As I am leaving early tomorrow morning for a week-long trip, I only have
time for a brief response, but yes, there are earlier manuscripts with
pictorial cycles focused on scenes of martyrdom; many of the 12th-century
Passionaries are illustrated in this way, for example. As you say, the
tradition dates back to the Byzantine Menologia; the 10th c. Menologium of
Basil II, now in the Vatican Library, has a particularly extensive cycle
of martyrdom scenes. There are also manuscripts focused on individual
saints; one saint's life MS with a beautiful series of miniatures, several
depicting the saint's martyrdom, is the famous Life of St. Edmund
(English, 12th century) now in the Morgan Library.
If you'd like a fuller response, let me know and I'll write more upon my
return.
Martha Easton
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
On Thu, 2 Sep 1999 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> > I am studying a late-13th-century manuscript of the Legenda
> > aurea, the earliest surviving extensively illuminated copy of this text
> > (with 135 extant miniatures.) A large proportion of these illustrate the
> > torture and death of martyrs, and I am interested in the different ways
> > that male and female martyrs are treated.
>
> Dear Martha,
> Your manuscript sounds very interesting. I am aware of a couple of
> earlier Byzantine Menologia with extensive depictions of martyrdoms,
> but (without meaning to scoop your dissertation) do you know of
> earlier European manuscripts of this sort?
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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