Very Old Cardinal Virtues

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Papal Burial Place Bamberg for Clemens II (after 1047 / probably c. 1237)

According ...
Das heutige marmorne Hochgrab entstand beim Bau des Eckbertdomes im 13. Jahrhundert (um 1237) und steht auf einem Sandsteinsockel, welcher an den Ecken und in der Mitte der Längsseite zylindrische Säulenbasen aufweist.
https://bamberger-dom.de/kirchenraum/we ... oelscher_s
... the sarcophagus with the cardinal virtues was made c. 1237.

Picture 1:
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from https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayern ... mberg,_Dom


Picture 2:
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from http://www.vaticanhistory.de/pm/html/clemens_ii_.html

The second page has large single pictures of all virtue objects .... but the presented text has contradictions to the way, how we would identify the objects.

Picture 1 (long side):
left: "Gerechtigkeit" (= Justice) ... our value is also Justice)
middle: "Freigebigkeit" (= Generosity) .... our value is clearly Temperance
rigth: "Mäßigkeit" (= Temperance) .... our value is possibly "river of paradize", possibly Freigebigkeit

Picture 2 (long side):
left: "Stärke" (= Strength) ... our value is also Strength)
right: "Unschuld"(= Innocence) ... our value would be Prudentia, as it is the 4th missing cardinal virtue and a dragon might replace the common viper of Prudentia

The head sides present ...
a. the pope with a guardian angel
b. an unusual Jesus Christ with shield and sword in a scabbard
(large pictures at the page)

The text gives the follwing info:
Ende September reiste Papst Clemens II. über die Marken in Richtung Fonte Avellana. In der Nähe von Pesaro, im Kloster Badia di S. Tommaso am Aposella (St. Thomas Kloster, heute Gemeinde Montelabbate an der Adriaküste) erkrankte der Papst schwer an Fieber. Hier pflegten ihn die Benediktinermönche vom 24. September bis zu seinem Tod am 09. Oktober 1047. Kurz im Kloster bestattet (1. Grab), wurde sein Leichnam im folgenden Jahr unter schwierigen Umständen im Winter bei Schnee und Eis in seine Heimat nach Bamberg überführt (2. Grab). Sein Sarkophag im Westchor des Doms zu Bamberg ist das einzigste Grab eines Papstes nördlich der Alpen.
Pope Clemens travelled in the region of Pesaro and became sick with a fever around 24th of September 1047. He spend his last days at the cloister Badia di S. Tommaso at Aposella (nowadays Montelabbate at the coast of the Adria). He died 9th of October. In the next year his corpse was transported to Bamberg. His sarcophagus is the only papal burial place North of the Alps.
Last edited by Huck on 03 Apr 2023, 06:46, edited 3 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues

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Huck wrote: 17 Mar 2020, 19:51 RDK X, 225, Abb. 1. Evangeliar. Frankreich, 2. H. 9. Jh. [1. Cambrai, Bibl. com., cod. 327 (Evangeliar), fol. 16v. Frankr., 2. H. 9. Jh.]


4 Cardinal virtues ?
Yep. Carolingian, second half of the 9th century, dedicatory miniature of the Cambrai gospels. Virtues are fairly straight forward, from upper left and clockwise: Prudence with a book, Justice with the scales, Fortitude with spear and shield, and Temperance apparently with a lamp/torch and in the other hand a vase pouring water (presumably advocating a mean between the two). Figure 32 in Adolf Katzenellenbogen, Allegories of the Virtues and Vices in Medieval Art: From Early Christian Times to the Thirteenth Century, 1964. He describes the format of the miniature on p. 31, but more interesting are the general comments on the previous page:

It was the clear, fundamentally classical system of the four cardinal virtues which they added to the portrayals of notable personages, especially of rulers. For Alcuin and other writers of the Carolingian period had praised afresh and with considerable emphasis the nature of these spiritual forces and had prayed to God for these great possessions on behalf of their rulers (30)

Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues

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Thanks, Phaeded

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Codex Aureus Spirensis or Codex Aureus Escorialensis 1043/46

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyerer_Evangeliar
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Das Dedikationsbild (fol. 3r) zeigt Maria, Patronin des Domes, im Zentrum; links im Bild Heinrich III., rechts seine Frau Kaiserin Agnes. Die Medaillons zeigen die vier Kardinaltugenden Klugheit, Mäßigkeit, Stärke und Gerechtigkeit. In der oberen Bildhälfte ist der Speyerer Dom abgebildet.
Maria with Emperor Heinrich III and Empress Agnes. The 4 medaillons present the 4 cardinal virtues. In the upper half is the dome of Speyer.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues)

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Missal of Saint-Denis, ~1050

French Miniaturist, Manuscript (Cod. Lat. 8878) Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
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Cardinal Virtues in Medaillons
It was made around 1050 in the Abbey of St Vaast of Arras, in the north of France, for the use of the important abbey of St Denis. The lavish decoration features purple backgrounds, luxurious frames with foliate patterns, as well as numerous full-page images and a magnificent treasure binding depicting a Crucifixion scene on the upper cover.
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bnf- ... nis-missal
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues)

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The Cardinals a little closer to the dates of cards below. Pizan's Othea illuminations are better known via the color ones she had done in c. 1410 for Queen Isabeau in a compilation of her works called "Book of the Queen" (BL Harley 4431), but these illustrations are the earliest, done for Louis, Duke of Orleans in c. 1400, husband of Valentina Visconti (Louis was the brother of mad king Charles VI, and essentially the acting regent). Note: I've made a composite image - in the manuscript BnF Fr. MS 848 the presentation/dedication image to the duke and the last image of Renown/fama (derived from Fulgentius on Pegasus) are on separate pages, while conjoined Prudence/Temperance are on one page and conjoined Justice (Minos)/Fortitude are on another. I find it interesting that Temperance's clock is almost like the "guts" on the backside of Prudence the way it is designed, like the curtain drawn back from the Wizard of Oz. Unlike the color versions which illuminate all 100 "textes" of the Othea, the earliest manuscripts only depicted the Cardinals + fama.

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If you are wondering what those seated lions with sword images are doing in the scene of Prudence handing Hector the book (mimicking Christine doing the same with Louis)....that was Hector's blason according to a schema worked out for the Nine Worthies (a thoroughly French invention, considering Hector was their aristocratic lines' founder). Pizan was clearly inspired by a tapestry of the Worthies, hence the repeating motif of the blason (the otherwise unindicated wall would be a tapestry). Compare the c. 1420 Savoyard fresco done for the Saluzzo at their Manta castle - naturally Hector is in French royal blue, heading up the Worthies, facing Alexander here, with his blason on his shield hanging from a tree (eventually Hector and Alexander's blasons get confused, but that's a side point):

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Phaeded

Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues)

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Filling in the lacuna between Huck's earlier virtues and the c. 1400 Pizan one, is this c. 1300 leaf showing all four virtues from this leaf from a Somme le Roi, a series of moral lessons written in 1279 for Philip III of France by his confessor, the Dominican friar Laurent. Widely copied, this particular manuscript - BL Add MS 54180 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDispla ... d_MS_54180 - was made in Paris for Philip IV (d. 1314), king of France from 1285; passed on to his last wife Blanche of Navarre [Blanche d'Évreux] (d. 1398), who in turn bequeathed it to Louis, duke of Orléans, in her will. To connect the dots to the previous Pizan cardinals, her client Louis inherited this Somme manuscript right before she wrote the Othea two years later and undoubtedly influenced her. While she did not utilize the cardinals in the Othea manuscript I posted above, when she illustrated the entirety of that work in c. 1410 for Queen Isabeau she arguably had the artist workshop model various scenes from this Somme (my opinion, no article to link to, but I can give plenty of examples).

At all events, the cardinals here show some idiosyncrasies; the BL's description:
f. 91v: Miniature in four compartments depicting the Four Cardinal Virtues. The top left compartment: Prudence, a crowned female figure seated at a lectern and teaching three women, with an inscription above 'Prudence'. The top right compartment: Temperance, a crowned female figure standing behind a table and exhorting a maiden to decline a golden cup offered by a kneeling young man, with an inscription above 'attrempance'. The bottom left compartment: Fortitude, a crowned female figure standing on the river Tigris and holding a red medallion carrying a lion passant, with an inscription below 'force'. The bottom right compartment: Justice, a crowned female figure enthroned, holding scales and a sword, with an inscription below 'Justice' ('Traite des vertus', Chapter 52, 89).
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Not the Othea, but the lingering influence of the art of the Somme is evident in another of Pizan's most famous works, The Book of the City of Ladies (1404-05), as the compartment above showing Prudence reading to three ladies is replicated here, where Pizan meets the three virtues and lays the foundation of the city of ladies (BL Harley MS 4431 f290r).

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Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues)

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Having gone down yet another rabbit hole in regard to Marziano, I came across these fascinating and well-executed depictions of all seven virtues in the title page of a manuscript of Apuleius and the Golden Ass, Vat. lat. 2194. Executed for none other than Bruzio Visconti, known to us from Song of the Virtues, translated by Mike Howard on his blog. http://songofthevirtues.blogspot.com/

Vat. lat. 2194 f.1r overall and details:

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Note the Theologicals with the Apuleius manuscript being offered to Bruzio, as if they somehow mollify the pagan-ness of the work; also note the uroboros-like creature in the margin below (normally a symbol of time and perhaps related to the Visconti stemma but seems out of place here, unless "time" is a reference to the antiquity of the offered work, just rediscovered at the beginning of the century).

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The cardinals:
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I can't quite make out the crowning angel detail on his back - what looks like a basin of water with a clouded sky above (and compare the basin into which Temperance pours above, who also dangles the bridle attribute). One might compare Pizan's illuminations of Jupiter in her Othea, where Jupiter is sprinkling dew from a vase on his children, the dew representing his gifts (perhaps seen as prefiguring "grace" or "mercy" from a Christian perspective, and the illuminator has certainly gone to lengths here to frame the pagan "magician" Apuleius within Christian symbols).

Vat. Lat 2194 f.1r.bottom of page - crowning angel detail.JPG Vat. Lat 2194 f.1r.bottom of page - crowning angel detail.JPG Viewed 9438 times 72.03 KiB

The Pizan Othea comparable - Harley 4431 fol 99v detail (Jupiter). Paris, France 1410-1414; her own description of this image: "...because the dew of heaven is the cause of fertility and abundance, and sweet humid air comes from this planet, it is portrayed here hurtling down dew " (tr. Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Richards, 2017: 45); her Christian "allegorical" interpretation is mercy (ibid, 46).


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No need for me to muse any further on this manuscript as I was able to convert large chunks of the Google scan of the book which describes these illuminations:

The illuminations in Petrarch's manuscript show the several personae of Apuleius that the artist or scribe perceived in his works. Those in another manuscript, just a few years later, both illustrate and interpret the Golden Ass. This manuscript, also now in the Vatican Library, is Vat. lat. 2194, transcribed in 1345 by the Bolognese scribe Bartolomeo de' Bartoli and dedicated to Bruzio Visconti, illegitimate son of Luchino Visconti, duke of Milan.30 Bartolomeo, brother of the artist Andreade' Bartoli, collaborated on manuscripts with some of the most celebrated illuminators in Bologna." Bruzio, described by contemporaries as a very wicked prince, was also a powerful and highly cultivated one.32 Both men took a special interest in literature of a moral, religious, or edifying character. Bartolomeo's other works include manuscripts Of the Office of the Virgin Mary, the Roman Missal, the Divine Comedy, and a work of his own composition, La Canzone delle Virtü e delle Scienze (The Poem of the Virtues and the Arts), also dedicated to Bruzio.33 Bruzio's library contained (in addition to the Canzone and the Golden Ass copied by Bartolomeo) Augustine's City of God and Compendium of Moral Philosophy, compiled at Bruzio's request by Luca de' Mannelli, a Dominican monk.34

Offices, Augustine, Dante, missals, virtues—these choices of scribe and patron seem strange company for the Golden Ass. But in the presentation and iconography of their manuscript, Bartolomeo and his illuminator have made Apuleius' novel a worthy shelf mate for these edifying texts.35 The tone is established on the elaborately decorated first folio, which contains both a very brief dedication to Bruzio and the opening chapters of the novel.36 Two themes dominate the illumination: the Visconti arms and emblems, shown in the upper and lower margins, and the seven virtues, which appear in two miniatures, one centered in the lower margin, the other in the initial A, which begins the novel.37 In the lower miniature the Visconti stemma is surrounded by four female figures representing the cardinal virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude), each with her appropriate attributes. Within the initial A (see plate 9), Bruzio is shown on the right, facing a kneeling Bartolomeo, who presents an open book to his patron. Between them stands a winged female figure representing the theological virtue Charity. On the left, outside the A, are the winged figures of the other theological virtues, Faith and Hope.

The decoration of the page firmly establishes an association between Bruzio and the virtues, seemingly one of his favorite themes, to judge from the subject and iconography of two other works dedicated to him at roughly the same time: Luca de' Mannelli's Compendium of Moral Philosophy (ca. 1344) and Bartolomeo's Canzone delle Virtid e delle Science (dated ca. 133949).38 Luca's Compendium is subtitled Tract on the Four Cardinal Virtues. Bruzio appears twice on its first folio: first receiving the book from Luca and then—depicted as the virtue Justice—seated on a throne and trampling Pride (Superbia) underfoot." Bartolomeo's Canzone treats the seven virtues and the seven liberal arts. Its first folio shows Bruzio on horseback accompanied by seven figures: two male riders (labeled Vigor and Sensus); four female figures (labeled Circumspectio, Intelligentia, Discretio mater virtutum, and Docilitas mater scientiarum); and the kneeling Bartolomeo (labeled compositor operis), again presenting his book.40 Docilitas, "mother of the arts," has her hand placed protectively on Bartolomeo's shoulder to indicate that he is under her patronage.

But Vat. lat. 2194 does something different from the manuscripts of these moral treatises. In the manuscripts of the Compendium and the Canzone, the decoration on the first folio both matches the contents of the works and associates Bruzio Visconti with the virtues. In Vat. lat. 2194, by contrast, the decoration still associates Bruzio with the virtues, but it does more, implying—or creating—a match between itself and the contents of the manuscript. To put it another way, the opening decoration in Vat. lat. 2194 treats the Golden Ass as if it, too, were a moral treatise, suggesting that the novel is to be interpreted in a religious—or at least in a moral—light. The seriousness of Bartolomeo's reading is announced by placing the first chapters of the Golden Ass on the same page with Bruzio and the virtues. It is further emphasized....[next two pages not scanned]
(Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass: A Study in Transmission and Reception, 2008: 82-84)


Phaeded

Re: Very Old Cardinal Virtues)

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Phaeded wrote: 18 May 2020, 17:26 ....

But Vat. lat. 2194 does something different from the manuscripts of these moral treatises. In the manuscripts of the Compendium and the Canzone, the decoration on the first folio both matches the contents of the works and associates Bruzio Visconti with the virtues. In Vat. lat. 2194, by contrast, the decoration still associates Bruzio with the virtues, but it does more, implying—or creating—a match between itself and the contents of the manuscript. To put it another way, the opening decoration in Vat. lat. 2194 treats the Golden Ass as if it, too, were a moral treatise, suggesting that the novel is to be interpreted in a religious—or at least in a moral—light. The seriousness of Bartolomeo's reading is announced by placing the first chapters of the Golden Ass on the same page with Bruzio and the virtues. It is further emphasized....[next two pages not scanned]
(Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass: A Study in Transmission and Reception, 2008: 82-84)

Phaeded
[/quote]

Finally broke down and bought a copy of Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass: A Study in Transmission and Reception, 2008. Really looks like a book that is underappreciated due to its limited focus but in fact explores the ambient culture to such a depth that it deserves wider acclaim.

For the Boiardo interested crowd - I'll share what I find here but note his works gets touched on quite a bit here; from the index:
Apulegio volgare: 175-76, 275, 277, 298
Orlando 176-80
Tarochi 180-84