medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

a bit of bibliography, as promised.

the "standard" study of "Romanesque" madonnas --black & otherwise-- remains
Ilene Forsyth's _The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in
Romanesque France_ (Princeton U.Press, 1972), a revision of her thesis,
Columbia, 1960.

though dated a bit, i believe that it is still the Touchstone for all further
research.

i haven't seen her article "Magi and Majesty: A Study of Romanesque Sculpture
and Liturgical Drama" (Art Bulletin 50, 1968, pp. 215-22), but that might be
of use as well.

as for Marian miracles in general, Jim turned me on to this very interesting
study a year or so ago:

Gabriela Signori. _Maria zwischen Kathedrale, Kloster und Welt:
hagiographische un historiographische Annäherungen an eine
hochmittelalterliche Wunderpredigt_. Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke, 1995.
336 p. : maps ; 25 cm


part of a chapter is devoted to Rocamadour:

"Marienkult als Ritterepos im burgundisch-aquitanischen Süden: Die
Wundertaten der Jungfrau von Rocamadour (1160-1172)"

and is available in .rtf format here:

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/signori/signori202-228.rtf

the map associated with this chapter is here:

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/signori/karteviii.jpg


i've also got two other chapters from this book on-line, one on the
relationship between ergot outbreaks and Marian miracles/pilgrimage:

"Städtisches Marienpatronat und ländliche Subsistenzprobleme im Spiegel
nordfranzösisch-belgischer Ergotismusepidemien : Hugo Farsits »Libellus de
miraculis beatae Mariae Virginis in urbe Suessionensi« (nach 1143)"

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/signori/signori125-151.rtf

map here:

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/signori/kartev.jpg

and one on the Chartres miracle cycles:

"Die Marienwunder von Chartres zwischen Legende und Exemplum: Die
literarischen »Miracula Beatae Mariae Virginis in Carnotensi ecciesia facta«
(1210-1225)"

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/signori/signori174-201.rtf

map here:

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/signori/kartevii.jpg


one of our best, early visual sources for various Marian cult statues is in
the form of "pilgrims' badges", mostly cheap, artistically inept (or, at
least, "naive") souvenirs which must have originally existed in the tens of
thousands.


here are some from Rocamadour, now in the vast collection of these artifacts
at the Cluny museum in Paris :

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/cluny/cluny_rocamadour/

with a bit of text describing them :

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/cluny/cluny_rocamadour/cluny_rocamadour.html

some from Chartres, now in London :

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/spencer/spencer_chartres/

some more from Chartres:

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/chartres-museum/

the Rocamadour badges are rather straightforward, simple views of a "sedes
sampientia" Virgina & Child --their peculiar, nearly unique shape perhaps
betraying a connection between their makers and the profession of seal
cutters.

but some of the ones from Chartres are much more complex, depicting what looks
like a procession --or, sometimes, two processions-- in which both the cult
statue

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/forgeais/forgeais2_28.jpg

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/forgeais/forgeais4_115.jpg

and the heavily bejeweled "sainte chaisse" housing the precious "Camisia" of
the Virgin

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/forgeais/forgeais2_29.jpg

are carried on biers.

later exemplars depict both a stationary V&C statue ensconced in her shrine
and the Holy Box:

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/forgeais/lecocq56big.jpg


Pippin Michelli wrote an excellent, short summary of what we have in the way
of badges from Chartres which was originally given as a paper in a very nice
session at K'zoo on the Chartres pilgrimage which i put together a few years
ago.

it is available here (hope all the links work) :

http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/badges/forgeais/peregrinations.html

interesting stuff, pilgrims' badges.

best from here,

christopher



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"If the party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that event
never happened - that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture or
death."

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records
told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who
controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls
the present controls the past.'" "Day by day and almost minute by minute the
past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party
could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item
of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the
moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest,
scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary."

George Orwell, 1984

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