 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture A slightly better image of the Martyrdom of Edmund painting at Pickering: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/9575875065 Gordon Plumb -----Original Message----- From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]> To: MEDIEVAL-RELIGION <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Fri, 20 Nov 2015 21:47 Subject: [M-R] FEAST - A Saint for the Day (Nov. 20): St. Edmund the Martyr medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Edmund the Martyr (d. 869 or 870) was a king of the East Angles slain, perhaps in battle, by invading Danes. He has very brief notices in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ (under 870) and in Asser's _Vita Alfredi_ (cap. 33). His veneration as a saint is first documented from coinage of the later ninth and early tenth centuries. Abbo of Fleury's late tenth-century _Passio_ of Edmund (BHL 2392; translated [with omissions] into Old English by Aelfric) presents him as a noble of Saxon ancestry; later hagiography from Geoffrey of Wells to John Lydgate would elaborate on this, making him the son of an otherwise unattested king in Saxony and giving him various youthful adventures on the Continent before his arrival in England to take up his throne there. Abbo treats Edmund as a willing victim for his people who sacrifices himself to certain torture and death in order to prevent further bloodshed; he further relates the miraculous Inventio of Edmund's head by Christians who already had his body and his later translation to a splendid church at the royal vill of Beadericesworth (later, Bury St Edmunds). Relics believed to be those of Edmund were venerated there until the Dissolution. Here's a view of the mid-fourteenth-century abbey gate at Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk): http://tinyurl.com/6g5cy3 Two translations into modern English of Aelfric's Old English version of Abbo's Passio of St. Edmund the Martyr (the suffix distinguishes him from St. Edmund of Canterbury [or of Abingdon]): https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/870abbo-edmund.asp http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/aelfric/edmund.html Roger Rosewell's review in _Vidimus_ no. 31 (July/August 2009) of Anthony Bale, ed., _St Edmund King and Martyr: Changing Images of a Medieval Saint_ (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press / Boydell and Brewer, 2009) has a useful survey of Edmund's medieval cult and images: http://vidimus.org/issues/issue-31/books/ As a supplement to Gordon Plumb's post from earlier today of links to images of this royal saint, herewith some links to other period-pertinent images of St. Edmund the Martyr: a) as depicted in a richly illustrated, earlier twelfth-century miscellany of texts related to Edmund (ca. 1110-1130; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Morgan ms. M.736, fol. 42r): 1) martyrdom (fol. 14r): http://tinyurl.com/onxrse5 2) discovery of his head guarded by a wolf (fol. 16v): http://tinyurl.com/pzspqq5 3) in glory (fol. 22v): http://tinyurl.com/pa679kc Links to these and other individual images of Edmund in this manuscript may be reached by clicking on "Browse CORSAIR..." here: http://tinyurl.com/2c8t4w6 b) as depicted (martyrdom) in the mid-thirteenth-century Carrow Psalter (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, ms. W.34, fol. 13v): http://tinyurl.com/oxv62us c) as depicted (martyrdom) in a mid-thirteenth-century Psalter and Canticles from St Albans (ca. 1246-ca. 1260; London, BL, MS Royal 2 B VI, fol. 10r): http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=41950 d) Abbo's Passio of Edmund borrows from that of St. Sebastian by likening its subject shot with arrows to a hedgehog. Consequently, depictions of Edmund's martyrdom can make him seem England's answer to St. Sebastian. Herewith some fourteenth- and fifteenth-century examples of that, courtesy of paintedchurch.org: 1) St Mary's, Bishopsbourne (Kent), fourteenth-cent.: http://www.paintedchurch.org/bishbbed.htm 2) St Andrew's, Stoke Dry (Rutland), fourteenth-cent.: http://www.paintedchurch.org/stokeded.htm 3) Sts Peter and Paul, Pickering (N Yorks), later fifteenth-cent.: http://www.paintedchurch.org/picedmun.htm e) as depicted (at right, seated) in a fourteenth-century painting on a stone pier in St Mary's Church, Lakenheath (Suffolk): http://www.paintedchurch.org/lakenhse.htm f) as depicted (martyrdom) in the early fourteenth-century Breviary of Chertsey Abbey (1307; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. liturg. d. 42, fol. 36r): http://tinyurl.com/23ox9qt g) as depicted (martyrdom) in the earlier fourteenth-century Taymouth Hours (ca. 1326-1350; Sarum Use; London, BL, MS Yates Thompson 13, fol. 192r, at foot of page): http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=27216 h) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century copy of the _Speculum humanae salvationis_ in an abridged French-language translation (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 400, fol. 31r): http://tinyurl.com/q828suj i) as depicted (at left) on a panel of the late fourteenth-century Wilton Diptych (ca. 1395-1399) in the National Gallery, London: http://tinyurl.com/5ho5m2 j) as depicted (third from left, defaced; in full armor) on the heavily restored fifteenth-century wooden screen in St Andrew's Church, Kimbolton (Cambs): http://www.standrew-kimbolton.org.uk/Images/S%20aisle2.jpg k) as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century glass roundel (ca. 1420-1440; from Hardwick House in Suffolk) in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: http://flickr.com/photos/66122200@N00/342266730 l) as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century presentation copy of John Lydgate's Lives of St. Edmund and St. Fremund (betw. 1434 and 1439; London, BL, Harley MS 2278): 1) in battle against the Danes (fol. 50r): http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_2278_f050r 2) martyrdom (fol. 61r): http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_2278_f061r 3) his head guarded by a wolf (fol. 64r): http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_2278_f064r Further images are accessible from here: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_2278 m) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy of John Lydgate's LIves of St. Edmund and St. Fremund (betw. 1461 and ca. 1475; London, BL, MS Yates Thompson 47): 1) in battle against the Danes (fol. 39v): http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=12219 2) the discovery of his head (fol. 54r): http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=12215 Further images are accessible from here: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8132 Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion