medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Response to your note dated 09/11/02
Dear Dr. Diebold,
In regard to Francois Villon.
In March 1449 he was received into the baccalaureate, and in August 1452 he
became a Master of Arts - that is to say, a junior member of the clergy.
W. L. Schreiber, in his "Biblia Pauperum from the only edition with 50
plates" (translation mine, I will give the German version if requested)
published in Strassburg in 1903, lists thirty manuscript versions of the
Biblia Pauperum. Twenty-one of these manuscripts are dated. They are dated
1350-70, 1360-80, 1353, 1340-50, 1430, 1380, 1380-1400, 1360-80, 1400,
1400-1420, 1340, 1360-75, 1420-40, 1450-65, 1460-80, 1450, 1415, 1390-1410,
1425, 1440-60, 1470.
You will note that four of these manuscript versions appeared close to 1460,
the date given to about ten 40 page versions of the Biblia Pauperum.
This is solid evidence that the concept of teaching, or learning, from
images telling a Biblical study was familiar to Villon who lived 1431-63.
After all, his education at the University of Paris was as a religious. In
March 1449 he was received into the baccalaureate, and in August 1452 he
became a Master of Arts - that is to say, a junior member of the clergy.
I suggest that Villon, because of his education, was familiar with the use
of pictures, on paper or parchment, as wall paintings or as painted glass
windows as teaching aids. Whether to the literate or illiterate is not
important since the literate would have had their information refreshed, and
the illiterate could follow the words of the priest looking at the images in
the wall paintings.
For myself, I find your statement "A quotation by Villon in which he
represents his mother as saying something does not strike me as good
evidence for how the 'untutored' used images." Since the "untutored" could
not write how could they have left "good evidence for how the 'untutored'
used images"?
Regards, Jim
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