medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Thus what I have not yet seen in the Christian art world is a
> representation of an ancient horizontal format scroll being handled in
> the expected posture (e.g. with rolled up sections on each side)
> and/or showing columns of writing similar to adjacent book pages. The
> closest I've come to such an image is the 3rd century CE sarcophagus
> at the Church of St. Maria Antiqua (my "Slide20"), and even there it
> is not absolutely clear whether a literary scroll (read horizontally)
> or a rotulus (read vertically) is intended -- at least, the holder
> seems to have rolled up portions on both sides of the exposed roll,
> unless he is (also?) holding blocks to keep the surface flat.
Dear Bob,
I would hesitate to make too much of the form of book represented in the image on the S.
Maria Antiqua sarcophagus. This is a visual topos of "the philosopher" that was occasionally
used to indicate Christ "symbolically", in the manner of the Good Shepherd. Virtually identical
examples, also with rotuli, can be found on earlier non-Christian sarcophagi, and in this
earliest phase of Christian iconography, the literal appropriation of such visual topoi was quite
common. This situation may also apply to other early images, since a completely "Christian"
iconography did not appear overnight!
Since the Jewish scriptures are still produced in rotulus form, I have found myself wondering
if the quite early adoption of the codex form in Christian contexts may represent an attempt to
distance specifically Christian scriptures from Jewish ones. Anything in that, do you think?
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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