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Cantone V. A study on the illuminated manuscripts from the parchment to the digital library online: report on a project financed by the European Social Founds

Valentina Cantone (University of Padua)
A study on the illuminated manuscripts from the parchment to the digital library online: report on a project financed by the European Social Founds


The manuscript Marcianus Graecus 360 (696) of Venice is a Menologium of 550 sheets of fine parchment containing the readings for the months of July and August, written by a single copyist in the so called minuscule bouletée. Until the 1992, scholars dated it to the 10th or 11th century1. Only after it was generally accepted that the copyist was active in the middle of the 10th century in a prestigious Constantinopolitan scriptorium, probably connected with the imperial court2.
Recent researches3 contain some new insights into the nature of the distinctive scripture inserted elegantly by the copyist under the 31 headpieces composed by rich frames in blue, gold and light green colors. A similar scripture rich of gilded decorations – pearls, curls, dashes, sometimes vegetal elements like leaves or palms – appears in a group of fifteen manuscripts made in Constantinople during the Macedonian rule. In analysis of these codices it is possible to underline not only the different styles of decorating the letters, but also the spiritual character of that kind of script which is called Auszeichnungsmajuskel4.
The gilded headpieces and the precious writing in the codex Marcianus define a significant relation between text and image. Yet, exploring the strong connection between the two different kinds of decorations – words and illuminations – could help us to develop new insights into the character of the manuscript and its connection with the holy space in which it was employed. In fact, this kind of distinctive writing is used almost exclusively in manuscripts containing the New Testament and liturgical texts5. Only rarely can this script be found in manuscripts of the Ancient Testament and examples of its use in profane books are ever fewer. It appears that the “decorated liturgical” was developed for its symbolic function6. Its opulent exquisite qualities, the mise en page, the close aesthetic relationship with the kephalaia are evocative of the presence of the Holy. Far from being a simple way to indicate the incipit of the texts read during the liturgy, the Auszeichnungsmajuskel gives with their preciosity concrete form to the words inspired directly by God. At the same time, the blue and gold headpieces evoke the gilded space where His holy presence dwells, as was also done in the temple of Solomon covered by gilded sculptures and engravings of cherubim, palms and flower buds7.
A complete repertory of the decorations in the codex Marcianus with the critical discussion of its relationship with the architectural sculpture will be published in the monograph which I’m currently preparing. Here I will only show few examples in order to demonstrate the use of suggestions of architectural origins in the frames of this manuscript, not only for their decorative models, but also for their symbolic meaning.
The headpiece which introduces the Encomium on the Maccabees of John the Chrysostom is decorated with a vine-scroll of leaves and inverted palms. Like a gilded door which leads our eyes and thoughts into the inspired words of the Chrysostom, the kephalaia closely cites the forms sculpted on the epistyle which crowns the templon of the church of the Panagia of Hosios Loukas8. The frame which introduces the martyr Aimilianos is decorated by a geometric composition of intersected circles of traditional origin, as appeared in the little pilaster of the templon in the North church of Selçijker, the ancient capital of the Diocesis Sebastena in Phrygia9. Another example shows the versatility of the stylized models derived from the decorative repertory of the barriers of Justinian period. The sculptures of the church of Constantine Lips, drungarios of the Byzantine navy, preserved a language of articulation akin to earlier Byzantine models. Yet, in the later Constantinopolitan church of Christ Pantepoptes the epistyle of the templon shows a simplified version of the palms. The same level of stylization appears in the codex Marcianus, demonstrating the connection of its repertory to a language of metropolitan art where the carved sculpture was covered by precious metals10 and pigments.
The close stylistic relationship between these headpieces and the sculptures which decorate the Middle Byzantine templon gives a contribution in order to understand the performative and contextual meaning of the images. The manuscript was made to be seen and read in the larger context of a church or a monastery during the public ceremonies. The decorations on parchment create a miniaturized holy space in dialog with the monumental11 holy space in which the codex was located. Both are referred to the heavenly temple, prototype of the Byzantine churches.
The connection between the representation of a sacred space and the presence of God is traditional in Byzantine Art. For example, in the mosaics of the dome of Saint George in Thessaloniki, the revelation of the holy is expressed through the Saints standing in adoration under the Heavenly Jerusalem12 in front of the Theophany. Every figure is flanked by the name written in majuscule script under the closest arch, showing a relation between scripture and architecture testified also in the mosaics of Jordan13. The celestial architecture in Thessaloniki cites the forms of the frons scenae of the ancient theatres, but the typology and abundance of the decorations seems to be referred to a different model. In fact, the figures are framed by architectures entirely covered by gold gems and pearls and adorned by palms, flower buds and geometric motifs which include the crux gemmata with the Holy Spirit in the middle of the composition (fig. 1). The same repertory is employed in the church of Saint Polyeuctos in Constantinople14, where the connection with the temple of Solomon was made explicit in the plan and dimension of the building, as well in the decorative elements, commemorated by the poem preserved in the Palatine Anthology15. The symbolic meaning of these gilded decorations must be considered a topos corroborated by a long theological and homiletic tradition. The relationship between the Heavenly Temple and the earthly temple is elaborated in order to legitimate the liturgy16 also in the most important building of Constantinople17. In fact, the style and the ornaments sculpted in the church of Saint Sophia were developed in blue and gold pigments by the middle Byzantine illuminators. In the Menologium of Basil II18, for example, the Saints are often depicted praying in a church19, or under generic architectural structures adorned with the same precious decorations in Laubsägeornamentik which appears in the Menologium of Venice.
The relationship between architecture and headpieces in Middle Byzantine illuminated manuscripts is well known and exemplified by the numerous tempietti and ciboria20 depicted on parchment. Among the best known examples there are the Greek 70 of Paris21, the Greek I, 8 of Venice22 and the Phillips 1538 of Berlin23. In the last of these, which contains the Hippiatrika, the ciborium is a minuscule but significant presence dominated by the large dimension of the luxurious headpiece which expresses a different, but homologous significance in glorifying with gold, flowers and palms the incipit of the first book. In that case the ciborium solves its function a little bit shyly, may be for the profane argument of the manuscript which is horse medicine, not liturgical readings. In the Menologium of Venice the role of the gilded headpieces is very similar to the architectural decorations in the mosaics of the church of Saint George. They introduce the holy presence of the Saints, through their words and life, reproducing on parchment the same meanings full of theological implications. The Canon gr. 110 of Oxford24 (fig. 2) and the codex Ottobonianus Graecus 4 of the Vatican Library, which has been attributed25 to the same scribe of the Marcianus, show the free interchange of such architectural elements depicted on parchment: archivolts, architraves, the so-called pylai and the simple rectangular frames. They introduce the theological thoughts of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church, with the blue and gold decorations which correspond to different doors to enter in the holy temple of the Wisdom revealed in their Acts and homilies.
It is possible that the simpler frames in the manuscripts of the Vatican Library and Venice should be recognized as the blue and gold version of an epistyle. In fact, the sculptures which decorate the Middle Byzantine templon could explain the adoption of the trilitic system in the byzantine kephalaia, interpreted as a simplified version of an architrave. This might be supported by the sharing of similar and sometimes identical repertory of decorative models taken from the architectural sculpture.
The codex Marcianus Graecus 360 with its 31 unpublished headpieces of Constantinopolitan origin provides a significant contribution into our knowledge of these issues. As such, it was already entirely digitalized to be published online for the interest of the international scientific community26.



References.

  1.   E. Mioni, Codices Graeci Manuscripti Bibliothecae Divi Marci Venetiarum, Thesaurus Antiquus volumen II codices 300–625, Roma 1985, pp. 115–118; A. Ehrhard, Überlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der griechischen Kirche, Leipzig 1937, I, p. 432, note 2; J. Leroy, J.-H. Sautel, Répertoire de réglures dans les manuscrits grecs sur parchemin (Bibliologia. Elementa ad librorum studia pertinentia. XIII), Paris 1995, p. 299.
  2.   J. Leroy, Les manuscrits grecs en minuscule des IXe et Xe siècles de la Marcienne, in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 27 (1978), pp. 25–48: 40; M.L. Agati, La minuscola «bouletée» (Littera Antiqua. IX.I), 2 volls, Città del Vaticano 1992, pp. 217–227: 219. His co-workers most likely included two important anonymous scribes: A and A1, to whom scholars assigned the manuscripts 43 and 44 of Patmos, decorated by a sumptuous repertory of gilded frames: ibid., pp. 202–214: 205, pls. 9, 10.
  3.   P. Orsini, La maiuscola distintiva ‘Liturgica ornata’, in Alethes Philia. Studi in onore di Giancarlo Prato, ed. by M. D’Agostino e P. Degni, Spoleto 2010, pp. 525–540: 533, 539.
  4.   That kind of script was already defined by Herbert Hunger as Schnörkelschrift. Kurt Weitzmann called it as Silhouetten-Ornamentik or Perlschnur-Initialen, as remembered by the art historians: H. Hunger, Epigraphische Auszeichnungsmajuskel. Beitrag zu einem bisher kaum beachteten Kapitel der griechischen Paläographie, in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 26 (1977), pp. 193–210: 199–200; A. Džurova, La miniatura bizantina: i manoscritti miniati e la loro diffusione, Milano 2001, pp. 72, 282.; S. Dufrenne, Problèmes des ateliers de miniaturistes byzantins, in XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress (Wien, 4.–9. Oktober 1981). Akten. I. Hauptreferate, 2. Themengruppen 7–11, Wien 1981, in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 31/2 (1981), pp. 445–470: 459; Ead. Problèmes des ornaments des manuscrits byzantins. Deux études dédiée à Kurt Weitzmann, in Scriptorium 41 (1987), pp. 35–57: 47, n. 23, 55.
  5.   P. Orsini, La maiuscola distintiva cit., pp. 525–540: 536.
  6.   Ibid.; Id., Per uno studio delle scritture esposte e monumentali a Bisanzio nei secoli VI–X, in Miscellanea Magistrale, in print.
  7.   1 Kings, 6, 29.
  8.   L. Bouras [Λ. Μπούρα], Ο γλυπτός διάκοσμος του ναού της Παναγίας στο μοναστήρι του Οσίου Λουκά, Αθήνα 1980.
  9.   C. Barsanti, La scultura mediobizantina fra tradizione e innovazione, in Bisanzio nell’età dei Macedoni. Forme della produzione letteraria e artistica, ed. by F. Conca and G. Fiaccadori (Quaderni di Acme. LXXXVII), Milano 2007, pp. 36–40, note 86.
  10.   Paulus Silentiarius, Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae, 720–754, in M.L. Fobelli, Un tempio per Giustiniano: Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli e la Descrizione di Paolo Silenziario, Roma 2005, pp. 78–81; C. Barsanti, La scultura mediobizantina cit., p. 38 and note 87.
  11.   R. Nelson, Empathetic Vision: Looking at and with a Performative Byzantine Miniature, in Art History 30 (2007), pp. 489–502; Id., Spaces of devotion in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts, in Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies (London 21–26 August 2006), II, Abstracts of Panel Papers, London 2006, p. 216.
  12.   H. Torp, Mosaikkene i St. Georg-Rotunden, Oslo 1963.
  13.   M. Piccirillo, Chiese e mosaici di Madaba (Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Collectio Maior. XXXIV), Jerusalem 1989, p. 190; cfr. also: A. Cadei, La “orthographia” del Tempietto del Clitunno, in Medioevo mediterraneo. L’Occidente, Bisanzio e l’Islam (Parma, 21–25 September 2004), ed. by A.C. Quintavalle, Milano 2007, pp. 243–261: 253.
  14.   M. Harrison, A temple for Byzantium. The discovery of Anicia Juliana’s palace church in Istanbul, Austin 1989.
  15.   Anthologia Palatina I, 10; R.M Harrison, The church of St. Polyeuctos in Istanbul and the Temple of Solomon, in Okeanos. Essays presented to Ihor Ševčenko on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students, ed. by C. Mango and O. Pritsak (Harvard Ukrainian Studies. VII), Cambridge 1983, pp. 276–279.
  16.  V. Cantone, Ars monastica. Iconografia teofanica e tradizione mistica nel mediterraneo altomedievale, Padova 2008; A.-O. Poilpré, Maiestas Domini. Un image de l’église en Occident, (Ve–IXe), Paris 2005.
  17.   Fobelli, Un tempio per Giustiniano cit., pp. 24–25, notes 63–71, p. 31. Cfr. also: A. Palmer, The inauguration anthem of Hagia Sophia in Edessa: a new edition and translation with historical and architectural notes and a comparison with a contemporary Constantinopolitan kontakion, in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 12 (1988), pp. 117–167, with bibliography; K.E. McVey, The Domed Church as Microcosm: Literary Roots of an Architectural Symbol, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 37 (1983), pp. 91–121.
  18.   El «Menologio de Basilio II», Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1613. Libro de estudios con ocasión de la edición facsímil, ed. by F. D’Aiuto (edición española a cargo de I. Pérez Martín), (Colección Scriptorium. XVIII), Città del Vaticano-Atenas-Madrid 2008, with complete bibliography.
  19.   C. Barsanti, Le architetture «ad limitem» del Menologio di Basilio II (cod. Vat. Greco 1613) e la miniatura con la commemorazione del patriarca Ignazio, in Commentari, n.s. 28 (1977), 3, pp. 3–25.
  20.   C. Nordenfalk, Die Spätantiken Kanontafeln Kunstgeschichtliche Studien über die eusebianische Evangelien-Konkordanz in den vier ersten Jahrhunderten ihre Geschichte, I–II, Göteborg 1938, pp. 109–116; K. Weitzmann, Die Byzantinische Buchmalerei des IX. und X. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1935, pp. 13–16; P. Underwood, The Fountain of Life in mss. of the Gospels, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 5 (1950), pp. 41–115: 107–118; T. Klauser, Das Ciborium in der älteren christlichen Buchmalerei, in Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philosophisch-historische Klasse 7 (1961), pp. 191–207; G. Bandmann, Beobachtungen zum Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, in Tortulae. Studien zur altchristlichen und byzantinischen Monumenten, ed. by W.N. Schumacher (= Römische Quartalschrift. Supplementheft. XXX, 1966), pp. 11–29; E. Klemm, Die Kanontafeln der armenischen Hs. Cod. 697 in Wiener Mechitaristenklosler, in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 35 (1972), pp. 69–99; T. Klauser, Das Ciborium in der älteren christlichen Buchmalerei, in Id., Gesammelte Arbeiten zur Liturgiegeschichte, Kirchengeschichte und Christlichen Archäologie, Münster 1974, pp. 202–207; K. Wessel, Kanontafeln, in Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst, III, Stuttgart 1978, coll. 927–968; A. Iacobini, L. Perria, Il Vangelo di Dionisio. Un manoscritto bizantino da Costantinopoli a Messina (Milion. Studi e ricerche d’arte bizantina. IV), Roma 1998, pp. 51–61, figs. 6–18; J.C. Anderson, Tiles, Books, and the “Church Like a Bride Adorned with Pearls and Gold”, in A lost art rediscovered. The architectural Ceramics of Byzantium, ed by S.E.J. Gerstel e J.A. Lauffenburger, University Park, PA, 2001, pp. 119–141: 128 e 129; Džurova, La miniatura bizantina cit., p. 74, fig. 72; A.A. Aletta, I luoghi del diritto nel Paris. Suppl. gr. 1085 (II), in Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici, n.s. 46 (2009), 2010, pp. 33–71; A.A. Aletta, A. Paribeni, I luoghi del diritto nel Paris. Suppl. gr. 1085 (I): tra parole scritte e immagini dipinte, in Vie per Bisanzio, Atti del VII Congresso Nazionale dell’Associazione Italiana di Studi Bizantini, ed. by A. Rigo (Venezia, 25–28 novembre 2009), in print.
  21.   J. Ebersolt, La miniature byzantine, Paris-Bruxelles 1926, pl. 38.2–3, 40.1; Weitzmann, Die Byzantinische Buchmalerei cit., pp. 14–15, figg. 78–84, 87–88; I. Spatharakis, Corpus of dated illuminated Greek manuscripts to the year 1453 (Byzantina Neerlandica. VIII), II, Leiden 1981, n. 17, p. 13, pl. 41; Agati, La minuscola «bouletée» cit., I, pp. 118–119; II, pl. 3, 72; Džurova, La miniatura bizantina cit., pp. 69, 72, 73, 74, 78.
  22.   Weitzmann, Die Byzantinische Buchmalerei cit., pp. 15–16, tavv. 92–94; C. Nordenfalk, Die Spätantiken Kanontafeln, pl. 8–10; W.H.P. Hatch, The Principal Uncial Manuscripts of the New Testament, Chicago 1939, pl. 76; G. Cavallo, Funzione e strutture della maiuscola greca tra i secoli VIII–IX, in La Paléographie grecque et byzantine (Paris, 21–25 octobre 1974) (Colloques Internationaux du C.N.R.S. DLIX), Paris 1977, note 14, pl. 33; E. Mioni, Codices Graeci Manuscripti Bibliothecae Divi Marci Venetiarum, nuova serie I, I, pars prior, classis I – classis II, codd. 1–120 (Indici e cataloghi, N.S. VI), Roma 1967, pp. 13–14; Oriente cristiano e santità. Figure e storie di santi tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente, a cura di G. Gentile, Milano 1998, p. 137.
  23.   L. Cohn, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin 1890, p. 55; Id., Bemerkungen zu den Konstantinischen Sammelwerken, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 9 (1900), pp. 154–160: 158–160; J. Kirchner, Miniaturen-Handschriften der Preußischen Staatsbibliothek, I, Die Phillipps-Handschriften, Leipzig 1926, p. 16; Weitzmann, Die Byzantinische Buchmalerei cit., pp. 16–18, pl. 104–115 and Addenda und Appendix (1996), p. 28; J. Irigoin, Pour une étude de centre de copie byzantine II, in Scriptorium 13 (1959), pp. 177–209: 180–181; K. Weitzmann, The character and intellectual origins of the Macedonian Renaissance, in Studies in Classical and Byzantine manuscript illumination, Chicago 1971, pp. 194–195; G. Galavaris, H ζωγραφικη των χειρογραφων στον δεκατον αιωνα, in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and his Age, Second International Conference (Delphi, 22–26 July 1987), Athena 1989, pp. 333–375: 334–335, fig. 2; A. McCabe, A Byzantine Enclyclopaedia of Horse Medicine. The sources, Compilation, and Transmission of the Hippiatrica (Oxford Studies in Byzantium), Oxford 2007.
  24.   Weitzmann, Die Byzantinische Buchmalerei cit. pp. 13–14, pl. 71–77; I. Hutter, Corpus der Byzantinischen miniaturenhandschriften, Bd. I, Oxford Bodleian Library I, Stuttgart 1977, n. 3, pp. 3–8; Agati, La minuscola «bouletée» cit., I, pp. 117–118; pl. 71; Džurova, La miniatura bizantina cit., pp. 73, 77, 78.
  25.   Cfr. note 2.
  26. This project is co-financed by the European Social Funds and by the Veneto Region. The research has the title: "Venezia segreta. I codici greci della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana dai depositi alla biblioteca on line" (Riferimento Programma Operativo F.S.E. 2007-2013 della Regione Veneto, alla D.G.R. n.1103 del 23/03/2010, al D.D.R. n. 520 del 07/12/2010, Cod. p.2105/101/16/1103/2010).