Envisioning Experience in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Dynamic Patterns in Texts and Images

182 Pages·2012·1.907 MB·English

by  Giselle De Nie, Thomas F. X. Noble (eds.)

Envisioning ExpEriEncE
in LatE antiquity and thE MiddLE agEs
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Envisioning Experience in Late
antiquity and the Middle ages
dynamic patterns in texts and images
Edited by
gisELLE dE niE
thoMas F.x. nobLE
© giselle de nie and Thomas F.x. noble 2012
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or trans-
mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without the prior permission of the publisher.
giselle de nie and Thomas F.x. noble have asserted their right under the copyright, designs and
patents act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Envisioning experience in Late antiquity and the Middle
ages : dynamic patterns in texts and images.
1. imagery (psychology) 2. recollection (psychology)
3. imagination (philosophy) 4. Emotions and cognition--
history–to 1500. 5. psychology and art–history–to
1500. 6. psychology and literature–history–to 1500.
7. christian art and symbolism–to 500. 8. christian art
and symbolism–Medieval, 500-1500.
i. nie, giselle de. ii. noble, Thomas F. x.
701.1ꞌ5ꞌ0902-dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Envisioning experience in late antiquity and the Middle ages : dynamic
patterns in texts and images / [edited by] giselle de nie and Thomas F.x.
noble.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-4094-3948-6 (hardcover) 1. arts,
Medieval--Themes, motives. 2. arts--psychological aspects. 3. imagery
(psychology) in literature. 4. art and literature--history--to 1500. i.
nie, giselle de. ii. noble, Thomas F. x.
nx449.E58 2012
700.9ꞌ02--dc23
2011044436
isbn 9781409439486 (hbk)
V
isbn 9781409446217 (ebk)
printed and bound in great britain by the
Mpg books group, uK
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Contributors ix
Introduction 1
1 Movement and Miracle in Michael Psellos’s Account of the
Blachernae Icon of the Theotokos 9
Charles Barber
2 Images, A Daydream, and Heavenly Sounds in the Carolingian Era:
Walahfrid Strabo and Maura of Troyes 23
Thomas F.X. Noble
3 Moving Pictures: Dante and Botticelli (Purgatorio 10, 12, 28–33)
and the Millennial Celebration of St Romuald’s Martyrdom
(Malines, 1775) 47
Karl F. Morrison
4 Image as Insight in Joachim of Fiore’s Figurae 93
Bernard McGinn
5 Concordius’s Dream-Discovery of a Healing Saint 119
Giselle de Nie
6 Beyond Word and Image: Aural Patterning in Augustine’s
Confessions 143
Catherine Conybeare
Index 165
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List of Figures
1.1 Crucifixion and Saints. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine 11
1.2 Marian Icons and Christ's Miracles (detail). Sinai, Monastery
of St. Catherine 15
3.1 Sandro Botticelli, Illustration to Dante’s The Divine Comedy,
Purgatory XII: Images of punishment for pride; the angel at the
steps to the second circle. After 1480 58
3.2 Sandro Botticelli, Illustration to Dante’s The Divine Comedy,
Purgatory XXXII: The Earthly Paradise; the tree of knowledge
and the historical fate of the Church. After 1480 72
3.3 Sandro Botticelli, Illustration to Dante’s The Divine Comedy,
Purgatory X: First circle, the marble reliefs (“The Three
Humilities”); penitence of the proud. After 1480 79
3.4 Girolomo Fabrizio (Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente,
1537–1619), De Visione, Voce, et auditu (Venice: Francesco
Bolzetta, 1600) 82
3.5 St. Romuald destroys pagan images and erects a Christian one,
the Cross; scenes from Romuald’s life 86
3.6 The Triumph of the Church, a powerful contrast with Dante’s
portrayal of the spiritual corruption of the historical Church, as
illustrated by Botticelli 88
3.7 Popular games, engravings bound into the Prael-treyn as a
supplement to the engravings of official floats and displays of
ruling corporations 90
4.1 Psalterium decem cordarum from the Liber Figurarum. Oxford,
Corpus Christi College, MS 225a, fol. 8r. 102
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List of Contributors
Charles Barber is Professor of Medieval Art History, and chair of the
department of Art, Art History, and Design at the University of Notre Dame.
His most recent book is Contesting the Art of Painting (2007). He has authored
and edited several other volumes and his articles and essays have appeared in
numerous books and periodicals.
Catherine Conybeare is Associate Professor and director of the graduate group
in Classics at Bryn Mawr College. Her book The Irrational Augustine appeared
in 2006. She continues to work on Augustine and also on Cicero’s philosophical
dialogues.
Giselle de Nie was Senior Lecturer in the history faculty of the University of
Utrecht. Author of a deeply original book on Gregory of Tours and of many
articles, her Poetics of Wonder: Testimonies of the New Christian Miracles in the
Late Antique Latin World will appear in 2012.
Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelly Professor Emeritus in
the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Although he has published
widely on the history of Christian thought, McGinn is acknowledged to be the
premier student of Christian mysticism.
Karl F. Morrison is the Lessing Professor of History and Poetics at Rutgers
University. Author of eight books and editor of several more, Morrison is
currently completing a book on the hypothetical end of Christian art.
Thomas F.X. Noble is Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. His
last book, Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians (2009), won the Gründler
Prize from the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University. He is now
preparing a monograph on Rome in the Medieval Imagination.