medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (31. January) is the feast day of:
Geminian of Modena (d. ca. 396). Though almost nothing is known for certain about the historical G., it is probable that he was the bishop Geminianus who took part in a north Italian synod in 390 under the presidency of St. Ambrose of Milan. From the early Middle Ages onward he has been patron of the Emilian city of Modena (initially sole patron, he now shares honors with the twelfth-century lay saint Homobonus of Cremona). An early Life (ca. 900; modelled on that of St. Zeno of Verona) and an expanded Longer Life (now thought to be of the mid-eleventh century) are both quite unreliable.
In the final decade of the ninth century, when Modena was under threat of attack from Hungarian raiders, someone there composed one of the monuments of early medieval Latin poetry from Italy, the so-called "Song for the Watchmen of Modena" (incipit: _O tu qui servas armis ista moenia_) preserved in Modena's famous Archivio Capitolare, whose website, BTW, is here:
http://www.tsc4.com/archiviocapitolaremo/
In the same manuscript, and of approximately the same date, are two versions, probably drafts of a work undergoing revision, of a Latin verse prayer to G. seeking his protection against the new scourge of the Hungarians just as he had (legendarily) saved Modena's inhabitants during the time of Attila (incipit: _Confessor Christi, pie dei famule_). These together with the poem previously mentioned are known collectively as the _Carmina Mutinensia_ and are extensively discussed by Aurelio Roncaglia, "Il 'Canto delle scolte modenesi,'" _Cultura neolatina_ 8 (1948), 5-46 and 205-22. Peter Godman has an English translation of the "Song for the Watchmen of Modena" in his _Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance_ (London: Duckworth; Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1985) at pp. 325 and 327 (facing text on pp. 324 and 326).
In 1099 work began on Modena's present cathedral, dedicated to G. and today the cynosure of Modena's Piazza Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In this panoramic view the cathedral is the second building on the left:
http://www.in-sieme.it/impegno/siti2/modena1.htm
Some exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/ct9y8
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image305.html
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image308.html
http://tinyurl.com/a86el
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image310.html
http://tinyurl.com/cq2ns
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image314.html
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image317.html
A plan of the cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/bkpv4
Interior views:
http://tinyurl.com/9culj
http://www.hulsen.net/images/EmRom14-Mod04.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/dfsw3
Two pages of details of this cathedral's famous sculptures are here:
http://tinyurl.com/8hrgn
On 30 April 1106 G.'s remains were brought here and interred in the crypt, where they remain today:
http://go.supereva.it/europamedievale/gallery23/pages/m13.htm?p
http://scuole.monet.modena.it/cavour/comcalv/cripta.jpg
But he doesn't look too healthy:
http://ilnuovo.redaweb.it/seconda.php?key=11933
On 7. and 8. October of the same year Paschal II, in the presence of the cathedral's great patron, Matilda of Canossa, and of various ecclesiastical dignitaries, conducted a solemn recognition of G.'sremains and then consecrated the cathedral's high altar. The cathedral itself was consecrated in 1184 by Lucius II. Among its liturgical
treasures is the very fine rhymed late twelfth- or thirteenth-century Office for G. edited by Giuseppe Vecchi in his "S. Geminiano nella lirica della liturgia modenese," _Miscellanea di Studi Muratoriani_ (Modena: Aedes Muratoriana, 1951), pp. 524-38.
The best recent work on G. in his Modenese context is that of Paolo Golinelli. See especially his _"Indiscreta sanctitas". Studi sui rapporti tra culti, poteri e societą nel pieno Medioevo_ (Roma: Istituto
storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1988; = its _Studi storici_, fasc. 197-98), pp. 55-101, and his "San Geminiano e Modena. Un santo, il suo tempo, il suo culto nel Medioevo," in _Civitas Geminiana. La cittą e il suo patrono_ (Modena: Panini, 1997), pp. 9-33 and plates 5, 12-16, and 35. English-language consideration of G. as civic patron will be found in Diana Webb, _Patrons and Defenders: The Saints in the Italian City-states_ (London: I. B. Tauris, 1996), esp. pp. 46-47, 124-25, and 216-19. G.'s cult spread widely in northern Italy (e.g. to Tuscany, where the town of San Gimignano is named for him). A good survey is provided by Maurizio Calzolari, "Edifici di culto intitolati a San Geminiano in Italia nel Medioevo," in _Civitas Geminiana_ (cit.), pp. 205-20.
The Fitzwilliam's page on its Simone Martini (and workshop) altarpiece of Sts. Geminian, Michael, and Augustine (ca. 1319) is here (expandable enlargement at bottom):
http://tinyurl.com/ysabxu
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, lightly revised)
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