medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hi, Christopher,
My favorite illustrations in the OE Illustrated
Hexateuch are of the dragon-boat Noah's ark.
Then you have seen the Moses with horned
Viking cap seated on his "Michaelangelo" throne..
We have a slight misunderstanding here. The
OE Hexateuch contains AElfric's explanatory
letter and his translation of Genesis through
the binding of Isaac -- from there through the
other 4 books of the pentateuih and Joshua
the texts are from an earlier, existing
translation
into OE.
The Genesis in the Junius MS is one of the great
poetic codices and an MS that may very well turn
out to be a collection of plays. This poem/play is
called Genesis A. The Old Saxon version (not OE,
Old Saxon) is called Genesis B. It is not readily
available. We also have dialogues between
"Christ and Satan" -- that read like mystery
plays.
Throughly modern resonances? History does not
repeat itself; historic patterns repeat -- and
this
one is deja vu all over again. Just think of all
the
modern commentaries on why there is evil or
the "modern" concept of natural man is "good"
and civilization is "evil" -- as if these very
topics
are not the subjects of literary works back at
Sumer. Come to think of it, Gilgamesh would
make a nifty movie for the lovers of special
effects...
I do not put down our modern world, but ias
historians we should know that we are neither
the first nor are we unique.What is different is
our technology, but that does not change the
patterns.
I wish you very good luck on this project; that
MS is delightful... you might want to include the
pre-Rashi Hebrew alphabet that runs across
the bottom of one of the leaves -- the one
written by a young lady named Elizabeth --
who signed her name three times in Hebrew
and spelled it correctly... it's not part of the
original illustrations, but it is a graphic.
As an entusiastic fan of the OE Hexateuch, I
am delightedly yours,
risa
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Crockett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 30. August
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of
medieval religion and culture
>
> Rochelle Altman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Now, something I noticed in a close
examination of Junius MS XI -- the
> "Caedmon" MS, mid-9th CE. Speaker's
cues...roughly 4-5 lines before each
> actor/actress is supposed to "come on" --
interesting, no? Sure looks like
> they are not merely "poems" -- but the blank
verse of the earliest English
> "mystery" plays
>
>
> this might be of interest, if you haven't seen
it:
>
> _Anglo-Saxon gestures and the Roman stage_ / by
C.R. Dodwell ; prepared for
> publication by Timothy Graham. Cambridge U.P.,
c2000. xvii, 171pp.
>
>
> >... I haven't been able to get a look at the
originial of Old Saxon version
> of Genesis,
>
>
> most easily available (if you're not in London)
in a very good facsimile
> edition
>
> Title: Bible. O.T. Hexateuch. Anglo-Saxon.
Brit. Mus. MSS. (Cottonian
> Claudius B. IV)
> _The Old English illustrated Hexateuch : British
Museum Cotton Claudius B. IV_
> / Ed. by C. R. Dodwell and Peter Clemoes.
Copenhagen : Rosenkilde og Bagger,
> 1974. 72 p., 156 leaves, [10] leaves of plates.
>
>
> >but it'd be interesting to see if it has
speaker's cues, as well.
>
> i don't know about the text, but i happen to be
working on the style(s) of the
> 350+ illuminations in this breathtakingly
luxurious creation, and there are
> certainly a massive number of "gestures" which
correspond with those Dodwell
> examines in detail as belonging to the "roman
stage".
>
> i have the beginnings of an optimistic project
of scanning the whole danged ms
> and, ultimately, putting it on a CD.
>
> some of the pages may be seen here (WARNING:
LARGE FILES --600-900k) :
>
>
http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/mss/hexateu
ch/finished/f40v.jpg
>
>
http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/mss/hexateu
ch/finished/f44r.jpg
>
>
http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/mss/hexateu
ch/finished/f44v.jpg
>
> etc.
>
> note that these .jpgs will expand to many times
the size of a browser window,
> and the texts (and images) can be read in great
detail. let me know if you
> find any "stage directions" there.
>
> > Professional companies can bring the plays to
life for audiences -- and if
> they are good, they will illustrate some of the
multiple references for them.
> Audiences do not need to understand all
references swept along by the movement
> as they are...
>
> > I happen to be a Shakepearophile -- (if
there's such a word)...
>
> there is, if you use it.
>
> >Shakespeare has to be read (and mentally heard)
with one eye on
> the Bible; one eye on the political situation at
the time, one eye on the
> mystery plays, one eye on foreign concepts, and
another on the intended
> Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences and their
expectations. It
> does tend to make one cross-eyed. <G>
>
>
> more like "fly-eyed".
>
> you forgot the eye which one can keep on a
thoroughly modern context of the
> play's message.
>
> a case in point is :
>
> Joseph Mankiewicz's 1953 "Julius Caesar" (with
Brando, and Mason, and Gielgud,
> etc.)
>
> http://imdb.com/title/tt0045943/
>
> though it has the production aspects of a
pseudo-DeMille Costume Epic (for box
> office purposes, obviously), in its choice of
dialogue resonates strongly with
> certain contemporary political circumstances
during the Regime of George II
> just as strongly as it did in 1953, at the very
height of the McCarthy
> Hysteria.
>
> let's see:
>
> --an early 17th century play set
>
> --in a late 1st c. B.C. historical context,
>
> --intened to resonate with the political
situation of the playwright's own
> time (which it no doubt did),
>
> --but which also resonates just as strongly with
audiences in the middle of
> the last century of the second millennium A.D.,
>
> --as well as with audiences in the early years
of the third millennium A.D.
>
> fly-eyes, indeed.
>
> best from here,
>
> christopher
>
> p.s. There is a recent collection of essays on
the OEH, which i have not seen
> but which might contain something of interest to
you:
>
> _The Old English Hexateuch : aspects and
approaches_ / edited by Rebecca
> Barnhouse and Benjamin C. Withers. Medieval
Institute Publications, Western
> Michigan University, 2000. xv, 358 p. : ill. ;
24 cm.
>
> Contents: The preface as admonition: Ælfric's
preface to Genesis / Melinda
> J. Menzer -- Translation by committee?: the
"anonymous" text of the Old
> English Hexateuch / Richard Marsden -- Shaping
the Hexateuch text for an
> Anglo-Saxon audience / Rebecca Barnhouse --
Assessing the liturgical canticles
> from the Old English Hexateuch / Sarah Larratt
Keefer -- Fragmentary versions
> of Genesis in Old English prose: context and
function / Mary P. Richards -- A
> program of illumination in the Old English
illustrated Hexateuch: "visual
> typology"? / David F. Johnson -- The Anglo-Saxon
Genesis: text, illustration,
> and audience / Catherine E. Karkov -- The first
laugh: laughter in Genesis and
> the Old English tradition / Jonathan Wilcox --
Early modern users of Claudius
> B. iv: Robert Talbot and William L'Isle /
Timothy Graham -- A sense of
> Englishness: Claudius B. iv, colonialism, and
the history of Anglo-Saxon art
> in the mid-twentieth century / Benjamin C.
Withers.
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