Medieval Art History Research Articles

Иконографический анализ миниатюр «Зерцала человеческого спасения» из собрания Н. В. Угодиной

The unknown fragments of a German illuminated manuscript were discovered in January 2015. They were introduced for a scholarly usage and studied in this paper as an object of medieval art history including codicological, stilystical and iconographic analyses. This article is devoted to their attribution as sister miniatures of the Bavarian translation of Speculum humanae salvationis (Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis), which were previously considered lost from the Konigsberg Public Library during the Second World War in 1944, to their program, iconographic motifs, and stylistic similarities with the miniatures made in Upper Germany workshops of the 15th century, as well as to the subsequent existence of this artwork.

Speculum humanae salvationis: iconographic and stylistic analysis of miniatures from the collection of N. Ugodina

Unknown fragments of German illuminated manuscript were discovered in January, 2015. They were introduced for scholarly usage and studied in this paper as an object of medieval art history including codicological and iconographic analysis. This paper is devoted both to their attribution as sister miniatures of the Bavarian translation of Speculum humanae salvationis (Spiegel menschlicher Behältnis or Mirror of Human Salvation) which were previously considered to have been lost from the Königsberg Public Library during the Second World War in 1944 and their program and iconographic motifs (including paternalistic motif of placing of one’s foot on clothes) and stylistic similarities with miniatures of Upper German workshops of the fifteenth century and the subsequent existence of the artwork.

La iconografía en la era digital: hacia una heurística para el estudio del contenido de las imágenes medievales

This article invites us to consider the usefulness of iconography as a method to describe the subjects represented in medieval works of art. In this study, a greater emphasis has been put on investigating the epistemological implications resulting from the use of that method, and the biases that may appear in the process of transforming images into words. The aim is to address what has been called the “semantic gap”, i.e., a kind of barrier that prevents the verbal representation of a non-lexical medium, such as the visual one, in a satisfactory and undiminished way. After a brief panorama of image theory throughout the classical era, with especial reference to the rhetorical genre of ekphrasis, this study suggests that, beneath the apparent balance between the verbal and the visual media, a rivalry persists. Later on, in medieval times, a mutation occurs in the way we perceive the visual arts and the images start being considered as texts that can be read. Thanks to the prejudice implied by the statement that we can only attain knowledge through words, the image is relegated to a decorative role or, at the most, an instrument of evangelisation of the illiterate. In the discipline of medieval art history, defective uses of iconography have led to question its validity as a tool for analysis, even after the systematizing task endeavoured by Erwin Panofsky. Iconography, however, has gained new momentum thanks largely to the creation of digital collections that require iconographic principles to facilitate the recovery of visual documents. The new technologies, however, have accentuated the semantic gap between image and word, and nuanced the value of iconography, combined with indexing techniques based on controlled vocabularies and thesauri. In addition, a critical survey has been made of the most interesting projects which have undertaken the task of indexing the medieval art. Finally, it is argued that migration of iconography into the Web can be the hard core that allows medieval art history to step forward and fully enter into the domain of digital humanities.

From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History ed. by Colum Hourihane (review)

Review(s) of: From minor to major: The minor arts in Medieval art history (occasional papers, 14), by Hourihane, Colum, ed., Princeton, NJ, Index of Christian Art, 2012, paperback, pp. 336, 257 colour, 42 b/w illustrations, R.R.P. US$35.00, ISBN 9780983753711.

The World at 1200

The peoples and cultures that have populated our developing world have left behind artifacts of innovation, tradition, and success. These relics serve to educate modern societies as to the daily life and symbolic traditions experienced during these major historical periods. In particular, the 12th and 13th centuries held the end of the Crusades, the issuance of the Magna Carta, the construction of the Mongol empire, the expansion of feudalism, and many other definitive events in world history. Amanda Qualls has assembled a collection of materials that explore and analyze this period. She identifies a variety of material types and describes whether resources are encyclopedic, geographically specific, or relevant to novice or experienced readers. Qualls was inspired to create this guide after taking a course titled The World at 1200 from Danielle Joyner, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art History, and Donna M. Glowacki, Assistant Professor of Archaeology, both of the University of Notre Dame. —Editor

Notes from the Field: Detail

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsSusan HillerAmerican-born Susan Hiller lives in London, where she began her artistic career in the early 1970s. Her commitment to exploring “the unconscious” of our culture is often cited as a major influence on younger artists. She works in a broad range of media and exhibits and publishes internationally [www.susanhiller.org].Spike BucklowSpike Bucklow trained as a chemist, made puppets for the film industry, and is now a conservation scientist. He teaches and undertakes research, mainly on old master paintings, at the Hamilton Kerr Institute. His follow-up to The Alchemy of Paint has the working title The Riddle of the Image [Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, Whittlesford CB22 4NE, U.K., sb10029.cam.ac.uk].Johannes EndresJohannes Endres is visiting associate professor of German at Vanderbilt University. He works on German and European literature in an interdisciplinary perspective. Recent publications are on topoi and metaphors in art, culture, and science; concepts of similarity and resemblance; discourses on generation and inheritance; cultural theories and practices of fetishism [Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, Vanderbilt University, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, Tenn. 37235–1567, johannes.endres@vanderbilt.edu].Carlo GinzburgCarlo Ginzburg, now retired, taught at Bologna, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. His books include The Night Battles; The Cheese and the Worms; The Enigma of Piero; Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method; Wooden Eyes; History, Rhetoric, and Proof; and Threads and Traces [Piazza San Martino 1, 40126 Bologna, Italy, ginzburg@history.ucla.edu].Joan KeeJoan Kee is the author of The Urgency of Method: Tansaekhwa and Contemporary Korean Art (2013), the editor of Intersections: Issues in Contemporary Asian Art (2004), and the co-editor of Contemporaneity and Art in Southeast Asia (2011). She teaches modern and contemporary Asian art at the University of Michigan [Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48109, jkee@umich.edu].Spyros PapapetrosSpyros Papapetros is an associate professor of theory and historiography at Princeton University. He is the author of On the Animation of the Inorganic: Art, Architecture, and the Extension of Life (University of Chicago Press, 2012) and the editor of Space as Membrane by Siegfried Ebeling (AA Publications, 2010) [School of Architecture, S-110 Architecture Building, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544, spapapet@princeton.edu].Adrian RifkinAdrian Rifkin is professor of art writing in the Department of Art, Goldsmiths, London [Department of Art, Goldsmiths, London SE14 6NW, U.K., www.gai-savoir.net].Joanna RocheJoanna Roche, professor of art history at California State University, Fullerton, investigates contemporary artists with a focus on memory and process. She recently published Tyrannical Angels and Other Love Poems (2011). Roche received the 2002 Art Journal Award from the College Art Association [Department of Visual Arts, California State University, Fullerton, 800 North State College Boulevard, Fullerton, Calif. 92831, jroche@fullerton.edu].Nina RoweNina Rowe is associate professor of art history at Fordham University. Her publications include The Jew, the Cathedral, and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 2011) and (as editor) Medieval Art History Today—Critical Terms, special issue of Studies in Iconography 33 (2012) [Department of Art History and Music, Fordham University, FMH 417A, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, N.Y. 10458, nrowe@fordham.edu].Alain SchnappAlain Schnapp is professor of classical archaeology at the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne), specializing in Greek iconography and the cultural history of antiquity. Alongside numerous visiting professorships, he was the first director of the Institut National d'Histoire l'Art and coordinator of the European cultural project Archives of European Archaeology [Université de Paris I/INHA, 2 Rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France].Blake StimsonBlake Stimson teaches contemporary art, the history of photography, and critical theory at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is the author of The Pivot of the World: Photography and Its Nation (MIT Press, 2006) and Citizen Warhol (forthcoming from Reaktion Books) [Department of Art History, m/c 201, Henry Hall 302A, 935 West Harrison, Chicago, Ill. 60607].Robert WilliamsRobert Williams, professor of the history of art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of Art, Theory, and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy (Cambridge, 1997) and Art Theory: An Historical Introduction (Blackwell, 2004; Wiley Blackwell, 2008). With James Elkins he edited Renaissance Theory (Routledge, 2006) [Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93106, robertw@arthistory.ucsb.edu].

Notes from the Field: Appropriation: Back Then, in Between, and Today

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsGeorg BaselitzGeorg Baselitz was born January 23, 1938, in Deutschbaselitz in Saxony, Germany, and given the name Hans-Georg Bruno Kern. He lives and works at the Lake Ammersee (Bavaria) and in Imperia (the Italian Riviera).Kirk AmbroseKirk Ambrose is associate professor of medieval art history at the University of Colorado. His publications include the book The Nave Sculpture of Vézelay: The Art of Monastic Viewing and a co-edited volume that surveys approaches to Romanesque sculpture [Department of Art and Art History, 318 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo. 80309, kirk.ambrose@colorado.edu].Elizabeth EdwardsElizabeth Edwards is professor of photographic history and director of the Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University. A visual and historical anthropologist, she previously held academic and curatorial posts in Oxford and London. She has written extensively on cross-cultural relations between photography, anthropology, and history [Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, U.K., eedwards@dmu.ac.uk].Ursula Anna FrohneUrsula Anna Frohne is professor of art history for twentieth- and twenty-first-century art at the Kunsthistorisches Institut, University of Cologne. Her research focuses on contemporary art practices, visual theory, video, film, photography, cinematographic aesthetics (http://kinoaesthetik.uni-koeln.de/), the political implications of art, and the economies of the art system [Kunsthistorisches Institut, University of Cologne Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923 Cologne, Germany, ursula.frohne@uni-koeln.de].Cordula GreweCordula Grewe, author of Painting the Sacred in the Age of Romanticism (2009), recently completed The Nazarenes: Romantic Avant-Garde and the Art of the Concept; her new projects explore the arabesque from eighteenth-century aesthetics to twentieth-century modernism and the tableau vivant from 1800 to 2000 [Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, MC 5517, New York, N.Y. 10027, cg2101@columbia.edu or cordula@grewe.us].Daniel Heller-RoazenDaniel Heller-Roazen is the Arthur W. Marks ‘19 Professor of Comparative Literature and the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University. He is the author of five books, among which, most recently, The Fifth Hammer: Pythagoras and the Disharmony of the World (Zone Books, 2011) [Department of Comparative Literature, 133 East Pyne, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544, dheller@princeton.edu].Ian McLeanResearch professor of Indigenous contemporary art at the University of Wollongong, Ian McLean has published How Aborigines Invented the Idea of Contemporary Art, The Art of Gordon Bennett, and White Aborigines: Identity Politics in Australian Art. He serves on the advisory boards of Third Text, World Art, and National Identities [Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia, imclean@uow.edu.au].Saloni MathurSaloni Mathur, associate professor of art history at the University of California, is author of India by Design: Colonial History and Cultural Display (2007), editor of The Migrant's Time: Rethinking Art History and Diaspora (2011), and co-editor of No Touching, Spitting, Praying: Modalities of the Museum in South Asia (forthcoming) [Department of Art History, University of California at Los Angeles, 100 Dodd Hall, Los Angeles, Calif. 90095, mathur@ucla.edu].Lisa PonLisa Pon is associate professor at Southern Methodist University. Author of Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi: Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print (Yale University Press, 2004), she is completing two books, Art, Icon, Print: Forlì's Madonna of the Fire and Raphael and the Italian Renaissance: Theorizing Artistic Collaboration [Department of Art History, Southern Methodist University, PO Box 750356, Dallas, Tex. 75275, lpon@smu.edu].Iain Boyd WhyteIain Boyd Whyte is professor of architectural history at the University of Edinburgh and has written extensively on architectural modernism and twentieth-century German art. Recent publications include Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science (2011). He is also editor of the electronic journal Art in Translation [Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 20 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JZ, Scotland, U.K., i.b.whyte@ed.ac.uk].

Archeologia medievale, storia dell'arte medievale, antropologia culturale

Drawing upon the introductory essays of a medieval archaeologist (Sauro Gelichi), of an art historian (Marco Collareta), of an anthropologist (Marco Aime), of three discussants’ papers (respectively Paolo Delogu, Gherardo Ortalli and Maria Cristina La Rocca’s), and a lively debate carried out by several scholars, the dossier – paying specific attention to Italy – presents the main methodological and historiographical issues relating Medieval history and its links with the above mentioned disciplines (Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Art History, Cultural Anthropology).

The Omnipresent Death in the Iconography of Saint Simeon’s Shrine in Zadar

In this paper the discussion topics comprise some aspects of the complex iconography of death on one of the masterpieces of European Gothic goldsmiths’ work, St Simeon’s shrine in Zadar, the work of Franjo (Francesco) from Milan, who signed it in 1380, and his workshop. The allusion to death in the hagiography of St Simeon, the power and the character of the saint’s relics, also the royal devotion behind the commission of the reliquary, will be considered as the most likely explanation for such a high occurrence of direct references to death in the various scenes and also the explanation for the analogies with European sculpture prompted by the overall shape of the shrine. These considerations will stress again the originality of the iconographic concept of this monumental silver reliquary, while focusing attention on the fact that it encompasses also the allusions to death of historical personages, or even depictions of them dying or mourning their dead relatives, which is unprecedented in the history of medieval art, as it has been already pointed out in art historical literature (A. Munk). The character of the holy relic influenced the shape of the reliquary of St Simeon, especially its construction (figures of angels as supports suggesting Elevatio animae are the primary interest of this paper) and its segmentation, which were borrowed from the shape of some of the contemporary Gothic funerary monuments. The attention of the authoress will focus on some of the most influential works in Italian Gothic sculpture in the attempt to trace the goldsmith’s inspiration more closely by aid of the iconographical motif of four angels which were often forgotten as an important part of the original appearance of the shrine.

Would There Have Been Gothic Art Without the Vikings? The Contribution of Scandinavian Medieval Art

The author intent is to illuminate how many of the artistic traditions of this region are integral rather than marginal to a comprehensive view of European medieval art history and to demonstrate what can be gained for the broader field by extending the boundaries to incorporate a more inclusive conception of medieval art. He highlights Scandinavian medieval art, considering, first, what is widely known about this art as well as what has not been given wider attention; second, why this art has been marginalized; and, finally, how this peripheral tradition should be viewed in its own right as an agent in the formation of European culture, not merely relegated to a level of indigenous curiosity. The Vikings were decisive for Norman civilization, and, in turn, Norman culture - not least its ship-building techniques - was formative for Gothic art and architecture. Keywords:European culture; European Medieval Art; Gothic Art; Inclusive Conception; Norman; Scandinavian Medieval Art; Vikings

The Mirror of Salvation: Speculum Humanae Salvationis. An Edition of British Library Blockbook G. 11784 (review)

The Mirror of Salvation: Speculum Humanae Salvationis. An Edition of British Library Blockbook G. 11784. Translation and commentary by Albert C. Labriola and John W. Smeltz. (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. 2002. Pp. viii, 194; 58 black and white illustrations. $65.00.) It is difficult to imagine the envisioned for this edition by its editor-translators. The editors say their purpose is to present the Speculum Humanae Salvationis an immediately accessible and understandable form and to the widest possible present-day audience (p. 6). Judging from their approach, they are resurrecting this late-medieval text for a modern, non-specialist reader. While the translation of the Speculum text that forms the core of the volume will be useful as a finding aid for English-speaking scholars working in the fields of medieval art history, history, theology and literature, the explanatory texts are simplistic and the apparatus is minimal. The volume consists of a short introduction, a list of woodcut illustrations, reproductions of the woodcuts accompanied by an English translation of their Latin captions and texts, a modem commentary on the text titled Interpreting the Blockbook, a cursory and somewhat dated bibliography, and an index. The editors provide no rationale as to why they chose the second Latin edition of the Speculum, dated by vanTheinen and Goldfinch as c. 1474-75 (.Incunabula Printed in the low Countries, 1999, item 2007), for translation and reproduction. This Speculum edition is, in fact, very interesting as it combines xylographie printing (also known as prototypography) with moveable type, though readers are not told why this might be interesting. The first Latin edition, also printed in the Netherlands, and subsequent editions are not discussed. In their brief discussion of xylographie reproduction (the terms 'xylography' and 'prototypography' are nowhere used), the editors say that the woodblocks were moistened with dye (p. vii), which is odd, as the usual substance for printing in this period is ink. Very little is said about the role of blockbooks in the early history of printing; there is no mention of A. H. Stevenson's important discovery about watermarks in blockbooks, for example; and there is no discussion at aE of the role that typographical images like those found in the Speculum play in the margins of Books of Hours, the best-selling book of the later Middle Ages. In their introduction, the editors do say they hope their work will encourage readers to explore further the iconography in Gothic stained glass and sculpture, and in Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (p. …

The Mind's eye: art and theological argument in the Middle Ages

Introduction by Jeffrey F. Hamburger The Place of Theology in Medieval Art History: Problems, Positions, Possibilities by Jeffrey F. Hamburger Anthropology and the Use of Religious Images in the Opus Caroli Regis (Libri Carolini) by Karl F. Morrison Replica: Images of Identity and the Identity of Images in Prescholastic France by Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak Is There a Theology of the Gothic Cathedral? A Re-reading of Abbot Suger's Writings on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis by Andreas Speer Christ and the Vision of God: The Biblical Diagrams of the Codex Amiatinus by Celia Chazelle Raban Maur, Bernard de Clairvaux, Bonaventure: expression de l'espace et topographie spirituelle dans les images medievales by Christian Heck Typology and Its Uses in the Moralized Bible by Christopher Hughes L'Exception corporelle: a propos de l'Assomption de Marie by Jean-Claude Schmitt Theologians as Trinitarian Iconographers by Bernard McGinn Seeing and Seeing Beyond: The Mass of St. Gregory in the Fifteenth Century by Caroline Walker Bynum Porous Subject Matter and Christ's Haunted Infancy by Alfred Acres Love's Arrows: Christ as Cupid in Late Medieval Art and Devotion by Barbara Newman Moving Images in the Mind's Eye by Marty Carruthers Vox Imaginis: Anomaly and Enigma in Romanesque Art by Anne-Marie Bouche Seeing as Action and Passion in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries by Katherine H. Tachau As far as the eye can see...: Rituals of Gazing in the Late Middle Ages by Thomas Lentes The Medieval Work of Art: Wherein the Work? Wherein the Art? by Jeffrey F. Hamburger Turning a Blind Eye: Medieval Art and the Dynamics of Contemplation by Herbert L. Kessler

A note on the research on the ewer with enamel plaques of St. Maurice d'Agaune

There are very few objects equally well-known in the early medieval archaeology and art history of Western Europe, Byzantium, Sassanian Iran, early Islam and the Avars, and one of them is the ewer from the monastery of St. Maurice d’Agaune. It has not been doubted for long now that the ewer itself is a ninth-century Carolingian goldwork. What are debated and uncertain, however, are the dating (6 to 12 century) and origin of the decorative enamel plaques. Views differ significantly especially regarding the latter (Iran, Byzantium, the Abbasid Caliphate, Avars, the Carolingian Empire, medieval Venice), in 1946 M. Aga-Oglu counted 13 (!) versions,1 not including the theory of Avar origin, which was put forward only after the publication of the Turkish scholar’s article.2 Although I will not be able to provide here an answer either, I hope to contribute to research by eliminating two candidates from the list of the most probable places of origin. The article by A. Alfoldi was well received both by scholars involved in the research on the origin of cloisonne and by Hungarian archaeologists. The latter is easy to explain: for them the notion of Avar connections was simply attractive.3 With regard to international research, the reason of the positive reaction could have been that they hoped to receive guidance regarding the cultural affiliation of an object and representational type unknown to them, but apparently of oriental origin. Since none of the possibilities taken into account till then had been convincing based on the available data, it was understandable that the idea of origin from a new region, a new culture, was engaging. We have to note, however, that none of the scholars who accepted A. Alfoldi’s views were well-trained in – or even superficially informed about – the archaeology of the Avars and the early medieval Carpathian Basin. As a consequence, they could not realize the insurmountable distance between the enamel plaques of St. Maurice d’Agaune and the Avar material, and the unrealism of the reconstruction as a sceptre. In the interpretation of international research, A. Alfoldi proposed that the enamel plaques of the jar had come from the treasury of the Avar Khaganate, more precisely from a hypothetical Avar royal sceptre. In fact, he did not suggest that the plaques themselves were Avar products, only that the sceptre they decorated had been in Avar possession. According to Alfoldi, the plaques were manufactured ‘zweifellos in einem der grosen Kunstzentren des fruhislamischen Nahen Ostens’.

Leonor of England, Plantagenet queen of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, and her foundation of the Cistercian abbey of Las Huelgas. In imitation of Fontevraud?

In 1187 Alfonso VIII of Castile and his queen, Leonor of England, founded a Cistercian nunnery, Santa Maria Regalis de Las Huelgas, on the outskirts of Burgos. Despite the clear allegiance of the foundation to the Cistercians from the outset, the idea that the abbey was inspired by and even modelled on the nunnery of Fontevraud in Anjou is an encroaching commonplace in accounts of medieval Spanish history and art history around 1200. This study re-evaluates the arguments for that perception and puts forward a different reading of the early years of Las Huelgas, not as a foreign importation but as a peculiarly Iberian, even Castilian, institution.

:The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany

The Visual and the Visionary adds a new dimension to the study of female spirituality, with its nuanced account of the changing roles of images in medieval monasticism from the twelfth century to the Reformation. In nine essays embracing the histories of art, religion, and literature, Jeffrey Hamburger explores the interrelationships between the visual arts and female spirituality in the context of the cura monialium, the pastoral care of nuns. Used as instruments of instruction and inspiration, images occupied a central place in debates over devotional practice, monastic reform, and mystical expression. Far from supplementing a history of art from which they have been excluded, the images made by and for women shaped that history decisively by defining novel modes of religious expression, above all, the relationship between sight and subjectivity. With this book, the study of female piety and artistic patronage becomes an integral part of the general history of medieval art and spirituality.

Art, Enclosure and the Cura Monialium: Prolegomena in the Guise of a Postscript

A history of the art and architecture of female monasticism requires a social history of female spirituality in the Middle Ages. Neither, however, has been written, perhaps because each is integral to the other. The cura monialium provides a common denominator linking both subjects to their larger context within medieval monasticism. After an overview of enclosure emphasizing its limits as well as its strictures, the article turns to problems in female monastic architecture. Architecture enforced enclosure and articulated its experience, yet the two topics have remained virtually distinct. A third section examines the role of women as patrons. In conclusion, the article considers whether convents produced or possessed a visual culture as distinctive as corresponding currents within female spirituality. Despite the restrictions imposed by enclosure, nuns used images to develop and sustain a spirituality that was distinct from prevailing norms and that ultimately helped to transform them. The study of female piety and patronage can therefore be seen as an integral part of a general history of medieval art and spirituality.

On a recent loss in Medieval art history

On a recent loss in Medieval art history

An Exchange on "the State of Medieval Art History"

An Exchange on "the State of Medieval Art History"

An Exchange on “the State of Medieval Art History”

(1989). An Exchange on “the State of Medieval Art History”. The Art Bulletin: Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 506-507.

Oaks, Wolves and Love: Celtic Monks and Northern Forests

In 1967 Lynn White, Jr., published a controversial paper, Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis'1 which suggested that part of blame for Western culture's abuse of nature lay at door of Christian tradition. Through long scholarly battle precipitated by White's analysis, historians, theologians, and environmental managers have both lauded and condemned Christian writings and attitudes concerning nature. In field of environmental history, academic squabble over worth of Christianity as an ethical basis for environmental management has unfortunately resulted in sweeping summaries of hundreds of years of European and Middle Eastern religious thought and technological development. Dedicated to extracting an overall evaluation of Christian ecotheology, such summaries have paid very little attention to differences among individual religious sects or to social milieus in which they arose. The literature has tended to rely on a few well-known texts, such as first chapters of Genesis, and to dwell on best-known figures and groups, such as Saint Francis of Assisi. The result has been a historiography that dabbles in most accessible literatures and then summarizes information from widely disjunct sources and eras. Most modern students of environmental history are familiar with Saint Francis's The Canticle of Brother Sun and with such stories as Wolf of Gubbio from Little Flowers of St. Francis.2 Fewer are familiar with Saint Antony of Egypt, despite available translations, and only those very conversant in folklore, archaeology, medieval art, or Celtic history are likely to have studied Saint Coemgen (Kevin) or Saint Columban. Eclectic scholarship and lack of interest in primary sources have given false impression that early Christian appreciation of wild nature was isolated and strongly suppressed throughout church. In Wilderness and American Mind, Roderick Nash addresses common misconception that early Christian and monastic interest in nature was limited to a handful of insightful saints. Although Nash recognizes Christian monasticism as a possible exception to supposed early Christian antagonism to wilderness, he suggests, however, that monks paid little attention to their environment and had few, if any, aesthetic concerns. He distinguishes Saint Basil's fourth-century written description of the forested mountain on which he lived as unusual for time because it seems to acknowledge natural beauty in wilderness.3 Nash concludes, On whole monks regarded wilderness as having value only for escaping