medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (25. September) is also the feast day of:
Aurelia and Neomisia, virgins (9th century, perhaps). According to
their Passion, A. and N. were sisters from somewhere in Asia Minor who
made a pilgrimage first to the holy places in Palestine and then to
major shrines in the West. Traveling south from Rome on the Via Latina,
they were captured by Agarenes who had besieged Capua and were beaten
with rods to within an inch of their lives. A providential thunderstorm
allowing them to escape, they made their way to a place called Macerata,
near Anagni [if this existed today and were still so named, it would be
Macerata (FR) as opposed to Thomas Renna's much better known Macerata
(MC); does anyone know if it does exist?]. Here they settled down and
died in peace on 25. September of some unknown year. Venerated by
inhabitants of the area, A. and N. were interred in a local oratory;
during the papacy of Leo IX (1049-54) they were translated to Anagni's
cathedral, where they have been ever since. When the cathedral was
rebuilt under bishop Peter of Salerno (St. Peter of Anagni or de
princibus; d. 1105), they were placed alongside the relics of St.
Secundina under an altar dedicated to her in the crypt of St. Magnus.
Thus far A. & N.'s Passion and Translation (to Anagni; BHL 817m), an
obviously legendary document from which the Bollandists elected to print
in the _Acta Sanctorum_ only brief extracts (preceded by a summary from
Ferrari's _Catalogus sanctorum Italiae_), most having to do with the two
translations (in Carnandet's editio novissima this matter is at at
Septembris tomus septimus, vol. 2, pp. 126-30). This survives in a
single early fourteenth century manuscript (BAV, Chigianus C. VIII. 235)
and is probably included in these saints' Office in the Anagni propers
printed at Foligno in 1897 _Officia propria in usum SS. Anagninae
Ecclesiae_; not seen, pertinent matter said to be located at pp.
313-16). Though there _was_ a destructive Muslim assault on old Capua
(today's Santa Maria Capua Vetere) in 841, the Bollandists (BHL Suppl. 2
[1986], p. 106) date A. and N. to "saec. XI (?)". The eleventh century
certainly seems to be the time when their cult first comes to light in
our surviving records.
A. and N. are repeatedly depicted in the Crypt of St. Magnus (the local
patron saint) beneath Anagni's cathedral, whose present manifestation
was initially built between 1071 and 1105. A touristy, English-language
introduction to this church is here:
http://www.italyontour.com/Inglese/Localita/anagni.htm
And an Italian-language one, with different photographs, is here:
http://www.comune.anagni.fr.it/a-cath.html
Many more exterior shots (incl. a couple of the statue of Boniface VIII)
are here:
http://www.photoroma.com/archivio.php?City=a&Search=*&Page=1
continued on p. 2 with shots of the belltower and of the redesigned
"Gothic" nave:
http://www.photoroma.com/archivio.php?City=a&Page=2&Search=*
More are here (expandable jpegs):
http://www.menteantica.it/frmanagni.htm
The crypt itself is a major monument, thanks to its extensively
preserved medieval frescoes (restored in the late nineteenth century and
now under restoration again).
A. and N. flank the bishop over the altar at right rear here:
http://www.apt.frosinone.it/foto%20ciociaria%20_sito/cripta_anagni.jpg
You _might_ get a better idea of this composition from the second image
here:
http://www.sestoacuto.it/biblio/cavallini/doc/15.htm
and from the black-and-white detail here:
http://www.giornaledibrescia.it/giornale/2001/09/25/11,CRONACA/TSANTO.html
Better photographs of other details from these frescoes are here:
http://web.tiscali.it/albertopulcini/cripta/pag_arca.html
and here, also including a marble throne in the upper church, (the three
little jpegs at right are expandable):
http://www.sapere.it/tca/MainApp?srvc=vr&url=/1/306_1
and here:
http://news2000.libero.it/fotogallery/fg1250/pg1.html
http://www.santamelania.it/arte_fede/anagni/apoc_anagn.htm
http://www.30giorni.it/it/articolo.asp?id=206
http://www.teologia.it/cn18.html
Plus these older black-and-whites from the Courtauld Institute of Art
(where, shades of Dan Quayle, the singular of "frescoes" is "frescoe"):
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?ixsid=ayBsNjAGRWW&qs=Anagni
These famous frescoes, executed in stages during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, are the subject of at least three recent scholarly
books:
Gioacchino Giammaria, ed., _Un universo di simboli. Gli affreschi della
cripta nella cattedrale di Anagni_ (Roma: Viella, 2001)
http://www.viella.it/Edizioni/LibriViellaArte/LibriViellaArte_01.htm
Cappelletti, Lorenzo, _Gli affreschi della cripta anagnina. Iconologia_,
Miscellanea historiae pontificiae; v. 65 (Roma: Editrice Pontificia
Universita' Gregoriana, 2002)
Alessandro Bianchi, ed., _Il restauro della Cripta di Anagni_ (Roma:
Istituto Centrale per il Restauro -- Artemide Edizioni, 2003).
http://www.icr.beniculturali.it/Pubblicazioni/pubblicazioni6.htm
Returning to A. and N., there are good black-and-white photographs of
four depictions of them in these frescoes in Vincenzo Fenicchia's
article "Aurelia e Neomisia, vergini, sante" in the _Bibliotheca
Sanctorum_, vol. 2, cols. 601-06.
Best,
John Dillon
(expanding on, and in places correcting, a posting from a year ago today)
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