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VI.—The Reliquary of St. Petroc and the Ivories of Norman Sicily

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

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A little less than 800 years ago the bones of St. Petroc were removed from his priory church in Bodmin by a seditious canon and carried into Brittany. About a year later, after the prior of Bodmin had mobilized his friend, the head of the royal chancery, and through him King Henry II himself, and the regent of Brittany, not without some miraculous interventions by the saint himself, the bones were returned to Bodmin in an ivory casket and solemnly installed again in the priory church by the learned and saintly Bishop Bartholomew.

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Research Article
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Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1973

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References

page 261 note 2 Or justiciar: Roland de Dinan ruled Brittany on behalf of Henry II and his son, Count (or Duke) Geoffrey.

page 261 note 3 The most likely date for the gathering of so many notables in the king's court seems to be the royal council of Westminster of 13 March 1177 (Eyton, R. W., Court, Household and Itinerary of King Henry II (London, 1878), pp. 212–13Google Scholar); but the event could be weeks or even a month or two later, during Henry's travels in the south of England. The relics were returned to the prior on 19th June (Gesta Henrici Secundi, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 1867, i, 178–80, especially p. 179); viewed by the king at the royal council at Winchester on 1st July (Eyton, p. 216) and restored to Bodmin priory on 15th September (narrative: see below).

page 262 note 1 See Lehmann-Brockhaus, O., Lateinische Schriftquellen zur Kunst in England, Wales und Schottland vom Jahre 901 bis zum Jahre 1307 (5 vols., Munich, 1955–60)Google Scholar, v (Index), s.v. ebur, eburneus. The inventories printed in this celebrated collection show in general how common ivory boxes, shrines, pyxes, combs, etc., were, but are rarely sufficiently specific in their descriptions for us to identify their origin (see below, p. 287).

page 262 note 2 J. Leland, Itin., ed. L. Toulmin Smith, i, 180 (cf. Collectanea, 2nd edn., iii, 209, presumably based on the Gesta). In the Bodmin Register (ed. J. Wallis, Bodmin, 1827–38), p. 11, it is stated that there was a chapel at the east end for relics, which was taken down in 1776; it seems clear that this was attached to the church, and cannot refer to the separate chapel still standing, though now in ruins, to the east of the church. It is possible that the chapel destroyed in 1776 had been built at the dissolution to house the shrine; but Leland distinctly says that the shrine stood in the east end of the church, which would more naturally refer to the existing chancel. Ibid., pp. 305 ff., notes that at the dissolution the prior and vicar were brothers. In 1478 William Worcestre noted that St. Petroc lay ‘in pulcro scrinio apud Bodman Ecclesie coram capella Beate Marie’ (ed. J. H. Harvey, Oxford Medieval Texts, p. 86).

page 262 note 3 Bodmin Register, p. 41: ‘Item a boxe of every with a lake of sylver’ (1539). It seems most unlikely that the casket ever had a silver lock.

page 262 note 4 Antiquity, xiii (1939), 403–15Google Scholar (cited hereafter as Doble), at p. 415; there is a photograph of the casket facing p. 408.

page 263 note 1 Unpaginated, under heading: ‘St Petroc's Reliquary, — Bodmin Casket’.

page 263 note 2 Proc. Soc. Antiq., 2nd ser. v (1870–3), 87Google Scholar; W. J. P. Burton, History of Bodmin (citing Iago's negotiations and quoting Dr. Couch's diary); Canon Harmer has kindly furnished us with this reference and extracts from the town council minutes, and has looked up the diary, now in the possession of Miss F. Quiller-Couch. The earliest rereferences to the casket in print which have been found by Harmer, Canon and Mr.Hull, P. L. are Polsue, J., Parochial History of Cornwall, i (Truro and London, 1867), 93–4Google Scholar; McLean, J., Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor, i (London-Bodmin, 1868), 231–2Google Scholar. (The relevant section of McLean seems, from comparison of copies in the B.M. Library, to be actually of 1870.) By 1867 it was certainly in the Corporation's possession.

page 263 note 3 Gilbert, Davies, Parochial History of Cornwall (London, 1838), i, 100–1Google Scholar.

page 263 note 4 Truro, Cornwall County Record Office, Borough of Bodmin Records, no. 299 (reference kindly furnished by Mr. Hull).

page 263 note 5 Bodmin Register, p. 9, dated 1827. The earliest references we can find to the story that the casket was also found in the room under the floor is in the 1937 edn. of A. Butler, Lives of the Saints (ed. H. Thurston), vi, 55, which is cited by P. Grosjean in his commentary on the narrative (Analecta Bollandiana, lxxiv (1956), 174–88Google Scholar—henceforth cited as Grosjean—at pp. 181–2): Grosjean attributed the information to Charles Henderson.

page 264 note 1 The rarity, that is, of ivory caskets known to have been in England in the Middle Ages; those of this kind now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and elsewhere are comparatively recent arrivals.

page 264 note 2 Grosjean and Doble, arts. cit. (pp. 262, n. 4, 263, n. 5).

page 264 note 3 i, 178–80 (see p. 261, n. 3); on authorship and relation to Howden's Chronica, see Stenton, D. M., in Eng. Hist. Rev. lxviii (1953), 574–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The similarities between Howden and the narrative are mostly in words and names scarcely to be avoided (e.g. ‘canonicus quidam’, narrative; ‘quidam canonicus’), and the description of Henry II as son of the Empress Matilda, natural in the narrative, slightly odd in the Gesta in the midst of a chronicle of his reign. The chief difference is in the role assigned to the regent of Brittany—but it is a difference of emphasis, not a contradiction.

page 265 note 1 Grosjean, pp. 140–1, argued that the text of the narrative was written down c. 1177 × 9, and some interpolations made in the 1180s. For example, the note that Walter of Coutances later became archbishop of Rouen must have been added in or after 1184; but no anachronism of later date than this has been found.

page 265 note 2 On Bodmin priory, see Henderson, C., Essays in Cornish History (Oxford, 1935), pp. 219 ffGoogle Scholar. (see p. 225 for the reliquary); Dickinson, J. C., The Origins of the Austin Canons (London, 1950), pp. 118–19Google Scholar.

page 265 note 3 What follows, unless otherwise stated, is based on the narrative. On Bishop Bartholomew, see Morey, A., Bartholomew of Exeter (Cambridge, 1937)Google Scholar.

page 266 note 1 Magna Vita S. Hugonis, eds. D. L. Douie and H. Farmer (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1961–2), bk. v, 14, ii, 169–70.

page 266 note 2 Complete Peerage (revised edn.), iii, 429. Earl Reginald died on 1st July 1175.

page 266 note 3 See p. 265, n. 3. On Master Walter of Coutances, see D.N.B. s.v. Coutances; Delisle, L. and Berger, E., Recueil des actes de Henri II …, Introduction (Paris, 1909), pp. 106 ff.Google Scholar; Stubbs, W. in Chron. Rogeri de Houedene (Rolls Series, 1868–71), iii, pp. lix ffGoogle Scholar. Stated to be of Cornish birth (Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, Rolls Series, vii, 38–9, cf. iv, 408, confirmed by a document cited Delisle, p. 107), he was canon of Lincoln, archdeacon of Oxford, and treasurer of Rouen as well as being a leading chancery clerk from c. 1173 and Keeper of the Great Seal (Ralph de Diceto, ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 1876, ii, 14; Gesta Henrici II, i, 136; Giraldus locc. citt.), Bishop of Lincoln 1183–4 and archbishop of Rouen 1184–1207.

page 266 note 4 Pipe Roll, 22 Henry II, pp. 47, 198; Delisle, p. 108.

page 266 note 5 ‘Tecam eburneam venalem’: the casket is also ‘thecam’ in the Gesta Henrici Secundi. A variety of words were used for caskets and other kinds of reliquaries: cf. the index of Lehmann-Brockhaus, e.g. s.vv. capsa, capsula, cassa, cista, cofrus, feretrum, pyxis, scrinium, and theca. Ibid. no. 2737 shows that Parvulae thecae could be small enough to be placed inside cofri, and a rough order of size could perhaps be established, with pyxis at the lower end, theca and scrinium in the middle, and cofrus as almost invariably a fairly large object. But it is evident that no viable deduction as to the size of the casket can be drawn from the word used.

page 267 note 1 Doble, p. 4O9 (slightly adapted); in Grosjean, pp. 181–2.

page 267 note 2 Doble, pp. 411–12 (adapted); Grosjean, p. 185.

page 267 note 3 Doble, pp. 412–13; Grosjean, pp. 185–6.

page 267 note 4 Doble, p. 414; Grosjean, p. 187.

page 272 note 1 Proc. Soc. Antiq., 2nd ser. v (1870–3), 87.

page 272 note 2 Arch. Journ. xxviii (1871), 169Google Scholar f.

page 272 note 3 Perry Blythe Cott, Siculo-Arabic Ivories (Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology: Folio Series III, Princeton, 1939) (hereafter cited as Cott; numbers refer to his inventory); José Ferrandis, Marfiles Árabes de Occidente (Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arqueólogos, Madrid, 1940), which deals with the painted ivories in vol. ii (hereafter cited as Ferrandis); Georg Swarzenski, review of Cott, in The Art Bulletin, xxii (New York, 1940), 104Google ScholarPubMed f.; Whitehouse, D. B., ‘Ceramiche e vetri medioevali provenientidal Castello di Lucera’, Bollettino d'Arte, ser. v, 3–4 (Rome, 1966), 171–8Google Scholar; Umberto Scerrato, Arte islamica a Napoli (Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, Monografie 45), p. 37, no. 43, and fig. 32 (henceforth Scerrato); H. Schnitzler, F. Volbach, P. Bloch, Skulpturen, Elfenbein, Perlmutter, Stein, Holz, Europäisches Mittelalter, Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, Bd. i (Lucerne–Stuttgart, 1964) (henceforth Kofler); Zehnder, G., ‘Der Siegburger Servatiusschatz’ in Heimatbuch der Stadt Siegburg, ii, 1967Google Scholar (henceforth Zehnder).

page 272 note 4 A painted casket with truncated pyramidal lid in the Islamic Museum, Berlin, has an interior wooden frame. See Diez, Ernst, ‘Bemalte Elfenbeinkästchen und Pyxiden der islamischen Kunst’, Jahrbuch der königlich preußischen Kunstsammlungen, xxxi (1910), 231–44Google Scholar and xxxii (1911), 117–42. In the casket in the Cathedral Treasury of Würzburg (Cott, 47), the wood lining can be clearly seen where parts of the ivory plaques are missing.

page 273 note 1 Cott, 102b.

page 273 note 2 Cott, 12.

page 273 note 3 Cott, 73c.

page 273 note 4 Cott, 8.

page 273 note 5 Ferrandis, 68.

page 273 note 6 Cott, 71 and 86.

page 273 note 7 See p. 272, n. 3.

page 274 note 1 Ferrandis, p. 32, observes that the incised point of the compass is still visible in some examples. There is such a mark on the flat-topped casket in the Kofler collection (pl. lxiii a, b).

page 275 note 1 Cott, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 18; Ferrandis, 54, 56, 57, 59.

page 275 note 2 Cott, 19, 21, 23; Ferrandis, 66; Kofler, 27.

page 275 note 3 Cott, 12.

page 275 note 4 The phrase occurs in an inscription on the Antioch Gate of the Citadel of Aleppo in the name of Duqmaq, mamluk of Sultan Barquq, and dated Sha'b¯an, 804 (March 1402); see Herzfeld, E., Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum, 2ème partie. Syrie du Nord, Inscriptions et Monuments d'Alep, t. i, vol. i (Cairo, 1955), pp. 53 fGoogle Scholar. and pl. xvb.

page 275 note 5 Caskets with truncated pyramidal lid: Cott, 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16; Ferrandis, 38, 39, 55; Scerrato, 43. Caskets with flat lid: Cott, 20, 22; Ferrandis, 67, 68. Combs: Cott, 141, 143–6; Ferrandis 72, and the fragmentary comb in St. Hubert, Ardennes.

page 275 note 6 Cott, 9, 15.

page 275 note 7 Cott, 11.

page 276 note 1 Cott, 17.

page 276 note 2 Cott, 35.

page 276 note 3 Cott, 39.

page 276 note 4 Cott, 45b.

page 277 note 1 Cott, 36c.

page 277 note 2 Cott, 36a.

page 277 note 3 Cott, 32d and e. Inscribed on front of lid ‘He who has … the glory forever’ (Cott).

page 277 note 4 Cott, 34b and c.

page 277 note 5 Cott, 33a to e.

page 277 note 6 Cott, 47. There is a fine reproduction in colour in F. Sarre and F. R. Martin, Die Ausstellungen von Meisterwerken muhammedanischer Kunst in München 1910, iii, pl. 256.

page 278 note 1 Cott, 35c.

page 278 note 2 Cott, 47b, the central figure; 47d, the figures on the left- and right-hand side.

page 278 note 3 Cott, 45c, the seated musician in the left-hand large roundel.

page 278 note 4 Cott, 32e.

page 278 note 5 Cott, 33d.

page 278 note 6 Cott, 22a.

page 278 note 7 Cott, 32d.

page 278 note 8 Cott, 142.

page 278 note 9 Cott, 46.

page 279 note 1 These three distychs are cited no less than four times in the Bulaq edition of 1279 (a.d. 1862–3), i, 87,490; ii, 186; iv, 159.

with the following variants:

page 279 note 2 Cott, 37.

page 279 note 3 Cott, 43. Inscription transcribed by Cott (p. 26).

page 280 note 1 Cott, 77.

page 280 note 2 Cott, 79.

page 280 note 3 Ferrandis, 21.

page 280 note 4 Cott, 34c.

page 280 note 5 Ferrandis, 22.

page 280 note 6 Cott, 41.

page 281 note 1 Cott, 42.

page 281 note 2 Cott, 35.

page 281 note 3 E. Diez, art. cit. (p. 272, n. 4 (1911)), pp. 117 ff.

page 281 note 4 Cott, 38.

page 282 note 1 First published by Schiavo, Domenico in Opuscoli di autori Siciliani (Palermo, 1767), ix, 93102Google Scholar; Garofalo, A., Tabularium Regiae ac Imperialis Cappellae Collegiatae Divi Petri in Regio Panormitano Palatio Ferdinandi, Regni Utriusque Siciliae Regis (Panormi, 1835), pp. 98103Google Scholar: di Marzo, Gioacchino, Di una Cassetta d'avorio nella Real Cappella Palatina di Palermo (Palermo, 1887), p. 13 and pp. 29–32Google Scholar, note 3, for emendations of the two transcriptions.

page 282 note 2 di Marzo, pp. 14–18.

page 282 note 3 Diez, loc. cit.

page 282 note 4 di Marzo, pp. 22 f.

page 283 note 1 Cott, 44.

page 283 note 2 Cott, 12.

page 283 note 3 Cott, 8.

page 283 note 4 Cott, 73. Above the rinceau design and on the lid edge is inscribed in Kufic rather than naskhi (as Cott) the bismillāh.

page 283 note 5 Cott, 74c.

page 283 note 6 Professor Hitti's reading nā⋅irī seems doubtful. There are other words which may be the repeat of a single word. The inscription may well be decorative, the characters being meaningless. This is certainly true of the Kufic inscription on the side of the lid.

page 283 note 7 Cott, 75a.

page 284 note 1 Cott, 74a.

page 284 note 2 Cott, 82a, c.

page 284 note 3 Cott, 25.

page 284 note 4 Cott, 28.

page 284 note 5 Cott, 30.

page 284 note 6 Cott, 149, 165, 148; see below, p. 286, nn. 4, 5.

page 284 note 7 Cott, 84–7, 108; 102–7; 98, 101.

page 285 note 1 Cott, 85, 86.

page 285 note 2 Cott, 102, 103.

page 285 note 3 Cott, 104.

page 285 note 4 Cott, 108; Dalton, O. M., Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christia Era … in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 572Google Scholar.

page 285 note 5 Caskets with truncated pyramidal cover: Cott, 55–6, 59–68; oval caskets with domical cover: Cott, 101; Ferrandis, 139; cylindrical boxes: Cott, 94–5; Ferrandis, 117.

page 285 note 6 Cott, 101.

page 286 note 1 Ferrandis 139.

page 286 note 2 Cott, 150, 152–3; 151.

page 286 note 3 Cott, 55, 59, 62.

page 286 note 4 Cornaro, Flaminio, Notizie storiche delle chiese e monastery di Venezia e di Torcello (Padua, 1758), p. 563Google Scholar. Bonus Balbus, bishop of Torcello, died on 9th September 1215; but he could have been consecrated up to about twenty-five years earlier (not before 1189, ibid., p. 615). The earliest occurrence we have found is in 1212, so that only a very approximate date of c. 1200 can at present be assigned for the opening of his episcopate (see Ughelli, F., Italia Sacra, v (Venice, 1720), coll. 1381–3Google Scholar).

page 286 note 5 Cott, 165. Jacques de Vitry was a native of Vitry-sur-Seine; canon of Oignies in the diocese of Namur, 563. consecrated bishop of Acre by Pope Honorius III probably at Perugia in 1216; cardinal-bishop of Frascati from 1228; died 1240 (Golubovich, G., Biblioteca biobibliografica della Terra Santa e dell'oriente francescano, i (Quaracchi, 1906), 23Google Scholar; Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, i, 372).

page 287 note 1 Whitehouse, D. B., ‘Ceramiche e vetri medioevali Schrift provenienti dal Castello di Lucera’, Bollettino d'Arte, ser. v (Rome, 1966), 172Google Scholar, mentions briefly the ivory fragments referred to. Dr. Whitehouse has told us that in his view they belong to the group of ‘Siculo-Arabic’ painted ivories.

page 287 note 2 Otto Lehmann-Brockhaus, Lateinische Schrift quellen … (p. 262, n. 1), ii. 189 (no. 2902). This cannot be certainly identified in the earlier inventory of 1245.

page 287 note 3 Garofalo, pp. 98–103; Cott, 60, 64, 61, 30, 51.

page 287 note 4 Cott, 9, 21, 23, 27, 28.

page 287 note 5 Cott, 17, 32–7, 39, 40, 42–6.

page 288 note 1 See Moritz, B., Arabic Palaeography (Publications of the Khedivial Library, Cairo, no. 16, Cairo/Leipzig, 1905)Google Scholar, pl. 132 (MS. dated a.d. 1164) and pl. 136 (dated a.d. 1196).

page 289 note 1 Cf. Grohmann, A., ‘The Origin and Early Development of Floriated Kufic’, Ars Orientalis, University of Michigan, ii (1957), 183213Google Scholar.

page 289 note 2 For the Berlin casket, cf. La Céramique égyptienne de l'époque musulmane, Musée de l'art arabe du Caire (Bâle, 1922)Google Scholar, pls. 20, 21; and for the Kervorkian casket cf. ibid., p. 19 where the repeated word al-yumn has the same nodule on the curl of the nun. A similar nodule appears in floriated Kufic on Persian pottery of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, see A. U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art (London, 1938), v, pl. 741. Floriated Kufic resembling that on the Berlin casket is inscribed on the lid edge of a cylindrical box in. the Cathedral Treasury of Troia (Cott, 80b). Cott reads the word as ‘happiness’. According to the same writer the side of the box was decorated with four nimbed figures, of which two have been almost completely effaced. The figures stand on pedestals behind a low open-work screen of spools. Bertaux, E. (Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, École française de Rome, xv (1895), 451Google Scholar) thought that the casket was a Greek imitation of an oriental casket in view of the Byzantine character of the figures. But the openwork screen is reminiscent of that on the throne depicted in the Würzburg casket. The facial details and posture of the figures are unfortunately too indistinct to establish a relationship with those on the Würzburg casket.

We have greater confidence in assigning to group II a cylindrical box now in the Louvre (Ferrandis, no. 26). The floriated Kufic, similar to that on the Berlin casket, includes the words . The drawing of the mounted hunter with the cheetah seated on the saddle has much in common with that of the mounted falconer on the Veroli casket (Cott, 46).

page 289 note 3 Cott, 74.

page 289 note 4 Cott, 75a.

page 289 note 5 See Lings, M., ‘Andalusian Qorans’, B.M.Q. xxiv (1961), 94–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and pls. xxx and xxxi which reproduce pages from two Qurʽāns written in Valencia, one of which is dated 1162.

The same style of writing occurs on the lid of a low cylindrical casket in the Museo Sacro of the Vatican (Cott, 70) of which the only other decoration consists of a heart-shaped palmette on the side. The inscription is meaningless.

page 289 note 6 Cott, 104a.

page 289 note 7 Ferrandis (p. 86) gives a transcription, observing that the decorator was not conversant with Arabic,

page 289 note 8 Cott, 87.

page 290 note 1 Flury, S., Die Ornamente der Hakim- und Ashar- Moschee (Heidelberg, 1912), esp. pp. 20–6Google Scholar; Kühnel, E., Die Arabeske, Sinn und Wandlung eines Ornaments (Wiesbaden, 1949)Google Scholar.

page 290 note 2 Weill, Jean David, Les Bois à épigraphes jusquʼà l'époque mamlauke, Catalogue général du Musée arabe Caire (Cairo, 1931)Google Scholar; Pauty, Edmond, Les Bois sculptés jusquʼà l'époque ayyoubite, Catalogue général du Musée arabe du Caire, 1931Google Scholar.

page 290 note 3 Above, p. 273; M. Lings, op. cit.

page 290 note 4 La Céramique égyptienne, pl. 9, which illustrates a fragment of pottery painted in lustre with the roundel of eight heart-shaped leaves; and pl. 67 illustrates a fragment of pottery incised with our cruciform ornament under a glaze.

page 290 note 5 Gómez-Moreno, M., El arte árabe español hasta los Almohades, Arte Mozárabe, vol. iii of Ars Hispaniae (Madrid, 1951)Google Scholar, p. 348 and fig. 405c.

page 290 note 6 de Villard, Ugo Monneret, Le pitture musulmane al soffitto della Cappella Palatina in Palermo (Rome, 1950), p. 21Google Scholar; Demus, O., The Mosaics of Norman Sicily (London, 1950), pp. 25–6Google Scholar.

page 291 note 1 Pauty, pls. XLVI–LVIII, LX, LXI.

page 291 note 2 Ferrandis, vol. i, especially nos. 13, 14, 15, 22.

page 291 note 3 Amari, M., Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, 2nd edn. C. A. Nallino, 3 vols. (Catania, 1933–9)Google Scholar.

page 291 note 4 For the architecture of Muslim Sicily and the Islamic contribution to the Norman architecture of the island, see Marcais, G., L'Architecture musulmane d'Occident; Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, Espagne et Sicile (Paris, 1954), pp. 118–27Google Scholar.

page 291 note 5 Ettinghausen, R., Arab Painting (Geneva, 1962), p. 64Google Scholar and plate on p. 65.

page 291 note 6 Cott, 256.

page 292 note 1 Ettinghausen, R., ‘Painting in the Fatimid Period: a Reconstruction’, Ars Islamica (Ann Arbor), ix (1942), 112–24Google Scholar.

page 292 note 2 Cott, 108.

page 292 note 3 Mr. Richard Camber of the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities has examined the box under the ultra-violet lamp and has recognized traces of a mounted hunter in this obliterated passage of decoration.

page 292 note 4 Monneret de Villard, figs. 189, 190, 211, 241–4.

page 292 note 5 Otto Demus, op. cit. (p. 290, n. 6), pp. 178–80 and pl. 112. The same subject in which, however, the tails of the peacocks are folded, is depicted in the mosaic on the north wall of the Norman stanza which according to Demus can be dated between 1160 and 1170 (pp. 180–3 and pl. 118).

page 293 note 1 The facial details in the Cappella Palatina ceiling Itali have been extensively overpainted but we may assume that the ‘restorers’ preserved to some extent the essential features of the original. Thus in the characteristic female hair style, the front curls are brought forward to cover the lower part of the cheek (Monneret de Villard, figs. 197–8).

This feature is not found in the ivories.

page 293 note 2 For the most recent bibliography of paintings from Fustat, see Grube, Ernst J., Islamic Paintings from the 11th to the 18th century in the Collection of Hans P. Krauss (New York, 1972), p. 29Google Scholar, under note 8.

page 293 note 3 Monneret de Villard (pp. 23–7) analyses the structure of the ceiling. He has suggested that the painters of the ceiling were from Edessa or Diyarbakr (pp. 49–56).

page 293 note 4 The miniatures are reproduced in E. Rota, Petro Ansolini de Ebulo de rebus Siculis carmen, Rerum Itali have carum Scriptores, ed. L. A. Muratori, xxxi, Città di Castello (1904–10): Marignan, A., ‘Le Poème de Pietro d'Eboli sur la conquête de la Sicile par l'empereur Henri VI’, in ‘Études sur l'histoire de l'art italien du xie-xiiie siècle’, Zur Kunstgeschichte des Auslandes, Heft 86 (Strassburg, 1911)Google Scholar, argues against the view that the Berne manuscript is the original of Peter of Eboli and dates it 1230–40.

page 293 note 5 Wellesz, Emmy, ‘An Early al-Sūfī manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, a Study in Islamic Constel-lation Images’, Ars Orientalis, iii (1959), 22–3Google Scholar, figs. 57–60.

page 293 note 6 In a number of caskets the artist has tried to render cracks in the ivory sheets less obtrusive by painting them with unrelated decoration such as in plates LXXIII b, LXXIV a, b.

page 294 note 1 A. Ragona, ‘La ceramica della Sicilia arabo-normanna’, Rassegna della Istruzione Artistica i, no. 2 (1966).

page 294 note 2 For bird see Orsi, P., ‘Ceramiche arabe di Sicilia’, in Bollettino d'Arte, ix (1915), 249–56Google Scholar and no. 7 on plate facing p. 249; for peacock and falconer see A. Ragona, op. cit. in n. 1, figs. 9 and 10; and R. Ragona, La collezione Russo Perez nel quadro storico della ceramica Siciliana, Museo Statale della Ceramica (Caltagirone, 1968), tav. ii. For trellis pattern see Perez, R., ‘Il periodo delle origini nella ceramica siciliana’, in Faenza, fasc. iii–iv (1932)Google Scholar, pl. xviii (fragments found at Palermo). A fragmentary jar from Lucera is decorated with large roundels containing Kufic characters, possibly intended to read ‘Allah’ (Ragona, A., ‘Influssi saraceni nella ceramica italiana al tempo degli Svevi e degli Angioni’, in Faenza (1960)Google Scholar, fasc. i, pl. Id).

page 294 note 3 Martin's, F. R. claim (A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800 (Vienna, 1908), p. 15Google Scholar; Diez (p. 272, n. 4)(1911), p. 138 n. 2) to have found painted ivories of our type in Persia, has never been substantiated. The only painted ivory for which a Near Eastern provenance has been claimed (Cott, 13) came to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, in 1907 as an anonymous gift from Konya. I owe this information to the kindness of Dr. F. Spuhler of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin.

page 294 note 4 Riant, Le Comte Paul E. D., Des dépouilles religieuses enlevées à Constantinople au XIIIe siècle par les Latins (Paris, 1875)Google Scholar.

page 294 note 5 Diez, op. cit.

page 294 note 6 Monneret de Villard, pp. 29 f.

page 295 note 1 A. Lane, Early Islamic Pottery (1947), pl. 78A and B. The hair style is also depicted in the art of the Seljuqs of Rum in the thirteenth century (Otto-Dorn, K., ‘Die menschlichen Figuren auf den Fliesen von Kobadabad’, in Forschungen zur Kunst Asiens, In Memoriam Kurt Erdmann, ed. Aslanapa, O. and Naumann, R., Istanbul, 1969, pp. 111–39Google Scholar and figs. 8, 10, 23).

page 295 note 2 Kühnel, E., Islamische Kleinkunst, 2nd edn. (Brunswick, 1963), p. 234Google Scholar and fig. 192. There is an ivory chessman (a king) with precisely the same lower band of ornament in the British Museum (O. M. Dalton (p. 285, n. 4), no. 225: pl. XLVIII).

page 295 note 3 Repertoire chronologique d'épigraphie arabe, i (Cairo, 1931), 32Google Scholar, no. 41, with bibliography to which add Cott, p. 9, note 41, and reproduction on pl. 79a.

page 295 note 4 For incised ivories of Coptic Egypt see Wulff, Oskar, Altchristliche und mittelalterliche byzantinische und. italienische Bildwerke (Königliche Museen zu Berlin), i, 1909,Google Scholar pls. xxiv, xxv, and for incised ivories from the West, see Goldschmidt, A., Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der Zeit der karolingischen und sächsischen Kaiser, VII–XI Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1918)Google Scholar, nos. 180a-184, and Elbern, V., Das erste Jahrtausend (Düsseldorf, 1962)Google Scholar.

page 296 note 1 Murray, H. J. R., A History of Chess (Oxford, 1913), pp. 764–6Google Scholar and pl. facing p. 766; Lamm, C. J., Mittelalter- liche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten (Berlin, 1930), i, 213–16Google Scholar, 220, ii, tafel 76–7. For a recent nosgeneral survey of the history of chessmen, see H., and Wichmann, S., Chess, Eng. trans. (London, 1964)Google Scholar; see also Garner, Helena M., ‘The earliest evidence of chess in Western literature: the Einsiedeln verses’, Speculum xxix (1954), 734–50Google Scholar.

page 296 note 2 H. J. R. Murray, pp. 405 f. and 413 f.

page 296 note 3 O. M. Dalton (p. 285, n. 4), pp. 63–73, nosgeneral (pls. XXXVIII–XLVIII).

page 296 note 4 O. M. Dalton, no. 227. H. J. R. Murray, p. 767.

page 296 note 5 See below, p. 299.

page 297 note 1 The Muslim population of Sicily was declining throughout the period of Norman rule, as a result of massacre and emigration. The repression of the rebellion of 1221 caused widespread emigration of the richer elements and skilled artisans to Africa. The depressed population which survived the harsh reprisals exacted by Frederick II for the rebellion of 1243 was transported Archi to Apulia (Amari, iii, 628–32, 890 f.)

page 297 note 2 Kühnel, Ernst, ‘Die sarazenischen Olifanthörner’, in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, i (1959), 3450Google Scholar. A group of carved ivory caskets, contemporary with the oliphants and attributed to southern Italy, are also the work of Muslim craftsmen. Both the oliphants and the caskets are the subject of Kühnel, Ernst, Die islamischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, VIII—XIII Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1972)Google Scholar.

page 297 note 3 Bertaux, E., ‘Les Arts de l'Orient musulman dans l'Italie méridionale’, in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire (École française de Rome), xv (1895), 419–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sarre, F., ‘L'arte mussulmana nel Sud d'ltaliae in Sicilia’, in Archivio Storico per la Calabria e la Lucania, iii (Rome, 1933), 441–8Google Scholar.

page 297 note 4 Bertaux, p. 422.

page 297 note 5 Ferrandis, 35; for types of mitre see Braun, J., Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg, 1907), pp. 463–74Google Scholar.

page 297 note 1 von Falke, Otto, Decorative Silks (London, 1936)Google Scholar, fig. 383.

page 297 note 2 Cott, 104.

page 297 note 3 Mr. Richard Camber observes that the figure wrestling with the quadruped may be intended for Hercules and the Nemean lion which is explicitly depicted on two cameos of the Hohenstaufen period (Wentzel, H., ‘Staatskameen im Mittelalter’, in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, iv (1962), 54Google Scholar and Abb. 11) and is the subject of a bronze group possibly of the same date (Hackenbrock, Yvonne, Catalogue of Works of Art in the Untermyer Collection, New York, 1962)Google Scholar. Wentzel (pp. 54–5) believes Hercules and the lion as well as the mounted falconer were allusions to Frederick II. Additional support for this possible association of the ivory box with Frederick is provided by the presence of the eagle and prey which is depicted on another cameo of the Hohenstaufen period (Wentzel, p. 52, Abb. 9) and is generally accepted as the official emblem of the monarch himself.

page 298 note 4 In the following pages ‘Sicily’ denotes Sicily and southern Italy.

page 298 note 5 The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. Chibnall, M., ii (Oxford Medieval Texts, 1968), 94102Google Scholar and passim.

page 298 note 6 Jamison, E., ‘Alliance of England and Sicily in the second half of the twelfth century’, in England and the Mediterranean Tradition, ed. Warburg, and Courtauld Institutes, London, 1945, pp. 2032Google Scholar.

page 298 note 7 Leowenthal, in Eng. Hist. Rev. lxxxvii (1972), 7582CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kuttner, in Medieval Studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn, eds. Watt, J. A., Morrall, J. B., Martin, F. X. (Dublin, 1961), pp. 432–5Google Scholar.

page 298 note 8 The literature on this is very extensive, but the pioneer work of Haskins, C. H., Studies in the History of Medieval Science (Cambridge, Mass., 1924)Google Scholar, remains fundamental.

page 299 note 1 The only surviving account of this visit is by the English chronicler John of Hexham (in Symeon of Durham, Opera Omnia, ed. T. Arnold, Rolls Series, 1882–5, ii, 318–20), who is also the only source, Sicilian or English, to give the chancellor Robert his surname, ‘de Salesbia’ (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. 139, f. 145v; cf. Letters … of Gilbert Foliot, eds. Morey, A. and Brooke, C. N. L., Cambridge, 1967, p. 29Google Scholar) or ‘de Selebia’ (Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS. Nouv. Acqu. Lat. 692, f. 55—a reference we owe to Dr. M. Brett). Saleby (Lines.) or Salisbury have been suggested, but the reading of the Paris MS. and the friendship of William make Selby much the most likely identification. John of Salisbury also visited Robert (in 1150) and makes two references to his lavish hospitality (Letters, eds. W. J. Millor, H. E. Butler, and C. N. L. Brooke, i, Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1955, no. 33, pp. 57–8 andcf. p. 255; Policraticus, viii, 7, ed. C. C. J. Webb, Oxford, 1909, ii, 270–1). On St. William, see esp. Knowles, D., The Historian and Character and other Essays (Cambridge, 1963)Google Scholar, ch. 5 (esp. p. 89).

page 299 note 2 See above, p. 265; Eyton (p. 261, n. 3), pp. 202, 205–6, 208–9, 211; Gesta Henrici II (p. 261, n. 3), i, 115 ff., 127, 139; Ralph de Diceto, ed. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1876), i, 334; Previté-Orton, C. W., The Early History of the House of Savoy (Cambridge, 1912), pp. 338–41Google Scholar.

page 299 note 3 Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1879–80), i, 493–4; cf. Roger of Howden, ed. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1868–71), iii, 22, 57, 62, 87.

page 299 note 4 Above, n. 2; cf. Chaplais, P. in The Study of Medieval Records, ed. Bullough, D. A. and Storey, R. L. (Oxford, 1971), p. 25Google Scholar.

page 300 note 1 The St. Albans Psalter, eds. Pächt, O., Dodwell, C. R., Wormald, F. (London, 1960)Google Scholar; on the Henry of Blois Psalter, B.M. Cotton MS. Nero C. iv, see Boase, T. S. R., English Art 1100–1216 (Oxford, 1953), pp. 172–5Google Scholar and refs.; and below.

page 300 note 2 O. Demus, op. cit. (p. 290, n. 6), pp. 450–1; Zarnecki, G., Later English Romanesque Sculpture (London, 1953), pp. 30Google Scholar ff. Demus also drew attention (ibid.) to other links with Sicilian mosaics in the Winchester Bible (somewhat later than the Psalter) and the well-known wall-painting of St. Paul in St. Anselm's Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral (mid-twelfth century). Cf. Brooke, , Twelfth Century Renaissance (London, 1969/1970), pp. 149–51Google Scholar and pls. 115–18.

page 300 note 3 See p. 299, n. 1; on Stephen's Lombard grandmother, John of Salisbury, Historia Pontificalis, ed. Poole, R. L. (Oxford, 1927), pp. 99 ff.Google Scholar; White, G. H. in Notes and Queries, clxii (1932), 439–53Google Scholarpassim; John of Salisbury, op. cit., ed. M. Chibnall (Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1956), pp. 97–8.

page 300 note 4 See above, p. 299, n. 1.

page 300 note 5 Islamic influence on Gothic architecture has recently been discussed in a lecture to the Society of Antiquaries by J. Harvey: see Antiq. Journ., xlviii (1968), 8799Google Scholar.

page 302 note 1 Incralac—made by British Domolac Co. Ltd., Bauxhall Trading Estate, Ruabon, Wrexham, Denbighshire.

page 302 note 2 Calaton CB—made by Imperial Chemical Industries and obtainable from Picreator Enterprises Ltd., 44 Park View Gardens, Hendon, London, N.4.