Thanks to all of you who have provided such useful information
about "visible body parts" in various contexts. Thanks also to
those who responded to an earlier query about latin grammar and
medieval vernaculars. Believe it or not, BOTH of these questions
are in aid of the same project - a study of 13th century Icelandic
poetry which should appear from (I think) U. of Toronto Press
in about a year.
Meg
> As well as those examples of reliquaries given by Pippin Michelli,
> there is a Flemish, thirteenth-century hand reliquary in the Victoria
> and Albert Museum (see Paul Williamson, The Medieval Treasury, London,
> 1986, p. 180, and pl. on p. 181) in which the fingers have 'windows',
> to allow the relics to be seen.
> Not strictly on the subject of reliquaries, but it may be of interest
> to Margaret Cormack (who, I think, was working on visibility of body
> parts more generally as well):
> there are examples of statues of the Virgin and St Elizabeth at the
> Visitation, in which the womb of each woman is crystal, allowing the
> child to be seen. One is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (sorry,
> can't think of an easily-accessible reproduction at the moment), and
> another is in Nuremberg (see Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nurnberg:
> Fuhrer durch di Sammlungen, Munich, 1977, p. 58, no. 137).
> Beth Williamson
> ----------------------
> Dr BA Williamson,
> Department of History of Art
> University of Bristol
> 36 Tyndalls Park Road
> Bristol, BS8 1PL
> + 44 (0)117 928 8591
> [log in to unmask]
Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
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