medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 09:11 AM 12/26/2002 -0800, Phyllis wrote:
>(I know the earliest examples of Virgin and Child in the West are from
>Ireland)
Oh? What about the fresco of the Madonna and Child in the Roman catacomb
of Priscilla (3d cent.)?
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/bvm/catacombs.gif
(there's also a reported 4th-cent. standing Virgin praying before the
Christ child in the Cimitero Maggiore at Rome; I couldn't quickly find an
online image, though)
or these 6th-cent. Virgins enthroned, also from Rome (scroll down to
"Painting"):
http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ulj/uljf.html
As to other non-Irish interest in the infant Jesus in the early medieval
West, there's the 7th-cent. designation of Sta Maria Maggiore in Rome as
Sta Maria ad praesepe and the story of the translation to Rome and housing
in this church of the relics of the manger from Bethlehem. Similarly, the
oratory of the Theotokos ("sanctae Dei genetricis", _Lib. pont._, ed.
Duchesne, I, 385; see note on p. 386) constructed by John VII in old St.
Peter's on the Vatican is attested to in the 8th cent. as _praesepe sanctae
Mariae_. In the 9th century Gregory IV erected a _praesepe_ in Sta Maria
in Trastevere on the model of that in Sta Maria Maggiore (_Lib. pont._, ed.
cit., II, 78).
Best,
John Dillon
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