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The Couch of Solomon, a Monk, a Byzantine Lady, and the Song of Songs*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Kallirroe Linardou
Kallirroe Linardou*
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Extract

In the early twelfth century, the Byzantine monk James of the monastery of Kokkinobaphou composed six sermons on the early life of the Virgin Mary. Two copies of these sermons, known collectively as the Kokkinobaphos manuscripts, have survived: BN, MS gr. 1208 and BAV, MS gr. 1162. Based on a combination of internal and external evidence, scholars have dated the manuscripts to the second quarter of the twelfth century, and furthermore suggested that their production and decoration was undertaken during the lifespan of James. Both copies bear an extensive and almost identical narrative and typological cycle of illumination, which has been securely connected to the imperial environment of the Byzantine court of the twelfth century and was linked, more tentatively, with the Sevastokratorissa Eirene, a prominent patroness of the court, widow of the Seuastokrator Andronikos, the second son of the Emperor John II Komnenos (1118-43). The miniatures illustrating the text of James are renowned for their artistic quality and their iconographical peculiarities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 39: The Church and Mary , 2004 , pp. 73 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2004

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Footnotes

*

The completion of this paper would have been far more difficult if Prof. E. Jeffreys and Dr I. Hutter had not provided me with their transcriptions of both unedited sermons of James of Kokkinobaphou. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to both. I am also grateful for the advice of my supervisor, Dr Leslie Brubaker.

References

1 PG 127, cols 544-700, incomplete and with numerous mistakes. On the dating of the text and the manuscripts see J.C. Anderson, ‘The illustrated sermons of James the monk: their dates, order, and place in the history of Byzantine art’, Viator, 22 (1991), 69-120, esp. 85; Hutter, I. and Canart, P., Das Marienhomiliar des Mbnchs Jakobos von Kokkinobaphos (Vatican City, 1991), 11–17 Google Scholar.

2 BN, MS gr. 1208: H. Omont, Miniatures des homilies sur la Vierge du moine Jacques (Ms. Crec 120S de Paris), Bulletin de la societe francaise de reproductions de manuscrits a peintures, 11 (Paris, 1927); BAV, MS gr. 1162: C. Stornajolo, Miniature delle omilie di Giacomo monaco (cod. Vatic, gr. 1162) e dell’ evangeliario Greco urbinate (cod. Vatic. Urbin. Gr. 2), Codices e Vaticanis selecti phototypice expressi iussu Pii p.p. X consilio et opera procuratorium Bibliotheca Vaticanae, series minor, 1 (Rome, 1910).

3 See Hutter, Marienhomiliar, 14; Anderson, ‘Sermons’, 85.

4 F. Chalandon, Les Comnene: etudes sur (‘empire byzantin au XIe etau XIIe siecle, vol. 2: Jean II Comnene et Manuel I Comnene (Paris, 1912), 2:212-13; Varzos, K., , 2 vols (Thessalonica, 1984), 1: 357–79 Google Scholar. Anderson has pointed out the connection of the manuscripts with the court environment, and more tentatively the association with Eirene; ‘Sermons’, 101. On the association of the manuscripts with Eirene see also R.S. Nelson, Theoktistos and associates in twelfth-century Constantinople: an illustrated New Testament of AD. 1133’, The]. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 15 (1987), 53-78, esp. 75-6; I. Spatharakis, ‘An illuminated Greek grammar manuscript in Jerusalem’, Jahrbuch der bsterreichischen Byzantinistik, 35 (1985), 231-43, esp. 242-3. On Eirene, see E.Jeffreys, ‘The Sevastokratorissa Eirene as literary patroness: the monk lakovos’, XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress:Akten, 2/3 (Vienna, 1983), 63-71; E. Jeffreys and M.Jeffreys, ‘Who was Eirene the Sevastokratorissa?’, Byzantion, 64 (1994), 40-68. Nelson, Theoktistos and associates in twelfth-century Constantinople: an illustrated New Testament of AD. U33’, The]. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 15 (1987), 53-78, esp. 75-6; I. Spatharakis, ‘An illuminated Greek grammar manuscript in Jerusalem’, Jahrbuch der bsterreichischen Byzantinistik, 35 (1985), 231-43, esp. 242-3. On Eirene, see E.Jeffreys, ‘The Sevastokratorissa Eirene as literary patroness: the monk lakovos’, XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress:Akten, 2/3 (Vienna, 1983), 63-71; E. Jeffreys and M.Jeffreys, ‘Who was Eirene the Sevastokratorissa?’, Byzantion, 64 (1994), 40-68.

5 BN, MS gr. 1208, fols 29V, 73V, 109V, 149V, 162r, 181v; Omont, Miniatures, pls IV, X, XIV, XVIII, XXI, XXIII. BAV, MS gr. 1162, fols 22V, 54V, 82v, 110v, 119V, 133V; Stornajolo, Miniature, 7, 21, 32, 46, 52, 58.

6 D. Mouriki, , 25 (1970), 217-51.

7 S. Der Nersessian, ‘Program and iconography of the frescoes of the Parecclesion’, in PA. Underwood, ed., The Kariye Djami, 4: Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and its Intellectual Background (Princeton, NJ, 1975), 311-13. For the homiletic tradition on the Virgin and her prefigurations see below nn. 17-20. For prefigurations of Mary in hymnography see P. Maas and CA. Trypanis, eds, Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica-Cantica Genuina (Oxford, 1963), 289-93; S.Eustratiades, (Paris, 1930), 36.

8 BN, MS gr. 1208, fol. 109V; BAV, MS gr. 1162, fol. 82v; Omont, Miniatures, pl. XIV; Stornajolo, Miniature, 32; Hutter, Marienhomiliar, 48-50.

9 The fourth sermon and the second half of the sixth are missing in Migne. I was able to study the text of both missing sermons from the personal transcriptions of Prof. E. Jeffreys and Dr I. Hutter.

10 The exegetical text exists in both manuscripts but is not included in the Migne edition. It is situated between the end of the third sermon and the prefiguration miniature introducing the fourth sermon, and covers approximately three folios: BN, MS gr. 1208, fols 107v-109r, with miniature on fol. 109V, BAV, MS gr. 1162, fols 80v-81v, with miniature on fol. 82V. Fol. 8ov of the exegetical text is reproduced in Stornajolo, Miniature, 22, 92, where the editor recognizes and analyses the script as characteristic of twelfth-century minuscule.

11 .

12 Hutter, I., ‘Die Homilien des Monchs Jakobus und ihre Illustrationen’ (University of Vienna, Ph.D. thesis, 1970), 240–1 Google Scholar.

13 Nersessian, S. Der, ‘Le lit de Salomon’, in her Etudes byzanlines el armeniennes (Louvain, 1973), 49–54 Google Scholar.

14 Ibid., 50-1. For Gregory’s sixth sermon on the Song of Songs see Langerbeck, H., ed., Gregorii Nysseni in Canticum Canticorum (Leiden, 1960), 171–9 Google Scholar, esp. 189-99.

15 Rahlfs, A., ed., Septuaginta, 2 vols, 3rd edn (Stuttgart, 1949), 2:263–4 Google Scholar. For an introduction and modern commentary on the Song of Songs, see Pope, M.H., Song of Songs. A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, The Anchor Bible, 7C (New York, 1977), 112–32, 434 Google Scholar; & E. Murphy (ed. S. Dean McBride, jr), The Song of Songs. A Commentary on the Book of Canticles or The Song of Songs (Minneapolis, MN, 1990), 11-28, 148-52.

16 .

17 For Andrew of Crete see A. Kazhdan (in collaboration with LJ3. Sherry and C. Angelidi), A History of Byzantine Literature (650-850) (Athens, 1999), 37-54; ‘In Nativitatem B. Mariae IV’, PG 97, cols 868-73, col. 869.

18 For John Damascene see Kazhdan, Literature, 75-94; ‘Homilia II in Nativitatem B. V. Mariae’, PG 96, cols 692-96. For Patriarch Germanos see Kazhdan, Literature, 55-74; ‘In Presentationem SS. Deiparae F, PG 98, cols 292-3.

19 Matthaeus Cantacuzenos, ‘In Canticum Canticorum Solomonis. Expositio religiosissimi regis’, PG 152, cols 997-1084.

20 Michael Psellos, ‘Alia expositio in Canticum Canticorum a Psello versitibus civilibus explicatum’, PG 122, cols 540-685.

21 .’ The name ‘Eirene’ (peace) has probably a metonymic sense and it is used because Solomon was renowned as the peaceful King in contrast to David. Nevertheless it is also possible that this insertion alludes to Eirene the Sevostokratorissa, on whom see below. Allusions to the name of Eirene have been reported by E. and M. Jeffreys in the letters James composed and which were addressed to the Sevostokratorissa. BN, MS gr. 3039, fols 17r, 25V, 15OV, 157V, 158r.

22 The first scholar to notice this was Der Nersessian, ‘Le lit’, 51; BN, MS gr. 1208, fols 86r, 123r; Omont, Miniatures, pl. XI, XV; BAV, MS gr. 1162, fols 64J, 02r; Stornajolo, Miniature, 26, 37; Hutter, Marienhomiliar, 44-5, 52-3.

23 PG 127, col. 612: . The caption of the miniature reads: ‘Couch is surrounded by sixty which must be perceived as the soul’: .

24 (Ps 9.6), see Hutter, Marienhomiliar, 52-3.

25 The caption reads: ‘On the way that the Holy Virgin remained unharmed by the arrows of the villainous one, thanks to an invisible force’: .

26 .

27 .

28 Grabar, A., L’Iconoclasm hyzantin. Dossier archeologiaue (Paris, 1957), figs 147–8, 151 Google Scholar; Corrigan, K., Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters (Cambridge, 1992), 37–40 Google Scholar, 76-7 and figs 50, 99, 102; S. Dufrenne and S. Der Nersessian, L’lllustration despsautiersgrecs du moyen age, 2 vols, Bibliotheque des cahiers archeologiques, 1, 5 (Paris, 1966-70), 1:32 and pl. 18, 28 and pl. 12,34-5 and pl. 26, 61 and pl. 54; 2:37 pl. 46 and fig. 136,38 pl. 51 and fig. 149, 44 pl. 69 and fig. 191.

29 Strzygowski, J., Der Bilderkreis des Griechischen Physiologus des Kosmas Indikopleustes und Oktateuch nach Handschriften der Bibliothek zu Smyrna (Leipzig, 1899), 56–7 Google Scholar, pis XXV-XXIX; Bernabo, M., Il Fisiologo di Smirne. Le miniature del perduto Codice B.S della Biblioteca delta Scuola Evangelica di Smirne (Florence, 1998), pl. 76–81 Google Scholar, 85-6.

30 Der Nersessian, ‘Le lit’, 53.

31 Ibid., 54.

32 For the ‘manipulation’ of monastic reading in the twelfth century and a specific reference to the Song see Waring, J., ‘Monastic reading in the eleventh and twelfth centuries: divine ascent or Byzantine fall?’, in Mullett, M. and Kirby, A., eds, Work and Worship at the Theotokos Evergetis 1050-1200 (Belfast, 1997), 400–19 Google Scholar, esp. 412-13.

33 E. Jeffreys, The Song of Songs and twelfth century Byzantium’, Pnidentia, 23 (1991), 42.

34 Elizabeth and Michael Jeffreys have prepared an editio princeps of the 43 letters of James contained in BN, MS gr. 3039, to appear in a forthcoming volume of Corpus Christianorum. Seriesgraeca; Anderson, ‘Sermons’, 85-95.

35 J.C. Anderson, ‘Anna Komnene, learned women, and the book in Byzantine art’, in T. Gouma-Peterson, ed., Anna Komnene and her Times (2000), 125-48, esp. 142.

36 Jeffreys, ‘Song of Songs’, 47-50; Laga, C., ‘Entering the library of Jakobus Monachus. The exemplar of Jacobus quotations from the commentary on the Song of Songs by Gregory of Nyssa’, in Demoen, K. and Vereecken, J., eds, La Spiritualite de i’univers byzanlin dans le verbe et I’image, Series Instrumenta Patristica, 30 (Turnhout, 1997), 151–61 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 BN, MS gr. 1208, fol. iv; Omont, Miniatures, pl. I; Anderson, Sermons, 71-2.

38 .

39 She has been associated with works by Ioannes Tzetzes, Konstantinos Manasses, The odore Prodromos, Manganeios Prodromos and an anonymous encomiast; see Jeffreys, ‘Who was Eirene?’, 40-1 nn.3-10.

40 BN, MS gr. 3039, Letter 10, fols 33r-40r, esp. 36r-36v. See the forthcoming edition of the letters by E. and M. Jeffreys.

41 Hutter, Marienhomiliar, 50. For parallel developments in the West see E.A. Matter, The Voice of My Beloved. The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (Philadelphia, PA, 1990), 151-70; A.W. Astcll, The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages (1990), 42-72.