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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Although the principal relationship observable in an early medieval manuscript illustration is that between the artist and his or her text, the interests of the reader, and in many cases the first owner or commissioner of an illustrated book, could to some degree determine the extent and the elaboration of the illustrations, and, possibly, aspects of the iconography. The incidence of women in the illustrations of Christian books of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, therefore, is a potentially fruitful source for examining the attitudes towards women’s role in the Church in the early Middle Ages. It may be possible to see, firstly, whether the prominence of women in the New Testament, and in the Gospels in particular, is enhanced and elaborated in ninth- and tenth-century visual interpretations of these Christian texts, or, secondly, whether there are any other innovations in Carolingian or Ottonian illustrations which shed light on the religious work of women within the Church. But to what extent is this potential realized? Are omissions as significant as inclusions? Can we conclude much from the relative dearth of pictures of women in Carolingian books, as opposed to the greater number of women portrayed in Ottonian books? It is the purpose of this paper to examine this phenomenon and its context and thereby to suggest some preliminary explanations.
1 I do not use this phrasing, ‘his or her’ in the interests of modern gender issues, but simply because there is evidence for the production of books by groups of women in religious communities in the eighth and ninth centuries, and these books are decorated in contemporary styles: for example, see the work of the nuns of Chelles identified by Bernhard Bischoff, ‘Die Kölner Nonnenhandschriften und das Skriptorium von Chelles’ in MStn, I (1966), pp. 16-24, and that of the nuns of Jouarre, R. McKitterick, ‘The diffusion of insular culture in Neustria between 650 and 850: the implications of the manuscript evidence’, in H. Atsma, ed., La Neuslrie. Les pays au nord de la Loire de 650 à 850 = Beihefte der Francia, 16/2 (Sigmaringen, 1989), pp. 395-432.
2 For the importance of the text to the Carolingian artist see McKitterick, R., ‘Text and image in the Carolingian world’, in McKitterick, R., ed.. The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 297’318 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The consumers’ interests and their impact on book illustration are explored by Kurt Weitzmann, ‘The selection of texts for cyclic illustration in Byzantine manuscripts’, in Byzantine Books and Bookmen. A Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium, 1971 (Washington, 1975), pp. 69-109.
3 A larger study of the laity, both men and women, within the Ottonian Church is in preparation; I should stress, moreover, that the suggestions that follow are not only preliminary, but tentative.
4 E. H. Kantorowicz, ‘The Carolingian king in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura’, in Late Classical and Medieval Studies in Honor of Albert Matthias Friend Jnr (Princeton, 1955), pp. 287-300.
5 Cf. the Utrecht Psalter, Utrecht, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS Script, eccles. 484, fols. 8r and cor, which also have the scene of the women before the empty tomb of Christ.
6 See my interpretation of the significance of this crystal in McKitterick, R., The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987 (London, 1977), p. 174 Google Scholar.
7 An extreme example of this type of argument, and the unproven assumptions upon which it rests, is H. Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles from Tours (Princeton, 1977), but it is a fundamental, general, and questionable methodology of early medieval art criticism to interpret the book paintings almost exclusively with reference to the artist’s possible models, and to give insufficient weight to the possibility ot original and visual interpretation oi the text on the part of the artist. The search for models can, of course, prove fruitful and enlightening in many instances, as, for example, in much of the work of Kurt Weitzmann, and especially his Studies in Classical and Byzantine Manuscript Illumination (Chicago, 1971), but it can also be carried too far beyond the historical context and possibilities of the milieu in which a particular painting was produced.
8 See Kessler, Illustrated Bibles of Tours, pp. 82-95. The Jerome pictures are also discussed by J. Gaehde, ‘The Turanian sources of the San Paolo Bible’, FStn, 5 (1071), pp. 359-400.
9 Jerome, Ep. 57, c. 4, S. Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. I. Hilberg, CSEL, 54-6, 1.
10 Kessler, Illustrated Bibles of Tours, p. 95.
11 See the sympathetic account of this friendship provided by Kelly, J. N. D., Jerome, His Life, Writings and Controversies (London, 1975), pp. 91’103 Google Scholar and 273-82, and Jerome’s letters, particularly Epistulae I, Ep. 22, and II, Ep. 108 (the Epistula ad Eustochium and the Epitaphium Paulae). The preface to the Pentateuch is dedicated to Eustochium and that to the Book of Esther to both Paula and Eustochium.
12 On Carolingian editions of the Bible see R. Loewe, ‘Mediaeval editions of the Bible’, in CHB, 2, pp. 101-3, and B. Fischer, ‘Bibeltext und Bibelreform unter Karl dem Grossen’, in W. Braunfels, ed., Karl der Grosse. Lebenswerk und Nachleben IIDas Ceisteige Leben (Dusseldorf, 1965), pp. 156-216.
13 A fragment of Tobias from a Lorsch pandect, dated to the late eighth century, and sold in 1988 by Bernard Quaritch Ltd of London, throws light on how Lorsch fits into the general enterprise of Carolingian Bible production: see R. McKitterick, ‘Carolingian book production: some problems’, The Library (1990), pp. 1–33, at p. 31.
14 See the list of extant manuscripts of Jerome’s letters in Hilberg, ed., Epistulae, at the beginning of each letter. The greater proportion of all witnesses he cites is Carolingian.
15 Lowe, E. A., Codices Latini Antiquiores, 8 (Oxford, 1959)Google Scholar, no 1080, and Bischoff, B., Lorsch im Spiegel seiner Handschriften (Munich, 1974), pp. 66 and 96’7 Google Scholar. Access does not prove knowledge, of course, but the probabilities of possession of books implying an ability to read them in the Carolingian period are discussed by McKitterick, R., The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 135’64 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 See G. Becker, Catalogi bihliothecarum antiqui (Bonn, 1880), no 37, item 220, p. 97.
17 Full details of these library catalogues, editions of them and their content, are provided in McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word, pp. 165-210.
18 See, for example, Alcuin’s letters to Gisela and Gundrada, MGH. Ep. merov. et karol. aevi, I, epp. 15, 72, 84,164,195, 214,228, 241, and esp. 154 and 216, which refer to the studies of Gisela and the biblical commentaries by Bede that Alcuin is sending her. On Judith, see F. von Bezold, ‘Kaiserin Judith und ihre Dichter Walahfrid Strabo’, HZ 130(1924), pp. 375-439. J.J. Contreni, ‘Carolingian biblical studies’, in U.-R. Blumenthal, ed., Carolingian Essays (Washington D.C., 1983), pp. 71-98, and E. Ward, ‘Agobard of Lyons and Paschasius Radbertus as critics of the Empress Judith’, above, pp. 15-25.
19 On the florilegio see McKitterick, R., The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms 789-895 (London, 1977), pp. 155’83 Google Scholar.
20 On lay and, specifically, female literacy see McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word, pp. 211-71.
21 See the analysis of the registrum Cregorii miniatures by Nordenfalk, C., ‘Archbishop Egbert’s “registrum Gregorii”’, in Bierbrauer, K., Klein, P. K., and Sauerlander, W., eds, Studien zur mittelalterlielten Kunst 800-1250. Festschrift für Florentine Miitherich zum 70 Gehurtstag (Munich, 1985), pp. 87’100 Google Scholar.
22 F. Mütherich, Karolingische Miniaturen V Die Hofschule Karls des Kahlens (Berlin, 1978), and F. Mütherich and Fuhrmann, H., Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen und das mittelalterliche Herrscherbild (Munich, 1986)Google Scholar. See also the facsimile of MS Clm 4453, with commentary, F. Dressier, F. Mütherich, and H. Beumann, eds, Das Evangeliar Olios III, Clm 4453 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek Munchen, facsimile Ausgabe (Graz, 1978).
23 On Ottonian book painting generally the best guides are L. Grodecki, F. Mütherich, J. Taralon, and F. Wormald, Le siècle de l’an mil (Paris, 1973) with full bibliography, and on book production H. Hoffmann, Buchkunst and Königtum im ottonischen und frühsälischen Reich, 2 vols (Stuttgart, 1986). Discussions of the manuscripts mentioned in what follows can be found in both these books and the references they cite. See also V. Elbern, ed., Das erste Jahrtausend. Kultur und Kunst im werdenden Abendland am Rhein und Ruhr, 2 vols (Dusseldorf, 1962-4).
24 ‘Pax erit in mundo dum Gisela vixerit isto/Quae genuit regem populos pietate regentem’.
25 See the stimulating elucidation of the social position and power of the Saxon royal and noble ladies by Leyser, K., Rule and Conflict in an Early Mediaeval Society (London, 1979), pp. 49’73 Google Scholar. On the canonesses see M. Parisse, ‘Les chanoînesses dans l’Empire germanique (IX-XIe siècles)’, Francia,6 (1978), pp. 107–27.
26 Some have interpreted this figure as a representation of Ecclesia; the codex was produced between 980 and 98 5. See Grodecki, et al, Le siècle de l’an mil, pp. 118–25.
27 Some indication of the patrons and commissioners of these books is provided by Hoffmann, Buchkunsl und Kônigtum, esp. pp. 80–91.
28 I mention one striking example: the artist of the Valenciennes Apocalypse, in illustrating the turba magna of John’s apocalyptic vision, portrays serried ranks of tonsured monks, Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. is. The corresponding picture in the slightly earlier Trier Apocalypse (Trier, Stadtbibliothek, MS 34), however, does include lay people in the ‘great crowd of various peoples of the world’ which prompted the editor of the facsimile to suggest that the Trier manuscript may have been intended for a lay audience: see R. Laufner and P. K. Klein, Trierer Apokalypse. Kommentarband (Graz, 1975).
29 There are useful comments in A. Boekler, ikonographische Studien zu den Wunderszenen in der ottonischen Buchmalerei der Reichenau’, ABAW.PH, ns $2 (1961).
30 See McKitterick, Frankish Church, pp. 80–114.
31 The miniature may have reflected wishful thinking about the ideal relationship between learned mentor and pious and respectful student on the part of Bishop Bernward, in view of the strife between him and Abbess Sophia of Gandersheim: see Vita Bernwardi, cap. 18, ed. H. Kallfelz, Lebensbeschreibungen einiger Bischöfe des 10.-12. Jahrhunderts (Darmstadt, 1973), pp. 304-6, but seems more likely to be a more general recognition, as in the Carolingian use of this image, of the parallels between the learning and biblical study of Ottonian abbesses and canonesses and the women associated with Jerome. On the Tours antecedents of this miniature, see C. Nordenfalk, ‘Noch ein Turonische Bilderbibel’, in J. Autenrieth and F. Brunholzl, eds, Festschrift Bernhard Bishoff(Stuttgart, 1971), pp. 153-63, and see Grodecki, el al., Lesiècle de l’an mil, pp. 108-111. See also H. Schnitzler, ‘Hieronymus und Gregor in der ottonischen Kölner Buchmalerei’, Kunstgescliichilichen Studien fur Ham Kaujfmann (Berlin, 1956), pp. 11-18.
32 P. Bloch, Der Darmstadter Hitda Codex (Berlin, 1968), and P. Bloch and H. Schnitzler, Die Ottonisela KölnerMalscliule (Dusseldorf. 1967).
33 A. Boekler, ‘Das Erhardbild im Uta Codex’, Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Creene (Princeton, 1954), pp. 219-30, and B. Bischoff, ‘Literarisches und kunsderisches Leben in St Emmeram (Regensburg) wàhrend des frühen und höhen Mittelalters’, MStn, 2 (1967), pp. 77-115.
34 R. Kahsnitz, The Gospel Book of abbess Svanhild of Essen in the John Rylands Library’, BJRL, 53 (1970-7), pp. 122-66.
35 Elbern, Das erste Jahrtausend, no 384, and Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum 2 (Munster, 1967), no 162.
36 Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p. 63.
37 Ibid., p. 66.
38 Ibid., p. 68.
39 P. Corbet, Les saints ottoniens = Beihefte der Francia, 15 (Sigmaringen, 1986).
40 Dronke, P., Women Writers of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 55’83 Google Scholar, is a lucid and sympathetic discussion of Hrotsvitha’s writing and her perception of herself as an author.
41 MCH.DR, Conradil, Heinrici I et Ottonis I. Diplomata, no 89, pp. 171-2. See also, D. Schaller, ‘Hrotsvit von Gandersheim nach Tausend Jahren’, Zeitschritft für deutsche Philologie, 96 (1977), pp. 105–114, and F. Bertini, Il ‘teatro’di Rosvita (Genoa, 1979).
42 Dronke, Women Writers, p. 74.
43 S. Reiter, ‘Weltliche Lebensformen von Frauen im zehnten Jahrhundert. Das Zeugnis der erzâhlenden Quellen’, in W. Affeldt and A. Kuhn, eds Frauen in der Geschkhte, 7 (Dösseldorf, 1986), pp. 209-26.
