Luciana Cuppo Csaki
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http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9891
----- Original Message -----
From: "LCC" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture"
<[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2001 6:30 AM
Subject: Re: Image of St. Benedict
>
> Luciana Cuppo Csaki
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9891
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christopher Crockett" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 1:38 PM
> Subject: Image of St. Benedict
>
> my guess is that, while there *may* be one or two which actually *are*
> unfinished (not a particularly rare event in mss, though not at all a
common
> one, either), they will be unambiguously so; e.g., they will be incomplete
> at,
> say the filling in stage, while the composition will totally laid out in
> pencil or inked in or partially painted. such is not the case here: the
> whole
> thing is finished in all its stages.
>
> and, if the fellow had wished to realise a "complete" scene depicting st
> benny
> with both feet firmly set terra firma he could have simply made the whole
> composition smaller to fit the space, for example.
>
> c?
> "holding up" his outer garment specifically to keep it out of the water
> --seems like a common enough pose, for the period, the viewing of Sacred
> Underwear being a favorite passtime, en ces temps la.
>
> as a last resort, perhaps we should consider that the Text might have
> something to do with the illumination;
>
> <Truer words were never spoken, Crockett -
>
> but that's for the less
> palaeographically and latiniacally challened than i.
>
> Who could resist your (ever so suave) challenge, so here I am:
>
> [Benedict] 'aetatem quippe moribus transiens', the lad was, we are told,
'in
> his morals, well beyond his years'.
>
> The 'water' (kinky, icy stream) is, however, the challenging part.
Precisely
> because the miniature goes with the text, indeed 'flows' into it (lovely,
> lovely, lovely, and how true) we should think that it is water, of course
of
> the symbolic kind (not so crass and materialistic and literally-minded,and
> blind and deaf to the supernatural, 'cause if I ainn't seen it and
touched
> it, then it does not exist, right?)
> It is the water of grace, which through Benedict flows into the world;
there
> fore, quite appropriately, the illustratio is placed at the very beginning
> of the Vita, because it does not describe a specific episode, but sums up
> Benedict's mission.
> If the water is seen, as it should, in connection with the staff which
> Benedict holds in his hands, and with the concept of 'conversio', a
> challenge to us, but bread and butter of the Benedictine spirituality,
then
> we have a clear reference to Psalm 21.3-4, which says (Vulgate):
>
> Super aquam refectionis educavit me,
> animam meam convertit.
>
> Benedict was no bishop, so technically he should not hold a staff in his
> hands, but he was a shepherd of souls, who brought his monks to conversion
> and led them (with the shepherd's staff, as in Ps. 21) to the nourishing
> waters (aquam refectionis) of divine life (if you are really challenged,
you
> might read the dialogue between Christ and the Samaritan woman in St.
John's
> Gospel - that is the blueprint for much of the water imagery in medieval
> culture.
>
> "...quippe moribus transies[?] nulli animum uoluptati dedit."
>
> best to all from here,
>
> <Crockett made me do it. Best to you, cheers,
>
> Luciana
>
>
> christopher
>
>
>
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