medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 7:09 PM -0800 3/17/01, Amy Airhart wrote:
>Greetings all. I have a quick iconographic question. In several Medieval
>illuminations which I have been looking at, I have noticed that monks,
>saints, and depictions of Christ have their right hands in a certain
>position. The thumb and first two fingers are extended, and the other two
>fingers are curled underneath. I have not yet run across any mention of the
>meaning or significance of this, and I am not sure where to look.
>Does anyone know the significance of this hand position?
IIRC (If I Recall Correctly), this is one of the two basic hand
positions expressing "blessing," which clerics (and presumably
saints!) use when blessing others, and which us ordinary people use
when making the sign of the cross.
The conventional Western position is the one you describe: hand held
with fingers pointing up, palm toward the viewer, thumb, index and
middle fingers extended and ring and little fingers curled under. The
three extended fingers (thumb included) symbolize the Trinity --
although interestingly, in the European systems of using finger
position to symbolize number value, this is not the sign for "three"
but for "two". Karl Menninger's fascinating book _Number Words and
Number Symbols_ reproduces a picture from the Venerable Bede's work
on finger counting, dated 1140, of a man producing this gesture, with
symbols for the number "2000" written above his hand.
The conventional *Eastern* church gesture for blessing, again IIRC,
is the one with the ICXC symbolism. The index finger is extended
("I"), the outer two joints of the middle finger are curled ("C" --
the finger is held in a curved position, but is not completely folded
toward the palm), the tip of the thumb holds down the first joint of
the ring finger folded toward the palm ("X") and the little finger is
again curved but not folded ("C").
Like other Eastern/Western differences in customs, I'm sure this one
has been the subject of much after-the-fact interpretation and
argument.
--
_________________________________________________________
O Chris Laning
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+ Davis, California
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