Biblia Pauperum Research Articles

La pluma y el cincel. Animales reales y fantásticos en la Galicia medieval: dónde encontrarlos y cómo entenderlos

In the Middle Ages, the presence of animals, both real and fantastic, on written and sculptural holders, has the generic purpose of transmitting values considered of necessary knowledge or compliance. This article will examine the fundamental uses in which they materialize, taking the society of medieval Galicia as a general framework of study and paying attention both to the sources in which they appear –stone and parchment– as well as to the issues they convey. To do this, we will define two spheres and we will read them from different perspectives: the written one, for an individual receiver with some training in literacy, an image intended to suggest certain content to a specific and interested person that unravels the text; and the sculptural one, more designed for a collective audience that nevertheless assumes the concepts in a particular way, in the exemplary functionality of a biblia pauperum more appropriate to the new Romanesque portico and with a more intimate and allegorical projection of the private.

Not for the Poor. The Biblia Pauperum on Medieval and Renaissance Tiled Stoves in Poland

As Biblia pauperum, we define not only books with an abbreviated text of Sacred Scripture, which were dominated by illustrations, but also cycles of artistic representations, e.g. painted on the walls of churches or decorating window stained-glass windows. However, other iconographic sources, such as stove tiles, are much less known. As archaeological monuments, most often preserved in fragments, they have not yet been thoroughly analysed. The article discusses medieval and Renaissance tiles with figural scenes with biblical motifs. As the archaeological sites most often feature several tiles decorated with similar thematic motifs, they should be treated as evidence of a conscious decision to show the cycle of events described in the Bible on the stove.

The Danse Macabre of the Beram Frescoes in the Chapel of sv. Marija na Škrilinah

The Danse Macabre as an iconographic theme appears in the Middle Ages across all of Europe carrying within it a message of the equality among people regardless of their station in life. Medieval artists used the various templates available to them: Biblia pauperum, Meditationes Vitae Christi, Legenda aurea, artistic templates, woodcuts, illuminated manuscripts, and the like. Scenes of the dying and death of ordinary people were not a theme of iconographic content prior to the Late Middle Ages, but rather begin to appear in the 14th century. There emerge at that time several categories of iconographic deaths. The Danse Macabre of the Beram frescoes (in the Chapel of sv. Marija na Škrilinah, 1474) contributes immeasurably to the artistic heritage of the Middle Ages as well as to Croatian cultural heritage.

Notes on Printing Press and Pali Literature in Burma

Beginning with a general reflection on the meaning of “printing revolution”, this paper offers a series of meditations about the role of printing culture in Buddhist Burma. In China and in Tibet, an indigenous printing tradition based on woodblock printing developed over the centuries, much earlier than in Europe. A similar technology, however, was also used in pre-Gutenberg Europe for printing the so-called “Bibles for the poor” ( Biblia pauperum ). I argue that we should differentiate the Gutenberg printing press from other reprographic means, even movable types. Burma has an almost uninterrupted history of relationships with China. Notwithstanding this vicinity, Burma has not developed any kind of reprographic technology. Manuscript culture, on the contrary, has been intensively cultivated at least since the Pagan period, 11th-13th centuries C.E. To judge from epigraphic records, the production of written texts in medieval Burma was extremely costly, for it demanded a great quantity of human labor. The profession of scribe was well known and well appreciated. Monasteries were usually endowed with scribes who would care for the replenishment of the library. The writing tradition was not static. It gained in strength over the centuries. And at the time of British annexation, literacy rates in Burma were higher than in England –without any intervention of the printing press. Even in modern times, two hundred years after the introduction of printing technology in Burma, the name for “literature” in Burmese continues to be “palm-leaf text” ( sa-pe ) and the manuscript imaginaire is still deeply related to Buddhism. The aim of this paper is to problematize printing culture from a particular, local perspective, and link it to the nature of its preceding manuscript tradition.

Piety in Pieces: How Medieval Readers Customized their Manuscripts by Kathryn M. Rudy

Reviewed by: Piety in Pieces: How Medieval Readers Customized their Manuscripts by Kathryn M. Rudy Christine Schott Piety in Pieces: How Medieval Readers Customized their Manuscripts By Kathryn M. Rudy. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2016. <https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product.php/477/piety-in-pieces--how-medieval-readers-customized-their-manuscripts?477> As the subtitle indicates, Piety in Pieces analyzes how and why readers altered their manuscripts in and around the fifteenth century. Kathryn Rudy draws on her extensive firsthand experience with manuscripts in the Netherlands, focusing on religious books (mainly books of hours) produced in that region after 1390, when book production methods shifted to accommodate the rapidly widening market. Open Book Publishers released Piety in Pieces in multiple formats: hard copy, eBook, and online (PDF and HTML). This review will focus on the effects of working with the book in these various formats. The overarching argument of Piety in Pieces is that, beginning in the late-fourteenth century and continuing through the fifteenth, manuscript production methods in the Netherlands developed from a holistic process into what Rudy calls the "modular" method, in which both lay and monastic ateliers produced texts in independent sections that could be arranged, added, or removed from the book at will. This method coincided with the rise of books of hours, in which only a few offices were standard while other elements, like the calendar (which would be adapted to reflect local saints), single-page miniatures, and especially indulgenced prayers, could be added and changed at practically any point in the manuscript's life. Because the interest in censorship has led other studies to focus on deletions from medieval books, Rudy takes up the less-studied subject of augmentations and additions, proceeding systematically through various kinds of alterations: those that did not require rebinding (like adding prayers into blank spaces), those that did require rebinding (like adding miniatures painted on individual leaves), and changes that were complex or unique in nature (like creating a composite book from sections either newly produced or previously bound elsewhere). The table of contents lists these kinds of interventions clearly, obviating the need for an exhaustive list here. Each type of augmentation is accompanied by a rich array examples and an analysis of the specific effects of the alteration: for instance, Heidelberg, UB, Cod. Pal. Germ. 148 intersperses [End Page 131] miniatures from a Biblia pauperum with the text of a psalter in order to integrate Old and New Testament theology (Part IV B, p. 233). In fact, Rudy's wealth of examples and her ability to posit the probable causes and motives underlying the changes made to the manuscripts constitute one of this book's particular contributions to the field of codicology and material studies. Rudy demonstrates the "close reading" techniques usually associated with the study of literature or art and applies them to the analysis of the details of decoration, mise-en-page, and concatenation in prayer books. These close readings in the body of Piety in Pieces culminate in a broader discussion in the final section, where Rudy posits that manuscripts like books of hours were seen as "expandable" entities, and that, contrary to our archivist instincts, writing in and altering them was seen as adding value rather than as defacement. The other particular advance made by this work is that it has been published in multiple formats, two of which (the PDF and the HTML) are available for free from the publisher's website. Each format has its advantages, both in general and in relation to the specific project of this book, and readers will want to decide on their chosen format based on their particular needs. ________ The hard copy book is, of course, the easiest to read for those who prefer looking at a page to looking at a screen. However, Piety in Pieces is a particularly image-rich work, and for scholars interested in studying these images, the hard copy is probably not the best format. The reason is twofold: first, the book contains many imbedded images, and these full-color photographs of manuscript pages are printed on regular mat rather than glossy paper, rendering the colors inaccurately. The images are also...

Andrássy Ignác Biblia Pauperuma

Lieutenant-colonel Ignác Andrássy kept several hundred books in his country house in Kajászószentpéter in the first half of the 19th century. His widow Mária Végh donated the collection to the library of the National Museum a few decades after his death in 1875. The majority of the books were Latin and German 17-18th century works on law and history and collections of religious homilies in addition to some antiques. The collection included some valuable items such as a copy of János Thuróczy’s chronicle (Brünn, 1488) or the Biblia pauperum. Archival sources outline that in 1814 the attention of Jakab Ferdinánd Miller director of library was drawn to an extraordinary block book. Miller mobilized all his contacts to acquire the book, soliciting help from the sub-prefect of Veszprém county and even the Palatine Joseph, too. It is not known what happened to the Biblia pauperum; probably it perished or is still latent. Later research hypothesized that it was identical with the copy in Esztergom, but we do not this assumption because the provenance of that copy could be convincingly determined: the ex libris in the book reveals that the owner was Tommaso Obizzi del Catajo, an 18th century bibliophile and antiquities collector.

Christian Education for the Jewish Christian during the 13th-14th centuries Based on Biblical Pauerum

In this paper, the researcher argues that the Biblia Pauperum was written for educating converted Jewish Christians in the late medieval period by analyzing the contemporary social and religious context as well as this book’s structure and content. To affirm Jesus as the predicted Messiah in the Hebrew Bible, friars used the typology directly connecting the narratives in the Old Testament to Jesus’ life and mission. In this research, the medieval people’s interpretation of the Bible and ways of theological thinking are investigated into. Even though this book was written for converted Jewish Christian in the late medieval ages, this book provides insight and perspective for today’s Christian education. Because this paper is the first about late medieval picture bibles, it provides a sort of provisional and introductory research for extended research in the future, particularly with regards to applications concerning contemporary Christian education, church history, and literature.

De bijzondere iconografie van Rembrandts Bileam

AbstractThe iconography of the biblical story of Balaam and the she-ass, told in Numbers 22-24, dates right back to the early Christian era. It depicts the confrontation of Balaam with the angel, whom he did not see blocking his way until his donkey opened his eyes by speaking to him. The simple scene, composed of a donkey rider beating his mount with raised club opposite an angel with raised sword, never before included a pouch containing papers and a kind of stick. From the fact that Rembrandt added this motif to the traditional image and gave it a prominent place in his composition (fig. 1) one may conclude that he meant to convey by this something very significant.Balak, king of Moab, induced the famous magician Balaam to come and curse the Israelites who had entered the plains of Moab. God, using Balaam as his temporary prophet, allowed him to go, provided that he would speak His words and bless Israel instead of cursing it. It was to this stringent condition that the angel reminded him halfway his journey. Upon his arrival Balaam blessed Israel three times. Beside himself with anger Balak sent him home without paying him. Before he went the prophet cursed the king, speaking the famous words: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth" (Numbers 24:17). This enunciation has always been taken as a Messianic prophecy.During the middle ages the sheer image of Balaam and the she-ass sufficed to evoke the Messianic prophecy. However, in some versions of the fifteenth-century Speculum Humanae Salvationis and Biblia Pauperum a star is added to the scene (fig. 2), obviously in order to remind one of the true meaning of the image.Depictions of Balaam and the she-ass had always been statical and emotionless but in the sixteenth century the dramatic potential of the story was recognized and fully exploited (fig. 3). At the same time the meaning of the scene was confined to the miracle of the speaking donkey, like any other miracle a sign of God's omnipotence. Moralistic interpretations were also possible. Maerten van Heemskerck, for instance, focussed on Balaam's reputation as being a miser (fig. 5). By the time Pieter Lastman painted Balaam and the she-ass (fig. 4) in 1622, the subject had become polyinterpretable.By adding a pouch with papers and a kind of stick Rembrandt indicated how his Balaam picture had to be understood. The leather pouch is an interesting object in itself, which Rembrandt and some of his contemporaries used several times in their work between 1615 and 1635 (figs. 7 and 8a-g). The papers with illegible writing in quasi-Hebrew letters represent Balaam's prophecies, one may assume, and the stick, in point of fact a commander's baton (figs. 9-11), metaphorically indicates which prophecy exactly is at issue. Unquestionably the Messianic one about the star coming out of Jacob and the sceptre rising out of Israel. In the late middle ages the star had been used occasionally as reference mark but this was no option for Rembrandt, because Balaam travelled by day. The alternative was the sceptre. The fact that Rembrandt depicted a commander's baton instead of a sceptre proves that he did not use a reformatory bible translation but either a catholic one or the Vulgata itself. Reformatory translations (all based on Luther's translation in German, which has 'Zepter') have 'scepter' (sceptre), whereas catholic translations (based on the Vulgata) have 'roede' (baton). The Vulgata has not 'sceptrum' but 'virga', i.e. verge, baton.Why did Rembrandt revive the Messianic meaning of the Balaam story? Most probably because his commissioner wanted him to do so. For Alfonso López, up to now known only as the first owner of the painting and who is supposed to have purchased it directly from Rembrandt, may very well have ordered it from him. Recent research has shown that he, a financial agent of Richelieu in Holland, was a 'morisco', a Spanish Muslim converted to Christianity. A convert may be interested in speaking donkeys but certainly more so in the coming of Christ.

Une oeuvre inconnue de Robert Boyvin à Budapest

Summary The Book of Hours Cod. Lat. 227 of the Széchényi National Library in Budapest was illuminated in Rouen at the end of the 15th century with a series of scenes from the Ancient Testament. It can be compared both in style and in iconography with the ms. W. 224 in the Baltimore Walters Art Museum, the ms. 5 in the Cherbourg Bibliothèque municipale and the ms. H. 1 of the Pierpont Morgan Library. In the manuscripts of Baltimore and Cherbourg the most of the typological connections were borrowed from the Speculum humanae salvationis and the compositions go back to the Lyon edition of 1478. The typological connections and the compositions in the Budapest manuscript follow an edition of the Biblia pauperum blockbook. The Cherbourg manuscript was illuminated in the workshop of the Master of the Échevinage de Rouen, the other three Books of Hours were painted by Robert Boyvin, a miniaturist working one generation later. The miniatures of the manuscript in Budapest presumably preserve some lost compositions of the Master of the Échevinage de Rouen.

Junius's blockbooks: copies of the Biblia pauperum and Canticum canticorum in the Bodleian Library and their place in the history of printing

<i>Junius's blockbooks: copies of the</i> Biblia pauperum <i>and</i> Canticum canticorum <i>in the Bodleian Library and their place in the history of printing</i>

Junius's Blockbooks: Copies of the Biblia Pauperum and Canticum Canticorum in the Bodleian Library and their Place in the History of Printing

Junius's Blockbooks: Copies of the Biblia Pauperum and Canticum Canticorum in the Bodleian Library and their Place in the History of Printing

The Bride Stripped Bare: A Rare Type of the Disrobing of Christ

In a small but significant group of fifteenth-century manuscripts of the Biblia Pauperum, the Disrobing of Christ prior to his crucifixion is presented within an intricate typological nexus found nowhere else in medieval art or literature. Key to that typology is a rarely depicted episode from the Old Testament, the Stripping and Scourging of the Sponsa as related in Song of Songs 5:7. This unique cross-gendered prefiguration has built into it multiple layers of allegorical references which include the asscription of a female aspect to the body of Christ, based on the identification of his body with Ecclesia, which the Sponsa signifies. Moreover, insofar as the Sponsa also signifies the individual soul, the typology in question makes a direct appeal to the viewer to love and to identify with Christ's stripped, suffering body in order to merit the reward of being joined to him as his bride.

The Bible of the Poor [Biblia Pauperum]: A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9.d.2 ed. by Albert C. Labriola, John W. Smeltz

The Bible of the Poor [Biblia Pauperum]: A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9.d.2 ed. by Albert C. Labriola, John W. Smeltz

The Bible of the Poor [Biblia pauperum]: A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9 d.2

The Bible of the Poor [<i>Biblia pauperum</i>]: A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9 d.2

A New Reading of Nicolas Poussin's "The Miracle of the Ark in the Temple of Dagon"

The original title of The Plague at Ashdod in the Louvre, Il miraculo dell' Arca nel tempio di Agone, is the point of departure for an alternate reading of the painting based on Samuel iconography, plague imagery, and textual sources which were ignored in the past. Nicolas Poussin's aim was not simply to paint two episodes from the Book of Samuel, as has hitherto been claimed, but rather to represent the culmination of a chain of events that foreshadowed not only the future of the Jews but that of Christianity as well. It becomes apparent that the artist wove a rich pattern of symbolism which implies the Augustinian conception of a divine plan governing history, as prefigured in the medieval typology of the widely popular Biblia Pauperum.

Le Triptyque du "Buisson ardent" de Nicolas Froment et son programme iconographique

The Burning Bush triptych by the fifteenth-century French painter Nicolas Froment allows a triple thematic reading involving, in addition to the Burning Bush, allusions to the revelations to St. Joachim and St. Joseph. These three themes are closely linked to typological interpretations regarding Christ's genealogy and, by extension, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin which appeared frequently in the illustrations of the Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum humanae salvationis from the fourteenth century on. The interpretation of the genealogy of Christ is found in the Breviare Romanum, the possible source for the inscription taken from Exodus 111:2 at the bottomof the central panel, which is in accordance with the text of the Book of Hours in front of the donor in the right-hand panel Ecclesiastes 24:11); and in the Missale Romanum, in which the text of Proverbs 8:22-35, part of which is shown at the top of the panel, is followed by the account given by St. Joseph, husband of Mary, of Messianic genealogy in Matthew 1:1-16. The blessing bestowed by Moses on Joseph, son of Israel, in Deuteronomy 33:13-16, corresponds closely to Jacob's blessing in Genesis IXL:22-26 in its reference to the twelve tribes of Israel - which are represented by the figures framing the central panel -and thus could be the primary source for the thematic coupling of Moses and St. Joseph.

Bald Jonah and the Exegesis of 4 Kings 2.23

In recent years, a good deal of attention has been paid to the place of typology in late medieval art. This way of thought so characteristic of the Middle Ages, in which Old Testament persons and events are seen to have a prefigurative relationship to those of the New, was a popular teaching device. It is nowhere better seen than in the Biblia pauperum or picture Bible, which originated in a mid-thirteenth-century Dominican milieu and was probably inspired by the altar piece of Nicholas of Verdun, made in 1181. The pages of these books contain drawings that show the typological relationship between Old and New Testament events by means of a center roundel depicting some episode of Christ's life, known as the anti-type, flanked by two Old Testament scenes, the types, which were thought to prefigure it. Appropriate Bible prophecies in banners heightened the visual impact of the drawings for the literate. From its inception, the Biblia pauperum was of enormous importance for northern European art, and its influence can be seen well into the Reformation.

The Living Likeness: The Forty-Page BlockbookBiblia Pauperumand The Imitation of Images in Utrecht and Other Manuscripts

(1983). The Living Likeness: The Forty-Page Blockbook Biblia Pauperum and The Imitation of Images in Utrecht and Other Manuscripts. Journal of the British Archaeological Association: Vol. 136, No. 1, pp. 124-136.

The Glorious Victories of Amda Seyon. King of Ethiopia, translated and edited by G. W. B. Huntingford. Oxford Library of African Literature, Clarendon Press, 1965. pp.142. illustrated. 38s.

THE GLORIOUS VICTORIES OF AMDA SEYON. KING OF ETHIOPIA, translated and edited by G. W. B. HuntingfordTHE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MODERN AFRICA, A Pastoral Theology, by J. Mullin. G. ChapmanWITCHCRAFT, EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN, by Geoffrey ParrinderTHE FAITH OF THE COUNSELLORS, by Paul HalmosSACRED AND SECULAR, by A. M. RamseyCOLLABORATION WITH TYRANNY IN RABBINIC LAW. by David Daube. (Riddell Memorial Lectures. Newcastle University)THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE RELIGION, by E. E. Evans‐PritchardMISSION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, by Ferninand HahnFILMSTRIPS FROM THE BODLEIAN LIBRARYBIBLIA PAUPERUM: Bodleian Library Filmstrips (Roll 173 I)BIBLIA PAUPERUM: Bodleian Selection (Roll 175 I)THE FACE OF GOD I: Bodleian Selection (Roll 179 B)THE FACE OF GOD II: Bodleian Selection (Roll 179 C)THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, by Thomas McPhersonREALITY AND MAN. by S. L. Frank. Faber and Faber

The Sculptures of the Church of Saint-Maurice at Vienne, theBiblia Pauperum and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis

Of all the books written in the later Middle Ages in northern Europe none exerted such a far-reaching influence upon artists working in all art media as the Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis.1 The first general discussion of this relationship was by Émile Mâle in his standard study of late mediaeval Christian iconography, L'art religieux de la fin du moyen-âge en France.2 He pointed out numerous specific instances. Among the prominent Flemish painters Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Dirk Bouts were familiar with illustrated manuscript copies of both of these books, as the iconographical programs of many of their paintings attest. Either manuscripts or more probably woodcut editions were followed in the sixteenth century by the designers of the well-known tapestries of the Life of Christ at La Chaise-Dieu and of the Story of the Virgin series at Reims.3