medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Germanus of Paris (d. 576). According to St. Venantius Fortunatus, the author of our earliest account of Germanus (BHL 3468), he was born in the territory of Autun, whence he is also known as Germanus of Autun. He was educated there and served as deacon and as priest in its diocesan clergy before being named abbot of its monastery of St. Symphorianus in the year 540. In the mid-550s king Childebert I made him his arch-chaplain and then bishop of Paris. Personally ascetic, Germanus was known for his learning, for his kindness to the less fortunate, and for his miracles. When he died he was buried in the monastery he had founded, since known as Saint-Germain-des-Prés. His cult was immediate. In 755 Germanus' remains were translated to the high altar of the abbey church in the presence of Pepin the Younger and his sons Charles (not yet the Great) and Carloman. There they remained until their destruction during the French Revolution. Today is his feast day in the diocese of Paris and his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Germanus of Paris:
a) as depicted in a full-page illumination in a probably earlier or mid- eleventh-century copy of his Vita by Venantius Fortunatus and of other texts from his dossier (ca. 1030-1060; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 12610, ff. 1r-120v, at fol. 40v):
http://tinyurl.com/368whxm
b) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Vincent of Zaragoza) in the frontispiece to a mid-twelfth-century collection of writings by Origen from the abbey of St.-Germain-des-Prés in Paris (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 11615, fol. 2v):
http://tinyurl.com/phxpbpn
c) as depicted in panels from a demolished mid-thirteenth-century glass window (ca. 1240-1250) in the Lady Chapel of the église Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris:
1) at left, leaving school (reset in the window in bay 2, église Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris)
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Paris-St-Germain-des-pres/w2-2.htm
2) received by Childebert (Victoria and Albert Museum, London):
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/London-V&A/image14.htm
3) at right, experiencing a vision (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York):
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/471987
d) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century breviary for the Use of Paris (?before 1318; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 344, ff. 1r-417r, at fol. 147r):
http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/ouvrages/ouvrages.php?imageInd=41&id=6762
e) as depicted (at left; at right, Anne of Autun) in the later fourteenth-century Breviary of Charles V (ca. 1364-1370; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1052, fol. 381v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525491/f772.item.zoom
f) as depicted in an early fifteenth-century Office lectionary from the abbey of St. Magloire in Paris (ca. 1401-1425; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 399, fol. 68v):
http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/ouvrages/ouvrages.php?imageInd=34&id=-1
g) as depicted in an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the _Festes nouvelles_ attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1401-1425; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 306r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f629.item.zoom
h) as depicted (image at left; at right, Pentecost) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René d'Anjou (ca. 1410; London, British Library, MS Egerton 1070, fol. 93r):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=48340
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=48340
i) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 374v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054023-p.jpg
j) as depicted in grisaille by Jean le Tavernier in the mid-fifteenth-century Hours of Philip of Burgundy (ca. 1451-1460; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 2, fol. 264r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f2%3A264r_min
k) as depicted (third from left; healing the sick and the lame) in a later fifteenth-century copy, with illuminations by a Flemish master, of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1470; Mâcon, Médiathèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 171r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_095365-p.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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