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A child bride and her representation in the Vatican Epithalamion, cod. gr. 1851*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Cecily Hennessy
Cecily Hennessy*
Affiliation:
Courtauld Institute of Art
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Extract

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.

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Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , 2006 , pp. 115 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2006

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Footnotes

*

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.

References

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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.

12 For instance, Maguire, H., ‘Images of the Court’, in Glory of Byzantium, ed. Evans, H. and Wixom, W.D. (New York 1997) 191 Google Scholar; C. Scholz, ‘Der Empfang’ reinforces the twelfth-century date.

13 Strzygowski, ‘Das Epithalamion’, 563.

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17 Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 103.

18 Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, 361-109.

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20 Evans and Wixom, Glory, no. 143, and pl. facing 183; Byzance: l’art byzantin (Paris 1992) no. 271 (fol. 1(2bis)v not illus.); Spatharakis, Portrait, 107-18, fig. 70.

21 Spatharakis, Portrait, 26-36, fig. 7; Hahnloser, H.R. and Polacco, R., La Pala d’Oro (Venice 1994) pl. 2 Google Scholar.

22 Spatharakis, Portrait, 208-10, figs. 155-7.

23 Velmans ‘Le Portrait’, fig. 4, pl. XXXVI; further examples are given by Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, 366, figs. 21-22.

24 Stuttgart, Cod. Hist. 2° 601, fol. 4, in Parani, M., Reconstructing the Reality of Images: Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography: llth-15th Centuries (Leiden and Boston 2003), pl. 28 Google Scholar.

25 Byzance, no. 356; Spatharakis, Portrait, 139-44, pls. 93–4; Spatharakis, I., Corpus of Dated Illuminated Greek Manuscripts to the Year 1453, 2 vols. (Leiden 1981) no. 278 Google Scholar.

26 Spatharakis, Portrait, figs. 80, 82; fol. 2r, figs. 79, 81 also show Alexios.

27 Evans and Wixom, Glory, no. 144.

28 Spatharakis, Portrait, fig. 155-7.

29 Byzance, no. 357; Spatharakis, Portrait, 233-4, fig. 175.

30 Byzance, no. 355; Spatharakis, Portrait, 129-37, figs. 86-9; Spatharakis, Corpus, no. 269.

31 Velmans, T., La Peinture murale byzantine à la fin du moyen âge (Paris 1977) figs. 22, 24-5Google Scholar.

32 Pointed out by Ebersolt, Arts somptuaires, 128.

33 Spatharakis, Portrait, 216-17; Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 102.

34 Buchthal, H., ‘Toward a history of Palaeologan illumination’, in The Place of Book Illumination in Byzantine Art, ed. Weitzmann, K. (Princeton 1975) 161 Google Scholar; Ebersolt, Arts somptuaires, 126, fig. 60.

35 Mentioned in Spatharakis, Portrait, 230; Evans and Wixom, Glory, no. 142; Spatharakis, Corpus, fig. 123.

36 Underwood, P., The Kariye Djami (New York 1966-75), II, pls. 26, 28Google Scholar. On Palaiologan headwear, see Nelson, R.S., ‘Taxation with representation: visual narrative and the political field of the Kariye Camii’, Art History 22 (1999) 58 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Underwood, Kariye, pls. 159-60.

38 Pseudo-Kodinos, , Traité des offices: Pseudo-Kodinos: introduction, texte et traduction, ed. Verpeaux, J. (Paris 1966) 141-66Google Scholar.

39 Parani, Reconstructing, especially 52, 67 n. 56, 68, 78, 85, 134, 145, 146 n. 229, 229.

40 Ibid., 25-6.

41 Ibid., 30.

42 Ibid., 66-7, n. 55.

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.

47 Ibid., 105 and n. 32; Lambros, S.P. (ed.), ‘Μάρκου Άγγέλου άνέκδοτα στιχουργήματα’, Νεος Έλληνομνήμων 3 (1906) 438-9Google Scholar.

48 Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 104-5. Manuel Philes, who lived from about 1275 to 1345, composed varied work, but it includes political verse written for the courts of Andronikos II and III; on political verse see Jeffreys, M., ‘On the nature and origins of political verse’, DOP 28 (1974) 141-95, esp. 178-9Google Scholar.

49 Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 104 and n. 39.

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.

55 However, Alexios I is referred to as ‘king of the Ausonians’ in a poem by Nicholas Kallikes, poem 24; see Mullett, M., ‘The imperial vocabulary of Alexios I Komnenos’, in Alexios I Komnenos: Papers of the Second Belfast Byzantine International Colloquium, 14-16 April 1989, ed. Mullett, M. and Smythe, D. (Belfast 1996) 373 Google Scholar.

56 Manuel Philes: Works 001 2.135.7, 2.185.5, 3.50.1, 3.58.31, 3.61.82, and 002, 2.130, 92.39. It also appears in an inscription in Mystra: ‘Inscriptions byzantines de Mistra’, Bulletin de correspondence hellénique 23 (1899) 100 Google Scholar.

57 See Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 103.

58 Prato, G., Scritture librarie arcaizzanti della prima età dei Paleologi e loro modelli (Turin 1979)Google Scholar.

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.

60 Prato, Scritture, 169-71.

61 Nelson, R.S. and Lowden, J., ‘The Palaeologina group: Additional manuscripts and new questions’, DOP 45 (1991) 59–68, esp. 66Google Scholar. On a narrower selection of these manuscripts, see Buchthal, H. and Belting, H., Patronage in Thirteenth-Century Constantinople: An Atelier of Late Byzantine Book Illumination and Calligraphy, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 16 (Washington, DC 1978)Google Scholar.

62 Prato, Scritture, 167.

63 H. Buchthal, ‘Toward a history’, 158-61, figs. 21-4.

64 Belting, Das illuminierte Buch, 27, n. 90.

65 Iacobini ‘L’epitalamio’, 369-74, illustrated in Iacobini, figs. 28-9, 336, 41; also see Strzygowski, ‘Das Epithalamion’, 566.

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.

70 Fols. 3r, 18, 5v, line 11, 4r, line 20, and 4v, line 6.

71 Fols. 6v, line 19 and 4v, line 4.

72 Papadopoulos, A.T., Versuch einer Genealogie der Palaiologen, 1259-1453 (Munich 1938) no. 1 Google Scholar.

73 Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, 362; Spatharakis, Portrait, 212-213, n. 25; Papadopoulos, Genealogie, no. 58, esp. n. 2; Papadimitriu, “O έπιθαλάμιος’, 453. This date for Andronikos’s birth is also adopted by Laiou, A.E., Constantinople and the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II 1282-1328 (Cambridge, MA 1972)Google Scholar; Failler, editing Pachymeres, dates Andronikos’s birth to 1258; see Pachymeres, George, Relations historiques, ed. Failler, A., II (Paris 1984), 410, n. 3 Google Scholar; also see Failler, A., ‘Chronologie et composition dans l’histoire de Georges Pachymère’, REB 38 (1980) 39–41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 On this, see Macrides, R., ‘The New Constantine and the New Constantinople—1261?’, BMGS 6 (1980) 13ff.Google Scholar, on dating, n. 6, and on Andronikos’s coronation, 37-8. Also see F. Dölger, ‘Die dynastische Familienpolitik des Kaisers Michael Palaiologos (1258-1282)’, in Paraspora (1961, first published 1940), on the date of Michael’s coronation and on Andronikos’s elevation.

75 Iacobini, ‘L’epitalamio’, 376, n. 5.

76 On use of the term porphyrogennetos, see Dragon, G., ‘Nés dans la pourpre’, TM 12 (1994) 105–42Google Scholar.

77 Gregoras, Nicephorus, Historiae Byzantinae ed. Schopen, L. (Bonn 1829), I, 189 Google Scholar; Gregoras, , Rhomäische Geschichte ed. van Dieten, J. L. (Stuttgart 1973) 1, 160Google Scholar; see also 272, n. 317; Dölger, ‘Familienpolitik’, 187; Pseudo-Kodinos, ed. Verpeaux, 134.18.

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.

85 Papadopoulos, Genealogie, no. 88.

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.

95 Psellos, , Chronographia (Milan 1984), Michael IV, XLVI: 13Google Scholar.

96 For instance, Jeffreys, ‘The vernacular’, 109.

97 Folio 2r, line 2.

98 For instance, Porphyrogenitus, Constantine, De Administrando Imperio, ed. Moravcsik, G., tr. Jenkins, R.J.H. (Washington, DC 1967), ch. 26Google Scholar.

99 For instance, Nikephoros Gregoras uses archon, as in Gregoras I, 60; I, 163. Georgios Akropolites uses archon and basileus: for instance, the Bulgarian ruler is referred to as the Βουλγαράρχης: Chronike Syngraphe, ed. A. Heisenberg (Leipzig 1903), ed. P. Wirth, I (Stuttgart 1978), 107; and as βασιλεύς: I, 32; see also Pachymeres, II, 557.

100 Mystikos, Nicholas I, Letters, ed. Jenkins, R. and Westerink, L. (Washington, DC 1973), letters 3-31Google Scholar. Dimitrova, E., The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander (London 1994) 20 Google Scholar, hereafter The Gospels; Runciman, S., A History of the Bulgarian Empire (London 1930) 156-7Google Scholar.

101 ЦРЬ. On folio 204 eight Byzantine emperors are shown each with the title Tsar. The Bulgarian Tsars named are Ivan (John) Alexander, Michael, Stratsimir and John Asen (who has died).

102 Voynov, M. (ed.), Documents and Materials on the History of the Bulgarian People (Sofia 1969) 55-7Google Scholar; PL CCXIV, col. 1112-1113, letters 115, 116; PL CCXV, col. 290-291, letter 6; col. 413-417, letter 127; Dimitrova, The Gospels, 20.

103 Ivan Alexander competed with Byzantium for glory and referred to himself as ‘Ivan Alexander Tsar and Autocrator of all Bulgarians and Greeks’, which would perhaps coincide with the princess’s description. This is inscribed on his portrait on Vatican, Slav. 2, fol. 1v; Filov, B., Les Miniatures de la chronique de Manasses à la bibliothèque du Vatican (Cod. Vat. Slav. II) (Sofia 1927), no. 1, pl. 1 Google Scholar; Dujčev, I., Les Miniatures de la Chronique de Manasses (Sofia 1963) no. 1 Google Scholar; Spatharakis, Portrait, 161.

104 The book was probably copied from a Byzantine manuscript, Paris, BN cod. gr. 74 or something very similar to it; see Nersessian, S. Der, ‘Two Slavonic parallels of the Greek Tetraevangelia: Paris 74’, Art Bulletin 9, no. 3 (1927) 1–52 Google Scholar; Filov, B., Les Miniatures de l’évangile du roi ]ean Alexandre à Londres (Sofia) 1934 Google Scholar; Spatharakis, Portrait, 67-70, figs. 38-9; and more generally Bakalova, E., ‘Society and art in Bulgaria in the fourteenth century’, Byzantinobulgarica 8 (1986) 17–72 Google Scholar.

105 B. Filov, Les Miniatures; I. Dujčev, Les Miniatures; Spatharakis, Portrait, figs. 102-5.

106 Filov, Les Miniatures, 10-15; Dujčev, Les Miniatures, 32.

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.

112 See Papadopoulos, Genealogie, no. 73.

113 On the nature of children’s books, see Rose, J., Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Children’s Literature (Basingstoke and London 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

114 Herrin, J., ‘Theophano: considerations on the education of a Byzantine princess,’ in Empress Theophano, ed. Davids, A. (Cambridge 1994) 70-1Google Scholar.

115 On books made for imperial children see C. Hennessy, Images of Children in Byzantium (Aldershot, forthcoming).