medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (31. January) is the feast day of:
Geminian of Modena (d. ca. 396). Though almost nothing is known for certain about the historical G., it is probable that he was the bishop Geminianus who took part in a north Italian synod in 390 under the presidency of St. Ambrose of Milan. From the early Middle Ages onward he has been patron of the Emilian city of Modena (initially sole patron, he now shares honors with the twelfth-century lay saint Homobonus of Cremona). An early Life (ca. 900; modeled on that of St. Zeno of Verona) and an expanded Longer Life (now thought to be of the mid-eleventh century) are both quite unreliable.
In the final decade of the ninth century, when Modena was under threat of attack from Hungarian raiders, someone there composed two versions, probably drafts of a work undergoing revision, of a Latin verse prayer to G. seeking his protection against this new scourge just as he had (legendarily) saved Modena's inhabitants during the time of Attila (incipit: _Confessor Christi, pie dei famule_). These together with the so-called "Song for the Watchmen of Modena" (incipit: _O tu qui servas armis ista moenia_) preserved in the same Modenese manuscript are known collectively as the _Carmina Mutinensia_. Their classic treatment is that of Aurelio Roncaglia, "Il 'Canto delle scolte modenesi,'" _Cultura neolatina_ 8 (1948), 5-46 and 205-22.
In 1099 work began on Modena's present cathedral, dedicated to G. and today the cynosure of Modena's Piazza Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In this panoramic view the cathedral is the second building on the left:
http://www.in-sieme.it/impegno/siti2/modena1.htm
Here's a timeline of the cathedral's history:
http://www.duomodimodena.it/duomo/duomo.html
And here's an Italian-language Wikipedia page on this church with expandable views (esp. good for the pontile):
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duomo_di_Modena
Some exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/ct9y8
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image305.html
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image308.html
http://tinyurl.com/a86el
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image310.html
http://tinyurl.com/cq2ns
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image314.html
http://www.softest.com/pictures/0404Italy/Full/imagepages/image317.html
A plan of the cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/bkpv4
Interior views:
http://tinyurl.com/9culj
http://www.hulsen.net/images/EmRom14-Mod04.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/dfsw3
The Italia nell'Arte Medievale site has several pages on different areas of the cathedral:
http://www.medioevo.org/artemedievale/Pages/EmiliaRomagna/Modena.html
This one has expandable views of the cycle of reliefs on the Porta dei Principi showing episodes from G.'s legendary voyage to the East to cure the daughter of emperor (who in the reliefs is called 'rex'):
http://tinyurl.com/2a84h2
Various views (mostly sculptural details):
http://www.sforzinda.it/italia/emiliaromagna/modena/index.html
On 30 April 1106 G.'s remains were brought to the cathedral and placed in the crypt:
http://tinyurl.com/ys8ter
Which is where they remain today. But G. doesn't look too healthy:
http://ilnuovo.redaweb.it/seconda.php?key=11933
On 7. and 8. October of the same year Paschal II, in the presence of the cathedral's great patron, Matilda of Canossa, and of various ecclesiastical dignitaries, conducted a solemn recognition of G.'s remains and then consecrated the cathedral's high altar. The cathedral itself was consecrated in 1184 by Lucius II. Among its liturgical treasures is the very fine rhymed late twelfth- or thirteenth-century Office for G. edited by Giuseppe Vecchi in his "S. Geminiano nella lirica della liturgia modenese," _Miscellanea di Studi Muratoriani_ (Modena: Aedes Muratoriana, 1951), pp. 524-38.
The best recent work on G. in his Modenese context is that of Paolo Golinelli. See especially his _"Indiscreta sanctitas". Studi sui rapporti tra culti, poteri e societą nel pieno Medioevo_ (Roma: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1988; = its _Studi storici_, fasc. 197-98), pp. 55-101, and his "San Geminiano e Modena. Un santo, il suo tempo, il suo culto nel Medioevo," in _Civitas Geminiana. La cittą e il suo patrono_ (Modena: Panini, 1997), pp. 9-33 and plates 5, 12-16, and 35. English-language consideration of G. as civic patron will be found in Diana Webb, _Patrons and Defenders: The Saints in the Italian City-states_ (London: I. B. Tauris, 1996), esp. pp. 46-47, 124-25, and 216-19.
G.'s cult spread widely in northern Italy, e.g. to Tuscany, where San Gimignano (SI; previously Silvia and until relatively recently San Geminiano) was named for him in gratitude for his protection of that town from marauding Huns, and where Pontremoli (MS) also claims him as its patron saint. A good survey is provided by Maurizio Calzolari, "Edifici di culto intitolati a San Geminiano in Italia nel Medioevo," in _Civitas Geminiana_ (cit.), pp. 205-20.
One instance of a medieval church outside of Modena that's dedicated to St. Geminian is the chiesa di San Geminiano at Vicofertile (PR) on the Via Francigena in Emilia:
http://tinyurl.com/2963gc
and (for more and better views):
http://tinyurl.com/24mfra
Don't miss the baptismal font shown at the bottom of the latter page and also here:
http://tinyurl.com/37vlve
The Fitzwilliam's page on its Simone Martini (and workshop) altarpiece of Sts. Geminian, Michael, and Augustine (ca. 1319) is here (expandable enlargement at bottom):
http://tinyurl.com/ysabxu
Detail (G.):
http://tinyurl.com/2bjquj
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's posts revised)
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