Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch (review)

Abstract

Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham By Dorothy Verkerk. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2004. Pp. x, 262; 36 black-and-white illustrations. $75.00.) It is important to recognize -what the book is not, and what it is. The title suggests two major topics, and is misleading about both. This is not a general study of early medieval illumination in any broad sense, placing the Ashburnham Pentateuch into that much larger story. This is also not a monograph on the famous Old Testament book that for roughly one thousand years was treasured and studied in Tours, whence it was stolen by the infamous Guglielmo Libri, or about its illustrations. Although Verkerk reproduces all eighteen of the large miniatures contained in the book, the scale is very small; all are in black and white only, and the quality of the reproductions is, I am sorry to say, very disappointing. The best reproductions, and the only in color, are on the dust jacket, which of course will be removed in libraries. Verkerk's book is not a good place to see the miniatures, as one might expect from a monographic publication, nor to find a description and discussion of all of them, for although all are illustrated, most are never discussed at all. Similarly, although many aspects of the book are considered, including texts and palaeography, these topics are treated very summarily; there is no usable description of the volume. This book might more accurately have been titled something like Essays on the Ashburnham Pentateuch. It presents a useful series of concise essays springing from particular issues presented by some of the miniatures themselves and by previous scholarship. One chapter is devoted to the long-popular theory that the illustrations reflect Jewish sources, either literary or pictorial. One chapter gives an overview of the manuscript's history and contents. Two chapters attempt to localize the production of the book in Rome, the first arguing that the city was not so impoverished as often understood and was thus able to provide the resources for such a project, and the second making a specific argument that the Ashburnham Pentateuch has features best explained by a Roman origin. The last chapter argues that the book and its illustrations envisaged a primarily clerical audience, most likely deacons, who used it in connection with the preparation of other deacons, and ultimately of catechumens. The two chapters at the heart of the book, offering some of its most effective material, are devoted to a close reading of a few of the miniatures, the Creation, the Deluge, the opening of the Ark and Noah's offering, the Crossing of the Red Sea, Moses receiving and reading the Law above the Tabernacle, Cain and Abel, and Jacob and Esau. These chapters are full of interesting observations and plausible explanations based on textual and liturgical sources. For example, Verkerk effectively notes the emphasis on altars in the Noah and Moses scenes, and suggestively links these with liturgical ceremonies and typological significance. In both images the altar is equipped with chalices and/or bread, recalling the current Christian liturgy rather than following the specifications of the Old Testament texts. In both scenes the men at the altar are dressed in white, an unusual costume within the manuscript as a whole, suggesting typological connections with Christian clergy. In the Moses miniature, the Levites standing behind him number seven, which Verkerk connects with the seven deacons established by the apostles in Acts 6, and also with the seven deacons and diaconates of the church in early medieval Rome. As Verkerk describes it, the Tabernacle of the Exodus scene does not follow the textual description but instead appears to represent a Christian church, the central object being not the Ark of the Covenant but a draped Christian altar. In effect the composition recalls the sixth-century mosaic of Abel and Melchisedec in San Vitale, Ravenna, which provides not only a visual parallel but also a similar anachronistic, and typological, association of Old Testament figures with a Christian altar. …