Seeing the Invisible in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Papers from "Verbal and Pictorial Imaging: Representing and Accessing Experience of the Invisible, 400-1000" (Utrecht, 11-13 December 2003)

566 Pages·2005·55.19 MB·English

by  Giselle de Nie

Seeing the Invisible
in Late A ntiquity and
the Early M iddle Ages
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Edited by
Giselle de Nie, Karl E Morrison
SKEPOLS and Marco Mostert

íes in Medieval Literacy
One of the most important developments in European histon
took place in communication. A transition is clearly visible
from illiterate societies to societies in which most members an
active users of the written word. This complex process, which
started in Antiquity, and is still not complete, gained
momentum during the Middle Ages. This series is intended t(
provide a forum for publications on the history of non-verbal,
oral and written communication in the Middle Ages. Interest
in the subject is now widespread within the worldwide community of medieval
studies; and ever more scholars are becoming convinced of the potential of studying
the tensions between oral and literate modes of thought.
Seeing the Invisible in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Papers from “ Verbal and Pictorial Imaging: Representing and Accessing
Experience of the hivisible, 400-1000” (Utrecht, 11-13 December 2003)
Limiting itself to the vital centuries when the late Roman West reshaped itself into a
first "Europe", the conference on which the volume is based explored the dominant
understanding of human nature in that era: that human existence was both body (in
the visible world of material things) and soul (in the invisible world of spirit). This
was a legacy of pre-Christian elements handed down from Greek philosophy and the
Hebrew Scriptures. Assimilating it to indigenous cultures in the Roman West, many
alien to the ancient Mediterranean world, precipitated sea-changes in the conception
of human psychology. Ensuing frictions sparked extraordinary expressions of
creativity in words and visual images. It also created dangerously subversive
disequilibria in the collective mentality within elites and between them and majority
cultures. The papers in this volume investigate numerous configurations of a new
culture taking shape in that volatile environment. They contribute to continuing
debates about the cognitive co-ordination of words and pictorial images, and to
cross-disciplinary dialogues in such disparate fields as art history, religious literature,
mysticism, and cultural anthropology.
Cover image: A tetramorph, one of the the winged creatures seen by the prophet Ezekiel in his vision of the
heavenly throne, with the heads of man, ox, lion, and eagle (Hz 1, 5 ff), from the Drogo sacramentary,
produced at Metz around the middle of the ninth century (MS Paris, BNP, lat.9428, fol. 15r).
Reproduced with permission.
ISBN 2-503-51759-5 Pionierproject Verschriftelijking,
9782503517599 e ^
Universität Utrecht <550
* 4 0
9 782503 517599

UTRECHT STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY
General Editor
Marco Mostert (University of Utrecht)
Editorial Board
Gerd Althoff (Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität Munster)
Michael Clanchy (University of London)
Peter Gumbert (University of Leiden)
Mayke de Jong (University of Utrecht)
Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge)
Arpád Orbán (University of Utrecht)
Armando Pétrucci (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)
Richard H. Rouse (ucla )
SEEING THE INVISIBLE
IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
PAPERS FROM “VERBAL AND PICTORIAL
IMAGING: REPRESENTING AND ACCESSING
400 1000
EXPERIENCE OF THE INVISIBLE, - ”
11-13 2003
(UTRECHT, DECEMBER )
Edited by
Giselle de Nie, Karl F. Morrison
and Marco Mostert
BREPOLS
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Seeing the invisible in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages :
papers from “Verbal and pictorial imaging: representing and
accessing experience of the invisible, 400-1000” (Utrecht, 11-13
December 2003). - (Utrecht studies in medieval literacy ; 14)
1. Christian art and symbolism - Medieval, 500-1500 - Congresses
2. Christian art and symbolism - To 500 - Congresses 3.Art,
Medieval - Congresses 4.Christianity and art - History - To 1500
- Congresses 5.Spirituality in art - Congresses
I.Nie, Giselle de II.Morrison, Karl Frederick III.Mostert, Marco
704.9'482'094'0902
ISBN 2503517595
© 2005 - Brepols Publishers n.v.,Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior per­
mission of the publisher.
D/2005/0095/18
ISBN 2-503-51759-5
Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction
KARL F. MORRISON and GISELLE DE NIE 1
Part I: Late Antiquity
Looking Inward: Perceiving with the Eyes of the Mind and Heart
“Truly Visible Things Are Manifest Images of Invisible Things”:Dionysios
the Areopagite on Knowling the Invisible
ANDREW LOUTH 15
Relics, Rhetoric, and Mental Spectacles in Late Ancient Christianity
PATRICIA COX MILLER 25
Augustine and the Return of the Senses
M.B. PRANGER 53
Looking Outward: Perceiving with the Eyes of the Body
“Divinos Concipe Sensus Envisioning Divine Wonders in Paulinus of
Noia and Gregory of Tours
GISELLE DE NIE 69
Ideals of Community in Late Antiquity: John Cassian and Gregory the
Great on Communicating Sanctity
WILLEMIEN OTTEN 119
VI Contents
Configuring the Invisible
Visibility and (Partial) Invisibility of Early Christian Images
BEATBRENK 139
The Holy in the Dust: A Japanese View of Christendom’s Cult of the Non-
Representational
SHIGEBUMITSUJI 185
Part II: Early Middle Ages
Configuring the Invisible: Speaking
The Vocabulary of Vision and Worship in the Early Carolingian Period
THOMAS F.X. NOBLE 213
Configuring the Invisible: Depicting
Metaphor and Meaning in Early Medieval Reliquaries
CYNTHIA HAHN 239
Materializing the Invisible in Early Medieval Art: The Mosaic of Santa
Maria in Domnica in Rome
ERIKTHUN0 265
“Hoc Visibile Imaginatum Figurat Illud Invisibile Verum”: Imagining God
in Pictures of Christ
HERBERT L. KESSLER 291
Configuring the Invisible: Enacting
Amalarius’s Liber Officialis: Spirit and Vision in Carolingian Liturgical
Thought
CELIA CHAZELLE 327
Configuring the Invisible: Dialectic between Words and Pictures
Carolingian Diagrams, Images of the Invisible
BIANCA KÜHNEL 359