions in which images played as central a role as the written word. Visionary depictions of Paradise, the Song of Songs, the Virgin Mary, the Trinity, and hundreds of other subjects based on texts ranging from the Bible to the Lives of the Desert Fathers together form a devotional program that transports the reader toward contemplative union with God.

CHRONICLES of FROISSART ~ KELMSCOTT PRESS



William S. Peterson:

There were countless books that [William] Morris had thought of printing - the Bible (Wycliffe' version), Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, FitzGerald's translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Malory's Morte Dartur, Piers Plowman, to name a few - and [Sydney] Cockerell recognized that there was now [in 1896, after Morris's death] no hope of ever doing them at Kelmscott Press. Two projected folios were abandoned, however, with greater reluctance...

[One was an edition of Shakespeare's plays.] The other aborted folio was [Lord Berner's English translation of] Froissart's Chronicles, which was in a more advanced state of production than the Shakespeare. Morris enthusiastically announced his plans to a journalist in 1895: My reprint is a full folio and will take up two volumes. I also intend to publish it in four parts... no book that I could do would give me half the pleasure I am getting from the Froissart. I am simply revelling in it. It's such a noble and glorious work, and every page as it leaves the press delights me more than I can say. I am taking great pains with it, and doing all I can to realise what I have long wished. I am printing it in my Chaucer type. Despite Morris's assertion, no sheets of the book were actually printed, but by November 1896, some 36 pages were in type, and Cockerell hit upon the ingenious solution of publishing a two-leaf vellum specimen...

The Froissart specimen reveals a stunning new departure in Morrisian ornamentation: though the two-column text is arranged in the same pattern as that of the Chaucer, the borders, incorporating coats of arms, are extraordinarily vigorous and spiky in appearance, an initial work is connected to one of the borders, and the initials extend even into the margins... Such innovations will startle us only if we have mistakenly assumed that Morris's principles of book-design and ornamentation were static and wholly incapable of development. The Froissart specimen pages leave no doubt that Morris's comparatively early death robbed the world of a work which would have rivalled the Chaucer as one of the finest printed books of the post-mediaeval era.

160 copies were printed on vellum. The coats of arms are those of Reginald Lord Cobham, Sir Walter Manny, Sir John Chandos, France, the Empire and England.

GREAT CLOCKS of CHRISTENDOM: CLUSONE PALAZZO COMMUNALE

This astronomical clock was designed and built by the mathematician Peter Fanzago of Clusone in 1583.

SPIDER SILK TEXTILES of REV. JACOB PAUL CAMBOUE



Art Institute of Chicago:

The idea of harnessing spider silk for weaving is an age-old dream that was first attempted in a methodical way in France in the early 18th century. In the 1880s, Father Paul Camboué, a French Jesuit priest, brought the dream to Madagascar. Intrigued by the strength and beauty of the silk produced by the island’s golden orb spider, he began to collect and experiment with it. In 1900 a set of bed hangings was woven from spider silk at Madagascar’s Ecole Professionelle and exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (today the whereabouts of those hangings are unknown).

Tʻoung Pao, 1899:

A French Catholic priest in Madagascar, Father Camboué, has been devoting himself to a curious industry, the manufacture of spider-silk, as it may be called for want of a better term. As everybody knows, the idea is not a new one. A Frenchman named St. Hilaire made a pair of stockings out of spiders' webs early in the last century. More recently a specimen of spider-silk 6000 yards long was shown to the Society of Arts in London. Father Camboué, however, appears to be the first person who has taken hold of the idea in a practical way. Madagascar, it seems, rejoices in the possession of an exceptionally large and vigorous spider called Lalabe... Father Camboué has invented an ingenious method for getting as much work as possible out of his spiders. If they were left to their own devices like the innocent silkworms, the spiders would of course devote their energies to geometry and fly-catching. Father Camboué takes eight spiders, places them each in a small compartment with the abdomen projecting outside, twists the eight threads together to give them the necessary strength, and winds the strand on a spool rotating at high speed. When the insects have given up all their web - about 40 yards - each, they are taken out of their compartments and replaced by other victims. The spiders when restored to liberty give every sign of profound dissatisfaction with the existing order of things, but a meal of flies soon restores them to good humour. It is probable that in course of time a process of judicious selection will produce a race of famous spinners. Father Camboué mentions one spider which in 27 days produced 4000 yards of thread - and then unfortunately died. As spider yarn is easily woven into a light, strong and glossy material, the day may come when the Madagascar spider will be a rival to the Chinese silkworm.

DEDICATION of a CHURCH

  

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:



Rex Salomon fecit templum,
Quorum instar et exemplum
Christus et Ecclesia.
Hujus hic est imperator,
Fundamentum et fundator,
Mediante gratia.

Quadri templi fundamenta
Marmora sunt, instrumenta
Parietum paria;
Candens flosest castitatis,
Lapis quadrus in praelatis
Virtus et constantia.

Longitudo,
Latitudo,
Templique sublimitas,
Intellecta
Fide recta,
Sunt fides, spes, caritas.

Sed tres partes sunt in Templo
Trinitatis sub exemplo
Ima, summa, media:
Ima signat vivos cunctos,
Et secunda jam defunctos,
Redivivos tertia.

Sexagenos quaeque per se,
Sed et partes universae
Habent lati cubitos:
Harum trium tres conventus
Trinitati dant concentus
Unitati debitos.

Templi cultus
Extat multus,
Cinnamomus
Odor domus,
Myrrha, stacte, casia;
Quae bonorum
Decus morum
Atque bonos
Precum sonos
Sunt significantia.

In has casa
Cuncta vasa
Sunt ex auro,
De thesauro
Praeelecto penitus:
Nam magistros
Et ministros
Decet doctos
Et excoctos
Igne Sancti Spiritus.

Sic ex bonis
Salomonis
Quae Rex David
Praeparavit
Fiunt aedificia;
Nam in lignis
Res insignis
Vivit Tyri,
Cujus viri
Tractant artificia.

Nam ex gente Judaeisque
Sicut Templum ab utrisque
Conditur Ecclesia:
Christe, qui hanc et hos unis,
Lapishuic et his communis,
Tibi laus et gloria! Amen.
Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Solomon, the King, a Temple
Built, whose pattern and example
Christ, with Holy Church, appears:
He, its founder and foundation,
Sway, through grace's mediation,
As the Church's ruler bears.

Squarely built, this Temple's bases
Are of marble; each wall's space is
Formed of stones cut evenly:
Chastity's fair flower there twineth;
Each squared stone therein combineth,
Prelates' nerve and constancy.

Its far-reaching
Length, and stretching
Width, and height that tempts the sky,
Faith explaining
The true meaning,
Are Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Tripartite is this fair Temple,
After the Triune's example,
With first, third, and middle floor:
First, the living signifying;
Second, those in death now lying,
Third, those raised to life once more.

All the parts together rated,
Or alone, are calculated
Threescore cubits wide to be:
Triply do these three, thus blending,
Harmonize with the transcending
Trinity in Unity.

Gorgeous ritual
And perpetual
Scents, sweet smelling,
Fill God's dwelling,
Cassia, myrrh, and cinnamon;
Signifying
Never-dying
Christian graces,
Prayers, and praises,
Grateful offerings at His throne.

In this palace
Is each chalice
A gold measure
From the treasure
Pre-elected secretly:
For all teachers'
Minds, and preachers',
Thoroughly furnished,
Purged, and burnished,
By the Spirit's fire should be.

Thus with treasure,
David's pleasure
Had collected,
Is erected
Solomon's great sanctuary;
But the dwelling,
All excelling, -
Timber sending,
Craftsmen lending, -
Tyre's art fashioned cunningly.

Formed of Jew and Gentile races,
Builds the Church her holy places,
As did both the Temple raise.
Christ, Who both in one unitest!
Corner-stone of each! the brightest
Glory be to Thee and praise. Amen.