At 14:22 09.02.99 PST, you wrote:

>[...]
>(BTW, Otfried, Mark Zear [Zeer? sorry] mentioned to me at Kalamazoo a couple
>of years ago that there was a new [first] critical edition of the G.O.
>underway, but also noted that it was a *BIG* project, given the vast
number of
>extant mss. Perhaps you know something of this and it's present status?)

Dear Christopher,

Being connected only electronically with the academic world, I have no
information about the current state of the project, but you can write to
Mark Zier ([log in to unmask]), and I think that there are also members
of our list who are participating in this project and could supply the info.

>[...]
>Of some interest might also be the L.S. at Etampes (contemporary and
>stylistically connected with Chartres) which has an abreviated number of
>apostles (due to space, presumably) and Jesus passing some object
>(food?/fish?) to the apostle on his right (John?). There also appear to 
>be round, somewhat flat loaves of bread(?) on the table.
>
>Those with reasonably fast connections might take a look at it:
>
>http://www.angelfire.com/de/centrechartraine/images/Etscr3.jpg
>(140k, sorry)
>
>For some reason (perhaps the Chartres connection), I'm wanting to see the
>figure on Jesus' right who is receiving the whatever from Jesus as being
>Judas--though perhaps I'm making out a malicious mustache on the fragmented
>face with the same eyes which miraculously multiplied the number of fishes at
>Ravenna.

For my untrained eyes it is very difficult to make anything out on your
picture, but I have some doubts that Judas can be represented on Jesus'
right. Btw, our residing expert on this list for everything related to
Judas and to Judas iconography is Peter Dinzelbacher
([log in to unmask]), author of the highly recommendable
monography _Judastraditionen_, Wien: Selbstverlag des O"sterreichischen
Museums fu"r Volkskunde, 1977 (= Raabser Ma"rchen-Reihe, 2)

>
>Perhaps someone knows a textual basis for this special "feeding" of Judas
>iconography (assuming that it's not entirely my imagination)?

Well, yes, it's the biblical account of the Last Supper, especially John
13,18ss., where Jesus applies to himself and to his traitor the prophecy of
Psalm 40,10 (qui manducat mecum panem levavit contra me calcaneum suum),
announces "ille est cui intinctum panem porrexero" (26) and gives the bread
to Judas, who receives it and after or while eating it is invaded by the
devil.

As regards Elena's original query, there was some exegetical controversy
about the question whether Judas had received the eucharist or had left
before it was distributed (in which case the "bucella" would only have been
a sort of antipasto or hors d'oeuvre), but I am not aware of discussions
involving the possibility that fish or other food than mentioned in the
Bible was eaten at the Last Supper. But I have never investigated this
particular point. Moreover, I have a very vague memory of modern
iconographers interpreting the fish in late medieval representations of the
Last Supper as a figure of Christ himself, based on the traditional
understanding of the IXTYS for which I can refer you to:

LOWEY Heinrich
   Die mystischen Bezeichnungen Jesu Christi als Siloe, Schil-
   loh, und Piscis, insbesondere die Bezeichnung der christli-
   chen Opferfeier als Missa. Paderborn: Scho"ningh, 1888
DO"LGER Franz Joseph
   IX_YC. Das Fischsymbol in fru"hchristlicher Zeit. Rom:
   Spittho"ver, 1910-1922, 3 vol.

Only tangentially related, and again a very vague memory: in the late 15th
century there are several German treatises which are to be read during lent
and present their lecture in the title as an eating of a fish or cake (I am
not so sure about the fish but am sure about the cake) which represents
Christ, dividing this lecture into pieces for each day and drawing more or
less elaborate analogies between these pieces and corresponding virtues or
deeds of Christ. I think one of the title words was "Fastenkuchen" or even
"Fastenlebkuchen", but I cannot find any precise reference in my notes.

Best,

  Otfried

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