Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2016
Vatican cod. gr. 1851 is composed of four bifolia, which contain the partial text of a poem and seven illuminations. The protagonists described in the poem are a Byzantine emperor, his youthful son, his daughter and a young foreign princess to whom the son is betrothed. Comparisons with other examples of imperial dress lead to the conclusion that the illustrations in the manuscript are probably fourteenth-century. I propose that the groom was Andronikos IV, who married, in 1356, aged eight, Maria, the nine-year-old daughter of the tsar of Bulgaria, Ivan Alexander. This marriage raises issues of children’s roles at court and the nature of books made for them.
This article was partially researched under the supervision of Professor Robin Cormack, to whom I am most grateful for advice. I would also like to thank Michael Jeffreys and Ruth Macrides for their suggestions and Kriszta Kotsis and Cecily Hilsdale for their support.
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2 Canart, Codices Vaticani I, 324.
3 Spatharakis, Portrait, 218-19.
4 First noted by Strzygowski, ‘Das Epithalamion’, 548.
5 Canart, Codices Vaticani, II, XLVI.
6 A. Heisenberg identified the scene in the upper register as a prokypsis: Heisenberg, A., Aus der Geschichte und Literatur der Palaiologenzeit (Munich 1920) 96 Google Scholar. Belting identified the figure following the emperor in the lower register and the female figure in the upper register as the bride: Belting, Das illuminerte Buch, 29. Jeffreys adopted Spatharakis’s view that the figure following the emperor in the lower register is the groom. Jeffreys, after Spatharakis and Strzygowski, maintained that the female figure in the upper register is the empress: Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 111; Spatharakis, Portrait, 214-16.
7 She is referred to as a basilissa, fol. 6v, line 15 (line nos. are given according to Spatharakis, Portrait, though he does not adhere to the original format).
8 On the text as a gift to the princess, see Belting, Das illuminierte Buch, 27; on the time of the delivery of the poem, see Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 102.
9 Strzygowski, ‘Das Epithalamion’, 547-67.
10 Papadimitriu, “O έπιθαλάμιος’, 452-60.
11 Belting, Das illuminierte Buch, 26-9; Spatharakis, Portrait, 210-30, pls. 158-73; Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 101-15.
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13 Strzygowski, ‘Das Epithalamion’, 563.
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30 Byzance, no. 355; Spatharakis, Portrait, 129-37, figs. 86-9; Spatharakis, Corpus, no. 269.
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35 Mentioned in Spatharakis, Portrait, 230; Evans and Wixom, Glory, no. 142; Spatharakis, Corpus, fig. 123.
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43 Ibid., 68-9, 85.
44 Ibid., 146-7. Again she cites the similarity of the throne on folio lr, which has a backrest with slightly curved uprights, as can also be seen in the portrait of John VI in Par. Gr. 1242, folio. 5v; see 163.
45 Ibid., 52, n. 5.
46 Jefferys, ‘The vernacular’, 104.
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50 Ibid., 105. Also noted by Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, n. 11.
51 Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 104-5.
52 Fol. 1v, line 18.
53 Pseudo-Kodinos, ed. Verpeaux, 150.14-15.
54 Fol. 5r, line 11.
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59 Hunger, H., ‘Die sogenannte Fettaugen-Mode in griechischen Handschriften des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts’, BF IV (1972) 105-13Google Scholar; Prato, Scritture, 154 and throughout.
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64 Belting, Das illuminierte Buch, 27, n. 90.
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66 Pseudo-Kodinos, ed. Verpeaux, 286-7; Belting, Das illuminierte Buch, 27-8.
67 Pseudo-Kodinos, ed. Verpeaux, 286.
68 Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, 368; Janin, R., ‘Les Ponts byzantins de la Corne d’Or’, Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves 9 (1949) 247-53Google Scholar.
69 Fol. 2r, line 11 and fol. lv, line 17.
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78 He suggests she was born around 1260; see Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, 377, n 6; Papadopoulos gives no date of birth for her.
79 Papadopoulos, Genealogie, no. 68. Manuel, the second son of Michael, did not marry; he was accidentally killed when young: ibid., no. 69.
80 Ibid., no. 73.
81 Ibid., no. 82.
82 Ibid., no. 90.
83 Ibid., no. 73.
84 Ibid., no. 81; on the date of Andronikos’s coronation, see Luttrell, A., ‘John V’s daughters: a Palaiologan puzzle’, DOP 40 (1986) 104 Google Scholar.
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86 Luttrell, ‘John V’s daughters’, 103–4, and throughout. Irene was probably betrothed herself aged ten. One sister, Maria, died in 1376.
87 Fol 1v, line 20; fol. 2r, line 9; fol. 3r, lines 3-4; fol. 4v. line 4.
88 Fol. 2r, lines 10-11.
89 Fol. 6v, line 14.
90 Papadimitriu, “O έπιθαλάμιος’, 454-6; summarized in Spatharakis, Portrait, 213.
91 Fol. 1r, lines 1-2.
92 Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 104; this has led Jeffreys to describe the poem as είσιτήριοι.
93 Fol. lv, lines 10-13 and fol. 4r, lines 15-16.
94 Annae Comnenae Alexias, ed. Reinsch, D. R. and Kambylis, A., I (Berlin and New York 2001) 504.35 то μέγα τής άνατολής κα\ δύσεως πραγμα κου ΟνομαCrossRefGoogle Scholar; The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, tr. E.R.A. Sewter, 514.
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107 Filov, Les Miniatures, no. 2, pl. II, Dujčev, Les Miniatures, no. 2; Spatharakis, Portrait, fig. 103. Ivan Asen died shortly after his marriage; see Papadopoulos, Genealogie, no. 77.
108 Another miniature shows Ivan Alexander with Ivan Asen after his death and accompanied by an angel as well as two younger sons, Michael and Ivan Stratsimir. However, their faces are not clearly visible: fol. 205, Filov, Les Miniatures, no. 69, pl. XL; Dujčev, Les Miniatures, no. 69. A further page shows various Byzantine emperors, who are dressed in related ways to the emperor in our manuscript, although again the image is badly deteriorated: fol. 204v, Filov, Les Miniatures, no. 68, pl. XXXIX; Dujčev, Les Miniatures, no. 68.
109 Bakalova, ‘Society and art’, 25.
110 On Irene, see Papadopoulos, Genealogie, no. 77.
111 Belting, Das illuminierte Buch, 7, 21-3.
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