Envisioning the Bishop: Images and the Episcopacy in the Middle Ages ed. by Sigrid Danielson, and Evan A. Gatti (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Envisioning the Bishop: Images and the Episcopacy in the Middle Ages ed. by Sigrid Danielson, and Evan A. Gatti Sabina Flanagan Danielson, Sigrid, and Evan A. Gatti, eds, Envisioning the Bishop: Images and the Episcopacy in the Middle Ages (Medieval Church Studies, 29), Turnhout, Brepols, 2014; hardback; pp. xx, 452; 7 colour, 45 b/w illustrations, 2 b/w line art; R.R.P. €110.00; ISBN 9782503547992. Studies of the secular clergy have for too long taken a back seat to those of the regulars but a society devoted to their cause is now starting to redress the balance. This book is the second collection published as a result of panels convened at various conferences by EPISCOPUS, a very approximate name for the Society for the Study of Bishops and the Secular Clergy in the Middle Ages. The earlier collection, The Bishop Reformed (Ashgate, 2007), was reviewed in Parergon, 27.1 (2010). The present, substantial volume comprises seventeen essays prefaced by the customary historiographical and theoretical introduction. The latter relies heavily on the work of the German art historian, Hans Belting, who ‘remind[s] us that images are never isolated. They must be both invented and perceived creating complex and recurring processes around their production, dissemination, affects and aftereffects’ (p. 1), sentiments with which, apart perhaps from the idea of recurrence, few historians would be inclined to quarrel. An Afterword by Maureen C. Miller indicates some of the common themes that emerge from the collection and concludes that ‘Medieval bishops have a great deal to tell us about concerns that are quite contemporary’, citing for example ‘how virtue came to be associated with sober attire rather than splendid silks’ (p. 434). Although the editors are art historians and the volume boasts both coloured and black and white illustrations, the studies are not confined to visual images of episcopacy. Indeed, roughly half of the essays are concerned with images/ideals/conceptions of the bishop derived from non-visual sources, including Sita Steckel’s on Carolingian book dedications and Sherry Reames’s on rewriting the various vitae of St Wulfstan of Worcester. A more unusual source for episcopal norms – mnemonic verses in canon law texts – is explored by Winston Black. This is an example of an essay which sticks to a single genre of writing. Even more narrowly focused is that of Alice Chapman [End Page 230] who investigates the image of the bishop found in Bernard of Clairvaux’s De Consideratione. Others employ various degrees of intertextuality though lack of space means not all can be mentioned. Thus, Kalani Craig describes Gregory of Tours’s use of imagery from the Vulgate with reference to episcopal authority in the Histories. A number of essays combine visual and non-visual sources: Deborah M. Deliyannis maps the frequency of donor portraits of bishops in Roman churches against different redactions of the Liber Pontificalis from the sixth to the ninth centuries. Joanne M. Pierce suggests how the images of Sigebert of Minden, appearing in the liturgical books made for his personal use, interact with the written text. Kara Ann Morrow’s essay on the sculptured portals of Bourges Cathedral is particularly adept at combining visual imagery (sculpture, manuscript illustrations, architectural features) with biblical texts, saints’ lives, and writings, both liturgical and expository, relating them among other things to sacred architecture and the consecration of churches. Information on the back cover promises ‘material from Late Antiquity through the thirteenth century’ and indeed the essays are arranged chronologically rather than thematically, each century being represented at least once. An unexpected bonus beyond the stated chronological range is William J. Diebold’s fascinating essay on exhibitions featuring Ottonian bishops in modern Germany and their relationship to changes in political and cultural sensibilities. The geographical spread is less even, being largely concentrated on Rome and modern France, Germany, England, and Ireland. The volume is well produced with footnotes rather than endnotes and individual bibliographies attached to each essay. The coloured plates are grouped together at the front of the book, while the black and white illustrations are generally placed in proximity to the relevant text. However, there is a major problem on p. 162 in Dorothy...