BENEDICT BISCOP and CUTHBERT
TWO IMPORTANT ABSENTEES FROM
THE SYNOD OF WHITBY
INTRODUCTION:
he
Synod of Whitby in 664 AD was the great pivotal event of
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. At
this synod King Oswy made the key decision that in
future his kingdom was to align its churchmanship with
that of the Rome, rather than the tradition of the
Irish-Celtic church, which had restored Northumbria to
the Christian faith.
The
debate at the Synod of Whitby is recounted in some
detail by Bede, and by Eddius Stephanus in his Life of
Wilfrid. The dramatis personae of key figures is set out
in detail. They include Wilfrid, Agilbert, Cedd, Hilda
and Colman of Lindisfarne. There are two striking
absentees from this cast list: Cuthbert and Benedict
Biscop.
THE IMPORTANT ABSENCE
rom a later
historic perspective the twin absence of these key
figures does appear suprising. Both men had growing
reputations, both were on the threshold of their prime
years, both had become strongly identified with the
churchmanship they represented. If you were familiar
with the histories of these two men you would have
expected them to be present at the synod. The reasons we
can discern as to 'Why not?' are instructive. They serve
to explain why the subsequent roles played by these
saints were so effective, so influential and ultimately
so complimentary.
Absence from the synod
may even have proved helpful to both Biscop and
Cuthbert. They were not affected by, or implicated in,
the rather bruising exchanges which Bede describes. They
were to come to new roles in the church with a 'clean
sheet',enabling new beginnings and the healing of
wounds. Both men were to prove significant figures in
the shaping of the Northumbrian church that emerged in
the aftermath.
After Whitby the flow
of the church's progress in Northumbria changed course.
For a time it was to flow in two separate, yet
complimentary channels. I will argue that Cuthbert and
Biscop were the two most influential personalities in
the shaping of this twin flow, and in inspiring the
subsequent intermingling of the waters.
THE ROLES OF BISCOP AND CUTHBERT AFTER THE SYNOD
fter the synod,
Cuthbert was required to undertake a new role on
Lindisfarne. This tidal island had been the very heart
of the Irish-Celtic tradition, and the site of the first
monastery and school founded by Aidan and his community
of monks from Iona. From
this island Aidan and his
monks had radiated into Northumbria, preaching, teaching
and in time founding daughter monastries to underpin the
work. The Whitby ruling, and the subsequent departure of Bishop Colman with many monks,
found Lindisfarne depleted and somewhat demoralised.
Cuthbert was to revive and redirect the spirituality and
purpose of the community. In doing so he created a
template for other Irish-Celtic foundations, such as
Melrose and Whitby, which had now to accept the new
dispensation.
Biscop was part of a
wave of new young enthusiasts for the the Roman
tradition. The decision at Whitby liberated them to
found new monasteries on the continental pattern. They
built in stone and glass, importing Gaulish craftsmen to
enable the work. They established a new style of
cenobitic monasticism, with a strong Benedictine
influence. The great twin monastery of Wearmouth/Jarrow
which Biscop founded was to become a powerhouse of
spirituality, Biblical scholarship and book production.
It became home to the Venerable Bede.
These two new and
complimentary currents in the Northumbrian church were
ultimately to come together in ways that were to be the
inspiration and outworking of the spiritual and cultural
achievement which became known as the Golden Age of
Northumbria.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DECISION AT WHITBY
efore looking at
the lives of these important saints in more detail, we
must remind ourselves of the significance and impact of
the decision at Whitby. Bede's Ecclesiastical
History embraces three great themes: the coming of
the Christian faith to the British Isles: the rise of
the Kingdom of Northumbria: the forging of the English
Nation. All come together at Whitby. Bede in effect
describes the coming of faith to Britain as a series of
waves, which surge inland but then withdraw. The
adoption of the Roman tradition at Whitby is the final
wave: the one that remains in place throughout our
subsequent history. Whitby also represents a high point
in Northumbrian influence. It ushers in the so-called
Golden Age of Northumbria, with its great cultural,
spiritual and intellectual achievements. The decision at
Whitby is also influential throughout the British Isles
because of the pre-eminence of Northumbria among the
other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the day. It puts in place
a key component of our emerging national character, and
serves to re-align us with the mainstream church. These
continental structures were eventually to evolve into
what was to become known for a time as Christendom.
Many of these outcomes
would not have developed in the way that they did, or to
the extent that they did, had it not been for the key
contributions of Cuthbert and Biscop. These subsequent
ministries seemed to progress in their separate but
parallel fields. Eventually there was to be a coming
together which enriched the church and the nation, and
had a major impact both in Britain and on the continent.
The roles that Cuthbert and Biscop came to occupy is
rooted in their years of Christian formation and the
very different paths they followed in their early lives.
The life of Cuthbert is fairly well-known and has been
widely documented. Biscop is a more shadowy figure and
most who encounter him feel that his life deserves
greater celebration.
CUTHBERT'S EARLY LIFE
e first encounter
Cuthbert in the Lammermuir hills, in what is now the
border country of Scotland. He seems to be of
British-Celtic stock. The fact that he owned a horse, on
which he travelled widely, would suggest that he was of
a noble family. One or two prophetic episodes illuminate
his childhood and it is clear that he is already
thinking on religious lines about his future.
A formative episode occurs one night
when he is watching sheep with his companions. (Wolves and other predators still abounded in
the Northumbrian countryside). Cuthbert is
already demonstrating his spiritual bent, as he is awake
and praising God. He has a vision of angels. He wakens
his companions. They witness a flight of angels carrying
a 'globe of fire', and realise that they are seeing the
soul of a great man being taken heavenward. Later
enquiry at the nearby monastery of Melrose reveals that
Aidan of Lindisfarne has died, at the very hour of the
shepherd's vision.
This experience
confirms Cuthbert's calling and he enters monastic life
at Melrose. The choice of Melrose will be guided no
doubt by its proximity, but Bede also tells us that
Cuthbert is attracted by the reputation of Boisil as a
teacher. Boisil is Prior of Melrose under Abbot Eata.
Boisil is at the gate of the monastery when Cuthbert
arrives and he prophesies a great future for the young
novice. During his
formative years at Melrose, Cuthbert reveals a zeal for
spiritual discipline and a passion for taking the gospel
to the most remote locations that is quite remarkable.
Cuthbert soon is recognised as a man of exceptional
spirituality. He begins to display gifts of prophesy and
healing. When
Abbot Eata is invited to establish another monastery at
Ripon he takes Cuthbert with him and appoints him as
guest master. This initiative founders. (The
reasons for this are instructive and will be examined
later.) Upon their return to Melrose they learn
that Boisil, Cuthbert's beloved teacher is dying. Upon
his passing Cuthbert is appointed Prior. It is clear
that Cuthbert is now widely recognised for his saintly
qualities. His reputation extends beyond the boundaries
of Melrose. He is, for example, invited by the Abbess
Ebbe to pay an encouraging visit to her monastery at
Coldingham.
CUTHBERT AT THE TIME OF WHITBY
o in 664 AD
Cuthbert was a prominent and widely respected figure,
with an important future in the Northumbrian church.
Furthermore his ministry was steeped and rooted in the
Irish-Celtic tradition. His abbot Aeta was a former
pupil of Aidan. Cuthbert had taken that tradition to
even greater levels, and it could be argued that he was
the greatest exemplar of that tradition. His disciplines
were rigorous. His friendships with the domestic animals
which shared his work, and the wild creatures he
encountered, were the finest expression of the
Irish-Celtic alignment with the grain of the natural
world. It would be hard to envisage a more attractive
advocate. Yet Cuthbert was not present at the Whitby
Synod. His three biographies do not record a presence,
and his name does not appear on the list of delegates.
We can only speculate
as to why Cuthbert, the quintessential Irish-Celtic
saint, was not present at the Synod. The most powerful
and likely reason is the saint's deep humility. At the
heart of this quality lay Cuthbert's profound obedience.
He was not at Whitby because he was not asked to go. A
more ambitious man, sensing the historic nature of the
Synod, may have asked to go or tried to manipulate a
presence. Such characteristics were not part of
Cuthbert's make up. His passion was to be with God and
to do his work. (Many years later, he
was asked to be Bishop of Lindisfarne by the Synod of
Twyford. He resisted all blandishments, even from the
king, until he realised that the unanimous decision of
the Synod meant that this was God's purpose for him.)
He was obedient when asked to take on
responsibility, but had no worldly ambition.
THE EARLY LIFE OF BISCOP BADUCING
iscop was
originally known by the family name of Baducing. He
first emerges into the pages of history in the court of
King Oswy. Here Biscop served the king with some
distinction. His roles may have included military
service. After some years Oswy was poised to give Biscop
a grant of land as a reward for his faithful service. At
that point Bede tells us that Biscop decided to dedicate
his life to Christ. Bede's language is similar to that
used when describing someone about to enter the
religious life. Biscop's purpose is not to join a
monastery however; his great aspiration is to visit
Rome. During his time at court, Biscop had learned of
the great city and its wonderful churches. So he
abandoned the court, and the opportunity of enjoying the
privileged life of a Thane in Anglo- Saxon Northumbria.
Biscop headed south to
Kent in order to cross to the continent, and visited the
court of King Erconbert in Canterbury. Here he met
another potential traveller: none other than the young
Wilfrid. Wilfrid was the protegé of the Northumbrian
Queen. Like Biscop he has
conceived a desire to visit Rome. Erconbert of Kent owed
allegience to Northumbria, and had undertaken that
Wilfrid, who was only eighteen years old, would not be
allowed to travel unless suitable companions could be
found. Biscop aged twenty five, with much more life
experience, was deemed suitable.
Travelling across
Europe in those days was difficult and dangerous. The
journey to Rome could take up to one year. The only
roads were the remnants of the Roman roads, and there
were brigands and wild beasts along the way. The men
progressed well until they reached to town of Lyons.
Here Bishop Annamundus took great interest in the
brilliant and charismatic Wilfrid. He was so taken with
the young man that he wanted to make him his heir.
The lionising of
Wilfrid led to a falling out with Biscop. Wilfrid's head
had clearly been turned by the flattering attention he
was receiving. He wished to remain in Lyons for an
extended period. Biscop
remained firm in his purpose, so there was a parting of
the ways. Biscop went on to Rome, where he may have been
the first Anglo-Saxon freeman to enter the city. (We
recall that blonde blue-eyed Anglo-Saxon slave children
had been seen by Pope Gregory the Great, of whom he
said, when told they were Angles, replied they were
Angels, and when told the name of their king, ‘Alla’,
replied they would sing ‘Allelulia’, and sent St
Augustine as missionary to Canterbury.)
BISCOP IN ROME
n Rome Biscop
stayed at the monastery on the Caelian Hill, founded by
Gregory the Great. From this base he visited the tombs
of Peter and Paul. He was overwhelmed by the
architectural and cultural glories of the city. Most of
the great edifices of empire, such as the Forum, the
Colliseum and
the Circus Maximus remained intact. There were in
addition many churches, and what churches! They were
stone-built with stained-glass windows. The interiors
vibrated with life: frescos, floor-tiles, mosaics,
paintings and icons filled the churches with colour.
Candles and incense added to the sensual richness of the
experience. There was a strong Byzantine influence,
which added to the opulence and mystery of the
spirituality he encountered. Biscop was completely
overwhelmed by the experience. He returned to Britain
totally converted to the merits of the Roman tradition.
He reported his experience with enthusiasm and, armed
with this recent first-hand experience, quickly emerged
as one of the leaders of the pro-Roman group.
BISCOP ON THE CONTINENT
t this point a
strange ten-year gap appears in Biscop's biography, as
recounted by Bede. Most scholars concur that Biscop
probably spent this time touring continental
monasteries. He says of his later foundation, that he
introduced a rule distilled from his experiences in
seventeen continental monasteries. Given the
difficulties of travel, the only sufficient time Biscop
could have devoted to such an extensive tour was during
the 'missing' ten-year period. This absence did mean
that the leadership of the new Roman movement fell into
other hands. Furthermore he was no longer in Britain
when Wilfrid finally returned.
WILFRID'S FURTHER ADVENTURES
ilfrid stayed in
Lyons for a further six months after Biscop's departure
before belatedly setting off to Rome. Here he met
Archdeacon Boniface, who introduced him to the Pope. He
was clearly identified as a young man of promise and he
returned to Lyons filed with new enthusiasm. He took the
tonsure and became a monk in the Roman tradition.
Shortly afterwards Queen Baldhild initiated a
persecution of Christians. Rather than engage in
wholesale slaughter, she elected to execute certain
bishops. Annumundus was arraigned and, after a 'show'
trial, condemned to death. When taken to the place of
execution, Wilfrid, his protegé, insisted on
accompanying him. At the place of execution Wilfrid
stripped off and presented himself to the executioner.
Wilfrid's youth and Anglo-Saxon appearance betrayed him.
Enquiries were made and, when it became clear that the
young man was a recent visitor from Britain, they
refused to execute him with Annamundus. After the death
of his mentor, the authorities put Wilfrid on a boat and
he sailed via Marsailles back to Britain.(Wilfrid's
later ministry is often criticised, but one thing this
episode demonstrates is that he was a very courageous
young man).
WILFRID IN NORTHUMBRIA
pon his return
Wilfrid lost no time in becoming a leading champion of
the Roman tradition. He was taken up by Aldred, the son
of King Oswy, and the sub-king of Deira. There was an
early episode which forshadowed things to come. Having
already invited Aeta to found a new monastery at Ripon.(This was the occasion referred to above when
Cuthbert became the guest master). Aldred then
proceeded to insert Wilfrid into the leadership of the
community. (It is unclear where ultimate
authority was to lie). It quickly
became clear that Wilfrid would brook no compromise
between the two traditions and so, rather than permit
conflict, Aeta, Cuthbert and their companions withdrew
to Melrose.
WILFRID AT THE SYNOD OF WHITBY
ilfrid's
leadership of the Roman faction in Northumbria was
confirmed by the Synod of Whitby. Their official leader was Agilbert, but he
quickly deferred to Wilfrid. The manner in which Wilfrid
conducted the debate ensured its twin outcomes. Colman,
the principal advocate of the Irish-Celtic position was
no match for Wilfrid's forensic brilliance. The Synod
decided that the Roman tradition should prevail.
Wilfrid's debating style also gave rise to the other
outcome. He was so robust, aggressive and dismissive of
the Irish-Celts that they felt deeply hurt and bruised.
It was their mission after all that had finally brought
Christianity to Northumbria in a way that endured. Now
they were being dismissed as 'ignorant' and irrelevant.
This hurt led to Bishop Colman leading many of his monks
from Lindisfarne, back to their mother house on Iona.
BISCOP AT THE TIME OF THE SYNOD
ust as Cuthbert
was totally identified with the Irish-Celtic church, so
Biscop had become a leading protagonist of the Roman
tradition. He was after all the first of his generation
to visit Rome. At the time of the synod however Biscop
was still on the continent, learning more of the various
monastic traditions there, and building up his
collection of sacred artefacts and books. It is unclear
as to whether his next move was prompted by the outcome
of the Synod. He may have seen new possibilities for the
resources he was amassing.
BISCOP ENTERS MONASTIC LIFE
iscop concluded
his continental tour with a further visit to Rome, and
here he finally concluded that he wished to enter the
religious life. He entered the monastery on St Honorat,
the outer of the two Isles of Lerins, situated in the
mouth of the bay of Cannes. He took the tonsure and the
name Benedict. (The name itself suggests
that Lerins may have been in the process of adopting
the Benedictine rule which was spreading throughout
Europe). The island monastery was moving from
the original eremitic individual cells with lauras to
the new more centralised cenobitic structure under
reforms instituted by St Aigulf. (The
abbot of Lerins believed that Biscop himself may have
been instrumental in this change, with the extensive
Continental experience he had gained.) Biscop
completed his two-year novitiate and, when a boat docked
at the island bound for Rome, he was permitted one final
pilgrimage.
BISCOP SECONDED TO THE SERVICE OF THEODORE
iscop's future
seemed to be ordained. He was destined, it seemed, to
live out his life as a monk on the Isles of Lerins, and
would, it seems, have been quite happy to do so. God had
another destiny planned for the saint. In Rome there was
a delegation from Britain led by Wighard the first
Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, from the part of
England converted by Gregory’s Augustine. The Synod of
Whitby had created a great opportunity for church unity.
The British bishops, the remnant of the Romano-British
church, had previously refused the authority of
Canterbury. They were now willing to submit to the new
archbishop. Tragedy struck. Wighard and his party all contracted the
plague and died within days. The Pope appointed Theodore
of Tarsus, an elderly Greek scholar to the now vacant
role. Theodore did not speak Anglo-Saxon, nor was he
familiar with Continental travel. He needed a guide.
Benedict Biscop was on hand and ideally suited to the
role. Benedict was therefore required to accompany
Theodore and his party to Britain.
BISCOP BECOMES ABBOT OF CANTERBURY FOR A TIME
Abbot Hadrian, who had
accompanied the party, was detained in Paris. He had
been destined to take over the great abbey of
Canterbury. Upon arrival in Britain Theodore, who had
clearly been impressed with Biscop, invited him to
become acting Abbot. He fulfilled this role for two
years until Hadrian was able to arrive. Biscop's great
success as abbot made it unlikely that he would now
simply return to the life of a monk in Lerins. When
faced with any issues as to his spiritual destiny,
Biscop always acted in the same way. He made a further
pilgrimage to his beloved Rome. Here a future vision
must have formed in his mind.
BISCOP FOUNDS WEARMOUTH MONASTERY
iscop returned to
Britain via some of the monasteries, including Vienne,
where he had deposited artefacts and books. He gathered
his collection and set off back to Britain. He
eventually arrived back in his native Northumbria. Here
he found a new king on the throne. Oswy had died and was
replaced by King Egfrith. Biscop showed his collection
to the king. He was profoundly impressed and offered to
Biscop a gift of seventy hides of land, on which to
build a monastery on the north bank of the River Wear.
This Biscop, with the help of his imported glaziers and
stone masons, duly did in 74 AD. Later another royal
grant of land enabled the founding of another monastery
at Jarrow. Wilfrid was also building stone monasteries
in the continental style at Hexham and Ripon.
CUTHBERT AND BISCOP IN THE AFTERMATH OF WHITBY
n the event the
two men, whose absence from Whitby seems to have been
most noteworthy, were to prove the most influential in
the journey of the church which followed the synod. The
very reasons for their absence were to be instrumental
in their future influence.
The humble obedience
which kept Cuthbert away from the synod was central to
Cuthbert's subsequent ministry on Lindisfarne. This
island community had been the spiritual heart of
Northumbria. Now it was the most damaged, depleted and
demoralised. If the spiritual life of the nation was not
to be irreparably damaged it was essential that the
Lindisfarne community be restored to health. Cuthbert
was appointed prior of Lindisfarne. His task was now to
promote that very humble obedience in the community. In
this his greatest asset was his personal example.
Bede tells us how
Cuthbert engaged with the delicate matter of introducing
a new rule to the community. He would present each
innovation at Chapter meetings, but the moment
opposition became heated, Cuthbert would simply
withdraw. He would then return the next day and begin
again his gentle process of persuasion. Gradually the
saint's persuasive skills began to bear fruit.
The monks of
Lindisfarne also recognised Cuthbert's own deep
qualities of obedience and humility. They knew of his reputation as a leading
figure in the Irish-Celtic church and saw how he had
willingly submitted to the new dispensation, seeing in
the Whitby decision the hand of God. Cuthbert's personal
holiness of his life also aided his influence. It was
said that he could not celebrate Mass nor hear
Confession without tears. His tireless devotions
exceeded even that of the offices prescribed. Cuthbert's
absence from Whitby and the reasons for it, greatly
enabled his subsequent central role in reconciling the
existing Northumbrian monastic network to new
disciplines and churchmanship.
Biscop was in the
vanguard of the other stream which flowed from the
Whitby fountainhead. As well as the re-ordering of
existing monasteries there was also vigorous founding of
new communities in the Roman tradition. Wilfrid and
Biscop were equally energetic. There was an additional
dimension to Wearmouth/Jarrow which made it especially
influential. Biscop was at heart a great teacher and
enabler of others. He not only brought in glaziers and
masons from Gaul, he set up workshops where the local
people could be trained and take these skills further
afield. He later was to bring the Archcantor John from
St Peter's in Rome to Wearmouth/Jarrow. Folk came from
throughout the kingdom to learn the music and liturgy in
the Roman tradition. His greatest gift to the
Northumbrian church was surely his great library which
became one of the finest in Europe. This library in turn
enabled the monastery's super achievement in biblical
scholarship led by the Venerable Bede. The success and
influence of this great endeavour had been forged in
those years of preparation during which Biscop had
toured, collected and studied in continental
monasteries. An activity which had kept him away from
the Synod of Whitby.
BISCOP AND CUTHBERT: THE STREAMS MERGE.
nlike Wilfrid,
Biscop seems to have had a very high regard for the
achievement of the Irish Celtic church. This approbation
is mainly expressed in the work of the Venerable Bede.
In his Ecclesiastical History, Bede
speaks highly of the Irish-Celts and their achievement.
Indeed without his testimony we would know little of the
Lindisfarne monastery: of Aidan and his community. It is
inconceivable that Bede would have so written if this
were not in harmony with the views of his abbot and
first tutor Biscop.
The major
collaboration, which brought the two streams together,
concerned the life and death of Cuthbert. At the request
of Bishop Eadfrith of
Lindisfarne, Bede wrote a prose 'Life' of Cuthbert.
Together they were actively engaged in
promoting the cult of Cuthbert. Bishop Eadfrith himself
wrote the Lindisfarne Gospels, widely
believed to have been written in Cuthbert's honour.
These activities promoted a rich collaboration between
Lindisfarne and Wearmouth/Jarrow. The Latin text for the
Lindisfarne Gospels for example came
from a Wearmouth/Jarrow exemplar. The result was the
creative heart of what became known as the Golden Age of Northumbria. It saw
such an achievement in biblical scholarship, book
production and calligraphic attainment which has never
been surpassed. These works fuelled the missionary
endeavour in northern Germany that became widespread
across the libraries and monasteries of the Continent.
They produced a group of quite remarkable books in what
became known as the Italo-Northumbrian school of
biblical texts. These books include some of world
importance. They include:
The Lindisfarne
Gospels, the
Cuthbert Gospel of St John,
the 'Ceolfrith' Bible
-three fragments of the two other great Bibles produced
at Wearmouth/Jarrow (the Wollaston fragment/the Kingston Lacy
fragment and the Greenwell Leaf) and the fragmentary Durham
Gospels. In
addition, of course: the oldest complete Latin bible,
the purest reconstitution of St Jerome's Vulgate, the
book that some have described as the finest book ever
written: the Codex Amiatinus.
Rev. John McManners
BENEDETTO
BISCOP E CUTBERTO
DUE IMPORTANTI ASSENTI DAL SINODO DI WHITBY
INTRODUZIONE
l sinodo di
Whitby, tenuto nel 664, fu il grande evento centrale della “Storia ecclesiastica del
popolo inglese” di Beda. In questo sinodo il re Oswy prese
l'importante decisione che in futuro il suo regno si sarebbe
allineato al comportamento religioso dettato dalla chiesa di
Roma, invece che alla tradizione della chiesa
celtico-irlandese, che aveva
riportato la Nortumbria alla fede cristiana.
Il
dibattito che si tenne al sinodo di Whitby è raccontato in
dettaglio da Beda e da Eddius Stephanus nella sua “Vita di
Vilfredo). I personaggi chiave sono delineati con cura;
questi includono Vilfredo, Agilberto, Cedd, Hilda e Colman
di Lindisfarne. Ci sono due sorprendenti assenze in questa
lista: Cutberto e il Biscop Benedetto.
L'IMPORTANZA
DELL'ASSENZA
a un punto di
vista storico posteriore la doppia assenza di queste figure
chiave non appare sorprendente; entrambi godevano di una
reputazione crescente, entrambi erano alla soglia di anni
fondamentali, entrambi si erano venuti identificando
fortemente con la direzione religiosa che rappresentavano.
Se si fosse familiari con la storia di questi due, ci si
sarebbe aspettati che fossero presenti al sinodo. Le ragioni
che possiamo individuare del 'Perché no?' sono istruttive;
ci spiegano il motivo per il quale i loro ruoli futuri
furono così efficaci, così influenti, e in ultima analisi
così complementari.
L'assenza
dal sinodo può anche essere stata utile sia Biscop che a
Cutberto: essi non furono toccati né implicati negli scambi
piuttosto lesivi che Beda descrive; essi arrivarono ad
assumere un ruolo nuovo nella chiesa incontaminati rendendo
così possibile un nuovo inizio e la guarigione delle ferite.
Entrambi risultarono figure significative nella formazione
della chiesa di Nortumbria che emerse nel periodo
immediatamente seguente.
Dopo
Whitby il corso progressivo della chiesa di Nortumbria
cambiò; per un certo tempo questo scorreva in due canali
separati, ma complementari. E' mia
opinione che Cutberto e Biscop furono le due personalità più
influenti nel dare forma a questo sottile corso e
nell'ispirare il successivo mischiarsi delle acque.
IL
RUOLO DI BISCOP E CUTBERTO DOPO
IL SINODO
opo il sinodo
Cutberto dovette assumere un nuovo ruolo a Lindisfarne.
Questa isola soggetta alle maree aveva rappresentato proprio
il cuore della tradizione celtico-irlandese, non ché il sito
del primo monastero e scuola fondato da Aidano
e la sua comunità di monaci provenienti da Iona. E'
da questa isola che Aidano e i suoi monaci si sparsero nella
Nortumbria predicando, insegnando e, col tempo, fondando
monasteri affiliati per supportare il loro lavoro. La
decisione di Whitby e la conseguente partenza del vescovo
Colman con molti monaci lasciarono la comunità di
Lindisfarne impoverita e piuttosto demoralizzata; fu
Cutberto che ravvivò e dette nuovo indirizzo
alla spiritualità e alla scopo della comunità. Con la
sua azione creò un modello per altre fondazioni
celtico-irlandesi, come Melrose e Whitby, che ora dovettero
accettare il nuovo ordinamento.
Biscop
fece parte di un'ondata di nuovi giovani entusiasti della
tradizione romana. La decisione presa a Whitby li rese
liberi di fondare nuovi monasteri sul modello continentale.
Essi costruirono in pietra e vetro importando artigiani
dalla Gallia per rendere possibile l'opera. Fondarono un
nuovo stile di monachesimo cenobitico di forte impronta
benedettina. I grandi monasteri gemelli di Wearmouth e
Jarrow, fondati da Biscop, sarebbero diventati una fucina di
spiritualità, erudizione biblica e produzione libraria;
divennero la casa di Beda il Venerabile.
Queste
due nuove correnti complementari della chiesa di Nortumbria
si fusero alla fine in modi che costituirono l'ispirazione e
il baluardo di quel risultato
sorprendente spirituale e culturale che divenne noto come
l'età d'oro della Nortumbria.
L'IMPORTANZA
DELLA
DECISIONE DI WHITBY
rima di
occuparci dei dettagli della vita di questi due importanti
santi, è necessario fare mente locale sul significato e
sull'impatto della decisione di Whitby. La “Storia
ecclesiastica” di Beda si
occupa di tre grandi temi: l'arrivo della fede cristiana
nelle isole britanniche; l'ascesa del regno di Nortumbria;
la formazione della nazione inglese. Tutti e tre si
incontrano a Whitby. In effetti Beda descrive l'arrivo della
fede in Britannia come un susseguirsi di ondate, le quali
raggiungono la terra e poi si ritirano. L'adozione della
tradizione romana a Whitby è l'ondata conclusiva, quella che
rimane nella storia successiva. Whitby rappresenta anche il
punto culminante dell'influsso della Nortumbria: introduce
la cosiddetta età d'oro della Nortumbria con le sue grandi
realizzazioni culturali, spirituali e intellettuali. La
decisione di Whitby esercitò anche grande influenza in tutte
le isole britanniche data la preminenza della Nortumbria tra
i regni anglosassoni del tempo. Dà inizio a un componente
chiave del nostro emergente carattere nazionale e serve a
riallinearci con la corrente principale della chiesa. Queste
strutture continentali si dovevano infine evolvere in ciò
che divenne per un certo tempo conosciuto come Cristianità.
Molti
di questi esiti non si sarebbero sviluppati nel modo in cui
lo furono, o al punto in cui giunsero, se non fosse stato
per i contributi chiave di Cutberto e Biscop. Questi
ministri, che si susseguirono, sembravano progredire in
campi separati ma paralleli; alla fine ci dovette essere una
confluenza che arricchì la chiesa e la nazione, ed ebbe
grandi conseguenze sia in Britannia sia nel continente. I
ruoli che Cutberto e Biscop assunsero sono radicati negli
anni della loro formazione cristiana e i diversi cammini che
intrapresero in gioventù. La vita di Cutberto è piuttosto
ben conosciuta ed è stata ampiamente documentata; Biscop è
una figura più oscura e la maggior parte di coloro che lo
incontrano sentono che la sua vita merita maggiore
celebrazione.
I
PRIMI ANNI DI VITA DI CUTBERTO
ncontriamo per
la prima volta Cutberto nelle colline di Lammermuir, in
quello che è oggi il terreno confinante con la Scozia;
sembra fosse di ascendenza Britanno-celtica. Il fatto che
possedesse un cavallo. Con il quale viaggiava per ampio
raggio, sembrerebbe indicare che fosse di famiglia nobile.
Uno o due episodi profetici illuminano la sua fanciullezza
ed è chiaro che sta già pensando al suo futuro in termini
religiosi. Un episodio formativo accade
di notte mentre
sorveglia le pecore con i suoi compagni. (Lupi e altri
predatori sono ancora comuni nella campagna della
Nortumbria). Cutberto già mostra la sua inclinazione
spirituale, dato che è sveglio a lodare Dio.; ha una visione
di angeli; sveglia i suoi compagni. Sono testimoni di una
fuga di angeli che trasportano un 'globo di fuoco'; si
rendono conto che stanno vedendo l'anima di un grande uomo
trasportata in cielo. Più tardi chiedendo che al vicino
monastero di Melrose vengono a sapere che Aidano di
Lindisfarne è morto proprio nel momento della visione dei
pastori.
Questa
esperienza conferma la chiamata di Cutberto che entra nella
vita monastica a Melrose. La scelta di Melrose sarà senza
dubbio stata guidata dalla sua prossimità, ma Beda ci dice
anche che Cutberto è attratto dalla reputazione di Boisil
come insegnante. Boisil è il priore di Melrose sotto l'abate
Eata. Boisil si trova alla porta del monastero quando
Cutberto arriva e profetizza un grande futuro per il giovane
novizio. Durante gli anni formativi trascorsi a Melrose,
Cutberto rivela un rimarchevole zelo per la disciplina
spirituale e la passione per portare il Vangelo nei luoghi
più remoti. Cutberto viene presto riconosciuto come uomo di
spiritualità eccezionale;comincia a mostrare doni di
profezia e taumaturgia. Quando l'abate Eata è invitato a
fondare un altro monastero a Ripon, egli porta con sé
Cutberto che nomina maestro degli ospiti. Questa iniziativa
fallisce(Le ragioni sono istruttive e saranno esaminate
in seguito).Al loro ritorno a Melrose apprendono che
Boisil, l'amatissimo maestro di Cutberto sta morendo; al suo
trapasso Cutberto è nominato priore. E' chiaro che le sante qualità di Cutberto sono
ora ampiamente riconosciute; la sua reputazione si estende
ben oltre i confini di Melrose; ad esempio è invitato dalla
badessa Ebbe a fare una visita di incoraggiamento al suo
monastero di Coldingham.
CUTBERTO
AL TEMPO DI WHITBY
osì nel 664
Cutberto era una prominente e ampiamente rispettata figura
con un importante futuro nella chiesa di Nortumbria. Inoltre
il suo ministero era imbevuto e radicato nella tradizione
celtico-irlandese; il suo abate Aeta era stato allievo di
Aidano. Cutberto aveva portato questa tradizione a livelli
ancora più alti ed è possibile sostenere che ne fu l'esempio
maggiore.
Le
sue discipline erano rigorose; la sua amicizia
con gli animali domestici che condividevano il suo
lavoro e con le creature selvatiche che incontrava erano l'espressione maggiore
dell'allinearsi celtico-irlandese con la grana del mondo
della natura. Sarebbe difficile concepire un avvocato più
avvincente. Tuttavia Cutberto non fu presente al sinodo di
Whitby; le sue tre biografie non ne registrano la presenza,
e il suo nome non compare nella lista dei delegati.
Possiamo
solo speculare sul motivo per il quale Cutberto, il
quintessenziale santo celtico-irlandese,
non fu presente al sinodo. La più importante e
probabile ragione è la profonda umiltà del santo; al cuore
di questa qualità si trovava la sua profonda obbedienza: non
era a Whitby perché non gli era stato chiesto di andare. Un
uomo più ambizioso, avvertendo la natura storica del sinodo,
avrebbe potuto chiedere di andare o tentare di manipolare
per esservi presente. Tali caratteristiche non facevano
parte del carattere di Cutberto; la sua passione era essere
con Dio e fare il suo lavoro. (Molti anni dopo gli fu
chiesto di essere vescovo di Lindisfarne al sinodo di
Twyford. Si sottrasse a ogni blandizie, anche da parte del
re, finché non si rese conto che la decisione unanime del
sinodo significava che questa era l'intenzione di Dio per
lui).Era obbediente quando gli si chiedeva di
assumersi una responsabilità, ma non aveva ambizioni
mondane.
I
PRIMI ANNI DI VITA DI BISCOP BADUCING
iscop era
originariamente noto con il nome di famiglia Baducing.
Emerge per la prima volta nelle pagine della storia alla
corte del re Oswy, dove Biscop servì il re con distinzione;
tra i suoi ruoli può esserci stato il servizio militare.
Dopo alcuni anni Oswy era sul
punto di dare a Biscop una concessione di terra come
ricompensa per il suo fedele servizio; a questo punto Beda
ci dice che Biscop decise di dedicare la sua vita a Cristo;
la lingua di Beda è simile a quella che usa per descrivere
qualcuno che sta per abbracciare la vita religiosa.
L'intenzione di Biscop tuttavia non è quella di entrare in
monastero; la sua grande aspirazione è visitare Roma.
Durante il tempo trascorso a corte Biscop aveva saputo della
grande città e delle sue meravigliose chiese. Così abbandonò
la corte e l'opportunità di godere della vita privilegiata
di un nobile nella Nortumbria anglosassone.
Biscop
si diresse a sud verso il Kent per la traversata al
continente e visitò la corte del re del Kent Erconbert. Quì
incontrò un altro potenziale viaggiatore non altro che il
giovane Vilfredo, che era il protetto della regina di
Nortumbria; come Biscop anche lui aveva concepito il
desiderio di visitare Roma. Erconbert del Kent doveva
fedeltà alla Nortumbria e si era impegnato a che Vilfredo,
che aveva solo diciotto anni, non avrebbe avuto il permesso
di viaggiare a meno che non si trovassero dei compagni
adatti. Biscop, che aveva venticinque anni e molta più
esperienza di vita, fu reputato adatto.
Viaggiare
attraverso l'Europa a quei tempi era difficile e pericoloso;
il viaggio a Roma poteva durare fino a un anno. Le uniche
strade erano i resti di quelle romane e si potevano
incontrare briganti e bestie feroci sulla via. Gli uomini
progredirono bene finché non giunsero alla città di Lione.
Qui il vescovo Annamundus si interessò molto al brillante e
carismatico Vilfrido.; era così entusiasta del giovane che
voleva farne il suo erede. Il trattare Vilfredo come una
celebrità causò una rottura con Biscop; egli voleva
estendere il periodo della permanenza
a Lione. Biscop rimase fermo nel suo proposito, così si
venne a una divisione. Biscop proseguì per Roma, dove
probabilmente fu il primo anglosassone libero a entrare in
città.
BISCOP
A ROMA
Roma
Biscop stava al monastero sul monte Celio fondato da
Gregorio Magno; da questa base visitò le tombe di Pietro e
Paolo. Rimase colpito dalle glorie architettoniche e
culturali della città: la maggior parte dei grandi edifici imperiali, come il Foro,
il Colosseo e il Circo Massimo, era rimasta intatta. Inoltre
vi erano molte chiese, e che chiese! Erano costruite in
pietra con finestre di vetro istoriate. Gli interni
vibravano di vita: affreschi, pavimenti di mattonelle,
mosaici, dipinti e icone riempivano le chiese di colore;
candele e incenso rendevano ancora più ricca l'esperienza
sensoriale. Vi era una forte influenza bizantina che si
aggiungeva all'opulenza e al mistero della spiritualità che
incontrava. Biscop fu completamente sopraffatto da questa
esperienza; ritornò in Britannia del tutto convertito ai
meriti della tradizione romana. Riferì con entusiasmo la sua
esperienza e, forte della recente esperienza in prima
persona, emerse rapidamente come uno dei capi del gruppo
favorevole a Roma.
BISCOP
SUL CONTINENTE
questo
punto una strana lacuna di dieci anni appare nella sua
biografia secondo Beda. La maggior parte degli studiosi
concordano sul fatto che probabilmente trascorse questo
periodo visitando i monasteri continentali. Egli dice della
sua fondazione posteriore di avere introdotto una regola
distillata dall'esperienza di diciassette monasteri
continentali. Date le difficoltà del viaggiare, l'unico
periodo di tempo sufficiente per fare un viaggio così
prolungato fu la lacuna di dieci anni. Quest'assenza
significò che la direzione de4l nuovo movimento romano cadde
in altre mani. Inoltre non era
in Britannia quando Vilfredo infine fece ritorno.
ULTERIORI
AVVENTURE DI VILFREDO
ilfredo rimase
a Lione altri sei mesi dopo la partenza di Biscop prima di
partire in ritardo per Roma, qui conobbe l'arcidiacono
Bonifacio, che lo introdusse al papa. Venne chiaramente
identificato come un giovane promettente e fece ritorno a
Lione pieno di rinnovato entusiasmo. Prese la tonsura e
divenne monaco nella tradizione romana.
Poco dopo la regina Baldhild iniziò a perseguitare i
cristiani; invece di imbarcarsi in un massacro, scelse
l'esecuzione di certi vescovi; Annumundus fu accusato e in
seguito a un processo fittizio fu condannato a morte. Quando
fu portato al luogo dell'esecuzione, il suo protetto
Vilfredo insistette per accompagnarlo. Sul luogo
dell'esecuzione Vilfredo si spogliò e
si presentò al carnefice; la sua gioventù e l'aspetto
anglosassone lo tradirono; si fecero indagini e quando fu
chiaro che il giovane era un visitatore proveniente di
recente dalla Britannia, si rifiutarono di giustiziarlo con
Annamundus. Dopo la morte del suo mentore, le autorità
posero Vilfredo su una barca ed egli ritornò, passando per
Marsiglia, in Britannia. (Il successivo ministero di
Vilfredo è spesso criticato, ma quello che questo episodio
dimostra è che era un giovano molto coraggioso)
VILFREDO
IN NORTUMBRIA
l suo ritorno
Vilfredo non perse tempo a diventare un campione in vista
della tradizione romana; si
mise con Aldredo,il figlio del re Oswy, e sotto-re di Deira.
Ci fu un primo episodio che faceva presagire cosa sarebbe
avvenuto. Avendo già invitato Aeta a fondare un nuovo
monastero a Ripon (questa è l'occasione in cui, come già
detto, Cutberto divenne maestro degli ospiti), Aelredo
proseguì inserendo Vilfredo come capo della comunità. (Non
è chiaro a chi spettasse in ultima istanza l'autorità) Divenne
ben presto chiaro che Vilfredo non avrebbe accettato
compromessi tra le due tradizioni e così, piuttosto che
permettere il conflitto, Aeta, Cutberto e i loro compagni si
ritirarono a Melrose.
VILFREDO
AL SINODO DI WHITBY
a conduzione
della fazione romana di Vilfredo fu confermata dal sinodo di
Whitby; il capo ufficiale era Agilberto, ma questi subito si
sottomise a Vilfredo. Il modo in cui Vilfredo condusse il
dibattito assicurò i suoi due risultati. Colman, il
principale sostenitore della posizione celtico-irlandese non
era un valido oppositore per la brillantezza avvocatesca di
Vilfredo: il sinodo decise che la tradizione romana dovesse
prevalere. Lo stile oratorio di Vilfredo produsse anche un
altro risultato. Eli fu così robusto, aggressivo e
sprezzante dei celtico-irlandesi che questi si sentirono
profondamente offesi e danneggiati.
In fin dei conti era stata la loro missione che aveva infine
portato la cristianità nella Nortumbria in modo definitivo;
ora erano respinti come 'ignoranti' e irrilevanti. Questo
ferita fece sì che il vescovo Colman conducesse molti dei
suoi monaci via da Lindisfarne per ritornare alla casa madre
di Iona.
BISCOP
AL TEMPO DEL SINODO
roprio come
Cutberto si identificava totalmente con la chiesa
celtico-irlandese, così Biscop era diventato un importante
protagonista della tradizione romana; era stato dopo tutto
il primo della sua generazione a visitare Roma. Al tempo del
sinodo tuttavia Biscop era ancora sul continente, per
apprendervi di più sulle varie tradizioni monastiche e
mettere insieme la sua collezione di artefatti e libri
sacri. Non è chiaro se la sua mossa successiva fu causata
dal risultato del sinodo. Può avere intravisto nuove
possibilità per le risorse che andava ammucchiando.
BISCOP
ABBRACCIA LA VITA MONASTICA
iscop concluse
il suo viaggio sul continente con un ulteriore visita a
Roma, e qui finalmente venne alla decisione che desiderava
abbracciare la vita religiosa. Entrò a far parte del
monastero di san Onorato, la più esterna delle isole di
Lerins, situate nella foce della baia di Cannes: prese la
tonsura e il nome di Benedetto. (Il nome
stesso suggerisce che Lerins possa essere stato in
procinto di adottare la regola benedettina che si stava
spargendo in tutta Europa). Il monastero sull'isola
stava cambiando dalla originale struttura a celle eremitiche
individuali alla nuova struttura cenobitica più
centralizzata con le riforme istituite da san Aigulf. (L'abate
di
Lerins riteneva che lo stesso Biscop avesse potuto essere
lo strumento di questo cambiamento, data la grande
esperienza continentale che aveva acquisito).Biscop
completò il suo noviziato di due anni e, quando una barca
diretta a Roma attraccò all'isola, ebbe il permesso di fare
un ultimo pellegrinaggio.
BISCOP
DISTACCATO AL SERVIZIO DI TEODORO
l futuro di
Biscop appariva deciso; era destinato, sembrava, a vivere la
sua vita come monaco sulle isole di Lerins e pare che ne
sarebbe stato ben contento; Dio aveva pianificato un altro
destino per il santo. A Roma c'era una delegazione dalla
Britannia con a capo Wighard, il primo arcivescovo
anglo-sassone di Canterbury. Il sinodo di Whitby aveva
creato una grande opportunità per l' unità della chiesa. I
vescovi britannici , il resto della chiesa
romano-britannica, avevano in un primo momento rifiutato
l'autorità di Canterbury; ora erano desiderosi di
sottomettersi al nuovo arcivescovo. Avvenne una tragedia;
Wighard e il suo comitato contrassero la peste e morirono in
pochi giorni. Il papa nominò Teodoro di Tarso, un anziano
studioso greco, per il ruolo
ora vacante. Teodoro non parlava anglo-sassone né era
familiare con il viaggio sul continente; aveva bisogno di
una guida. Benedetto Biscop era disposto e adatto al ruolo.
Fu quindi chiesto a Benedetto di accompagnare Teodoro e il
suo comitato in Britannia.
BISCOP
DIVIENE ABATE DI CANTERBURY PER UN CERTO TEMPO
'abate Adriano,
che aveva accompagnato il gruppo, fu trattenuto a Parigi.
Era stato destinato ad assumersi la grande abbazia di
Canterbury, All'arrivo in Britannia quindi Teodoro, che era
chiaramente rimasto colpito da Biscop, lo invitò a fare le
veci di abate. Ebbe questo ruolo per due anni finché Adriano
non fu in grado di arrivare. Il grande successo di Biscop
come abate rese poco probabile che egli ora tornasse a
Lerins alla vita di monaco. Quando doveva affrontare il
problema del sue destino spirituale, Biscop sempre si
comportava allo stesso modo: fece un ulteriore
pellegrinaggio alla sua beneamata Roma.
Qui una futura visione deve essersi formata nella sua
mente.
BISCOP
FONDA IL MONASTERO DI WEARMOUTH
iscop ritornò
in Britannia passando per alcuni monasteri, incluso Vienne,
dove aveva depositato artefatti e libri. Prese la sua
collezione e partì per tornare in Britannia; al fine arrivò
nella sua natia Nortumbria, dove trovò un nuovo re sul
trono. Oswy era morto ed era stato rimpiazzato dal re
Egfrith, cui Biscop mostrò la sua collezione al re; questi
ne fu profondamente impressionato e offrì a Biscop il dono
di settanta pelli (misura terriera da 60 a 120 acri) di
terreno sul quale costruire un monastero sulla riva nord del
fiume Wear. Questo Biscop fece con l'aiuto di vetrai e
operai della pietra da lui importati nell'anno 74. Più tardi
un' altra concessione regale di terra permise di fondare un
altro monastero a Jarrow. Vilfredo costruiva anche a Hexham
e Ripon monasteri in pietra in stile continentale.
CUTBERTO
E BISCOP NEL PERIODO CHE SEGUE WHITBY
lla fine i due
uomini la cui assenza da Whitby sembra essere stata degna di
nota, dovettero risultare i più influenti nel cammino della
chiesa che seguì il sinodo. Proprio le ragione della loro
assenza furono strumentali per la loro futura influenza.
L'umile
obbedienza che tenne Cutberto lontano dal sinodo fu centrale
per il suo successivo ministero a Lindisfarne. Questa
comunità isolana era stata il cuore spirituale della
Nortumbria; ora era la più danneggiata, svuotata e
demoralizzata. Se la vita spirituale della nazione non
doveva essere danneggiata irreparabilmente era essenziale
che la comunità di Lindisfarne fosse rimessa in salute.
Cutberto fu nominato priore di Lindisfarne: il suo compito
era ora di promuovere la più umile obbedienza nella
comunità. In ciò era aiutato dal suo esempio personale.
Beda
ci dice come Cutberto si impegno nel delicato compito di
introdurre una nuova regola nella comunità: era solito
presentare ogni innovazione alle riunioni del Capitolo, ma
nel momento in cui l'opposizione si scaldava, Cutberto
semplicemente si ritirava. Sarebbe poi ritornato il giorno
seguente e ricominciare il suo gentile processo di
persuasione. Gradualmente l'abilità persuasiva del santo
dava i suoi frutti.
I
monaci di Lindisfarne riconoscevano
inoltre le profonde qualità di obbedienza e umiltà di
Cutberto; conoscevano la sua reputazione come figura guida
della chiesa celtico-irlandese e vedevano come si era volontariamente sottomesso ai
nuovi ordinamenti, scorgendo nella decisione di Whitby la
mano di Dio. Anche la santità personale della vita di
Cutberto dava forza alla sua influenza; si diceva che non
potesse celebrare messa o ascoltare confessioni senza
lacrime. Le sue infaticabili devozioni superavano anche ciò
che gli offici prescrivevano. L'assenza di Cutberto da
Whitby e le sue ragioni resero
del tutto possibile il suo successivo ruolo centrale nel
riconciliare la rete esistente della Nortumbria monarchica
alla nuove discipline e direzione ecclesiastica.
Biscop
era all'avanguardia dell'altra corrente che scorreva dalla
sorgente di Whitby. Accanto al riordinamento dei monasteri
esistenti c'era anche la fondazione vigorosa di nuove
comunità che seguivano la tradizione romana. Vilfredo e
Biscop erano ugualmente
energici. Ci fu una ulteriore dimensione in Wearmouth
/Jarrow che risultò influente in modo particolare. Biscop
era nell'intimo un grande maestro in grado di conferire
potere agli altri. Non solo importò vetrai e muratori dalla
Gallia, ma istituì laboratori dove i locali potevano essere
istruiti e perfezionare queste abilità. Più tardi portò Giovanni, il cantore principale di
san Pietro di Roma, a Wearmouth/Jarrow. La gente affluiva da
tutto il regno per apprendere la musica e la liturgia della
tradizione romana. Il suo più grande dono alla chiesa di
Nortumbria fu certamente la sua grande
biblioteca che divenne una delle più belle in Europa. Questa
biblioteca a sua volta rese possibile i grandi risultati
nella dottrina biblica di Beda il Venerabile. Il successo e
l'influenza di questa grande impresa si erano formati in
quegli anni di preparazione durante i quali Biscop aveva
viaggiato, collezionato e studiato nei monasteri
continentali. Un'attività che lo aveva tenuto lontano da
Whitby.
BISCOP
E CUTBERTO: LE CORRENTI CONFLUISCONO
iversamente da
Vilfredo, Biscop sembra avere avuto grande rispetto per le realizzazioni della chiesa
celtico-irlandese. Questa approvazione è sopratutto espressa
nell'opera di Beda il Venerabile. Nella su “Storia
ecclesiastica” beda parla bene dei celtico-irlandesi e dei
loro risultati ; effettivamente senza la sua testimonianza
sapremmo poco del monastero di Lindisfarne, di Aidano e la
sua comunità. E' inconcepibile che Beda avrebbe scritto così
se non fosse stato in armonia con le vedute del suo abate e
primo precettore Biscop.
La
maggiore collaborazione, che fuse le due correnti, ebbe come
oggetto la vita e la morte di Cutberto. Su richiesta del
vescovo Eadfrith di Lindisfarne, Beda scrisse una vita in
prosa di Cutberto; entrambi erano attivamente impegnati a
promuovere il culto di Cutberto. Il vescovo Eadfrith stesso
scrisse i Vangeli di Lindisfarne, che si pensa siano stati
scritti in onore di Cutberto. Queste attività promossero una
ricca collaborazione tra Lindisfarne e Wearmouth/Jarrow; ad
esempio il testo latino per i Vangeli di Lindisfarne
proveniva da un exemplar di Wearmouth/Jarrow. Il
risultato fu il cuore creativo di ciò che fu conosciuto come
l'età d'oro della Nortumbria, nel quale si ebbero grandi
risultati nello studio biblico, la produzione libraria e un
raggiungimento calligrafico che non è mai stato superato.
Questi lavori stimolarono l'impresa missionaria nella
Germania settentrionale; si sparsero nelle biblioteche e nei
monasteri continentali. Produssero un gruppo rimarchevole di
libri in quella che divenne nota come la scuola
italo-nortumbrica del testo
biblico. Questi libri ne includono alcuni di importanza
mondiale. Essi includono:
vangeli
di Lindisfarne
ll
vangelo di Giovanni di Cutberto
La
bibbia di Ceolfrith: tre frammenti delle altre due grandi
bibbie prodotte a Wearmouth/Jarrow
(il
frammento Wollaston/il frammento Kingston Lacy e il
Greenwell Leaf)
e
i vangeli frammentari dei vangeli di Durham
Inoltre
la più antica bibbia latina completa, la più pura
ricostituzione della Vulgata di san Gerolamo, il libro che è
stato definito come il più bel libro mai scritto: il Codex
Amiatinus,
Rev. John McManners
Traduzione di Gabriella Del Lungo
Rev.
John McManners, Evelyn Nicholson, Gina McManners
ILLUSTRATIONS FOR
ILLUMINATION
A. A DISCUSSION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE LINKS
BETWEEN THE CODEX AMIATINUS , THE LINDISFARNE GOSELS AND
THE BOOK OF KELLS
any people
believe that the similarity between the Matthew figure in
the Lindisfarne Gospels and that of Ezra in the Codex
Amiatinus points to a common original source manuscript
(believed to be the Codex Grandior). Both figures are
seated, in similar poses, on cushions covering decorated
stools. Both stools exhibit a faulty perspective; but in
different directions, with an angle of about 20° of
difference between them.
Both Matthew and Ezra wear predominantly red
and green robes and open-toed footwear. Both are
grey-haired, bearded, slightly stooped over their work,
right-handed and both hold their pens in the same way with
both index and middle fingers straight. The left hand of
both supports the book, while the right knee is raised to
aid the process: while the left leg is more stretched out.
Despite similarities of pose, however, the artistic styles
differ. The Lindisfarne Gospels is illustrative with
wonderful clarity, while the Codex Amiatinus reflects
three-dimensional portraiture. They are two different
treatments of the same source: the Codex Amiatinus being,
perhaps, a direct copy in late classical style, while the
Lindisfarne Gospels is in the style of the Lindisfarne
artist, Eadfrith.
Regarding perspective, the Codex Amiatinus
hints at a not-quite vanishing point within the composition,
where lines are likely to converge. In the Lindisfarne
Gospels, however, the lines are diverging as they head out
of the picture. Has one artist, perhaps, noticed a
discrepancy in the original, and is over-compensating as a
result? Eadfrith, having trained in the Celtic tradition,
with its Eastern links, may not previously have encountered
late Classical perspective. (Perhaps there are Irish
influences towards early Eastern iconography in Celtic Art?)
In the Book of Kells, for example, male figures are seated
facing directly towards the artist in most cases. But the
Virgin and Child is an exception to this. The Virgin has a
slightly sideways pose, atop a two-dimensional seat. This
pose is similar to that used by Eadfrith for Luke and Mark.
Perhaps Eadfrith started out with Matthew and found the
perplexing perspective phenomenon distracted him from a task
where time was of the essence.
I experimented with tracing the outlines of
Matthew and Ezra, making the copies the same size as each
other and placing them side by side. While they were not
sufficiently alike for the same stencil or tracing to have
been used for both, the resemblance is too close for mere
coincidence. Next, I drew the outline of Lindisfarne’s Luke,
who faces in the same direction as Matthew. He seems to lean
more and faces the artist more – a development from the
original. But his stool is higher. Perhaps the Lindisfarne
scribes’ stools were higher than those in Squillace? Luke is
working on a scroll rather than a book, and his right, index
finger is bent. However, he seems more three-dimensional
than Matthew. Perhaps Eadfrith persuaded a brother monk to
model the pose of the Codex Amiatinus’ Letter L’s figure.
The Mark figure faces in the opposite
direction. I traced him, reversed the image and photocopied
the result to the same size as the Ezra outline. The result
was extremely interesting! Could Eadfrith have been
possessed of the same ambidextrous, mirror-drawing skills as
Leonardo? Or did he prick out the Codex Grandior original
and reverse it?
John, dated as
pre-698CE, faces directly towards the viewer, in the same
Celtic style we observe in the (later dated) Book of Kells.
Whereas, in the Codex Amiatinus, the only full-face, seated
figure is “Christ in Majesty”, whom I will discuss in the
next section.
Perhaps there was a 2-way, artistic
collaboration between the scribes of Monkwearmouth/Jarrow
and those of Lindisfarne; as both the Lindisfarne Gospels
and the Codex Amiatinus do something that is unique to
Northumbria; being found nowhere else in the British Isles
or Western Europe at this time. They portray both an
Evangelist “portrait” and his symbol at the same time, in
the same illustration – rather than either one or the other.
In this way, they bring together Celtic/possibly Eastern
iconographic traditions with those of European art, in a
form of artistic, early ecumenism.
B. CHRIST IN MAJESTY IN THE CODEX AMIATINUS
AND POSSIBLE EUROPEAN LINKS
n
addition to their religious function, monasteries were the
universities, publishing houses, art galleries and skills
centres of their day. Perhaps we should consider Biscop and
Ceolfrith as prototypes for Bradbury’s “Small World”
characters: that small group of international academics who
keep re-encountering each other in different international
venues. Because, surprisingly,
though it may be to us, a great deal of travel occurred
during the “Dark Ages”. Along with Biscop and Ceolfrith,
remember, too: Columbanus, Wilfrid, Agilbert, Augustine of
Canterbury, Paulinus, Theodore, Willibrord, Willihad,
Winfrith…. the list is endless.
As a result of this travel, a great deal of cross-cultural
communication happened. The Codex Grandior obviously
influenced the Kingdom of Northumbria, along with all the
other treasures from Biscop’s travels that are listed by
Bede (These treasures included a pictorial series of The
Life of Christ, pictures of the journeys of St Paul, and Old
Testament themes of Isaac carrying the wood for the
sacrifice and Moses lifting up the serpent in the desert.) This Southern European influence
upon the Anglo-Celtic Northumbrians was counter-balanced by
the Irish cultural influences of their “golden age”,
intellectual, bardic king, Aldfrith. This cross-media
influence occurred among writers, illustrators and sculptors
of their times. Old fashions were recycled in new guises,
too, just as they are in the twenty-first century.
At the time, it seems as if illustrations
containing human figures were rare; but the same was not
true of sculpture, apparently. I say “apparently” because
vellum, and even wood, are not as durable as stone –
especially in cold, damp, northern climes, susceptible also
to Viking raids. But the stone carving on the Ruthwell and
Bewcastle Crosses is still with us – and they are
contemporaries of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Codex
Amiatinus. The Ruthwell Cross depicts scenes from the
earthly life of Christ, a non-Biblical scene of desert
hermits and runic poetry of The Dream of the Rood. At this
time, preaching crosses, in remote areas lacking
monasteries, served multiple purposes: meeting point, parish
church, place of bible-study for those unable to read (and,
oh dear, thinking of the poetry, a screen for lyrics for
those who were able to read hymn words!). They were a
visual, creative response to the working of the Holy Spirit,
through (from, by and in) the medium of one stark Christian
symbol.
Elsewhere in Europe, other contemporary
Christian stone carvings still remain, usually on pillars,
altars and sarcophagi. Two famous examples are Agilbert’s
tomb at Jouarre (France) and the Pemmo Altar at Cividale
(Italy). But we know nothing of their sculptors. Were they
itinerant artisans or monks? Did they know of, and visit,
each other’s work? Did they carry around sketches or
paintings of their work, or of other works they had seen on
their travels, including frescoes, mosaics and illumination.
Sketches of such things could become source material for
commissions – assuming that the sculptors had patrons, such
as Hild, Ceolfrith or Wilfrid, who had a network of European
connections. Hild, for example, was born and bred a Dieran
princess. (Diera was the southern part of Northumbria). Her
sister had been promised in marriage to the East Anglian
prince, Aethelric, but chose, instead, to become a nun in
Gaul, where she probably met up with Theochilde, Abbess of
Jouarre, the sister of Agilbert, who became Bishop of
Winchester, then of Paris, and who would later become an
ally of Wilfrid. Hild, following in her sister’s footsteps,
also became a nun – and, in time, the Abbess of Hartlepool
and, later, of Whitby. It was at Hild’s Whitby Monastery
that Agilbert and Wilfrid would fight the Roman cause at the
Synod of Whitby in 664CE, opposing Chad and Colman of the
Celtic Church. In their youth, both Chad and Wilfrid may
have studied together on Lindisfarne with St Aidan.
One of Hild’s Whitby monks was Caedmon, who mat
have written the runic Dream of the Rood which is engraved
on the Ruthwell Cross. Ceolfrith may even have been involved
in setting up the cross.
Agilbert’s sister, Theochilde, died in 662:
Agilbert himself in 685. Both are buried in stone sarcophagi
at Jouarre. Agilbert ordered his sarcophagus in advance, to
ensure that it was completed according to his
specifications. It depicts Christ in Majesty in a mandorla,
with a symbol of one of the Evangelists at each corner,
thus:.
Angel
Eagle
Christ (alone)
Lion
Bull
Biscop and his colleagues may have seen and
sketched this remarkable sarcophagus at some point during
Biscop’s final journey to Rome in 685, the same year in
which Agilbert died, and it is believed that the Codex
Grandior lacked an introductory illustration for the New
Testament. Remarkably, too, the Christ in Majesty in the
Codex Amiatinus follows the above format used for Agilbert’s
tomb’s Christ in Majesty. Two other “places” where this
format is followed are the Merovingian “Fredegar” manuscript
of 15CE and the Lombard Pemmo Altar at Cividale.
Parallels are often drawn between the Fredegar
Manuscript and the Pemmo altar, hinting at a “similarity of
style”. But does this “similarity” lie only in the fact that
both exhibit a “rounded knee” phenomenon, similar to the
Macdonald’s trademark? This is not a style, merely an
obvious reaction of someone without knowledge of
foreshortening attempting a frontal drawing of a seated
person. To me, Fredegar’s Christ in Majesty resembles that
of Agilbert’s tomb, rather than that of the Pemmo Altar.
But both resemble Eadfrith’s John in the Lindisfarne Gospels
(695-8CE) with its Celtic ancestry. Another interesting
comparison, bearing in mind the Celtic/Eastern links, is the
Cup of Solomon, with its winged horses to either side.
Persian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman art all used winged
figures.
Such winged animals bring us to the evangelist symbols of
winged angel, bull and lion. (Obviously, an eagle has wings
anyway). The eagle, bull and lion symbols on Agilbert’s tomb
are similar to those in the Lindisfarne Gospels – and also
on St Cuthbert’s coffin.
The Codex Amiatinus has either collaborated
with or been influenced by Lindisfarne in its use of both
human and animal symbolism for
its evangelists on the Christ in Majesty page. Sadly “lion”
must have been a mythical beast for the Codex Amiatinus
scribe, who has produced something more similar to a cute -,
flying rabbit. But the Codex Amiatinus has originated
another image, not present on Agilbert’s tomb or Fredegar.
In those, Christ sits alone, but in the Codex Amiatinus he
has an attendant angel on either side. More surprising
still, the angel on the right is bearded. This format would
be repeated elsewhere, thirty years later, at Cividale, on
the Pemmo Altar – which also shows Christ in a mandorla with
two angels, one of whom is bearded. A strange coincidence!
Unlike Northumbrian versions, the Pemmo altar does not use
evangelist symbols. Instead, there are flying angels at each
corner, outside the mandorla. Similarities between the Pemmo
Altar and the Codex Amiatinus may have been overlooked
because the altar format is “landscape” and the Codex
Amiatinus pages are “portrait”. I thus attempted to re-draw
the Codex Amiatinus Christ in Majesty page in “landscape”,
using Matthew’s angel for the top two outside-the-mandorla
angel-figures.
But who was this “Pemmo”, in whose
memory the altar was produced? Well, he was the father of
King Ratchis, founder of the monastery of Santissimo
Salvatore, on Monte Amiata. Small world? Or is there more to
this than just coincidence?
PowerPoint
http://www.florin.ms/MariaAmiata.pptx
A) IL CODEX
GRANDIOR IN NORTHUMBRIA ED I LEGAMI ILLUSTRATIVI TRA LA
BIBBIA AMIATINA E IL VANGELO DI LINDISFARNE
olti credono che la similitudine
tra la figura di Matteo (nel Vangelo di Lindisfarne) ed Ezra
(nel Codice Amiatino) fa riferimento a un manuscritto che ha
un’origine comune. (Si crede essere il Codice Grandior con
un’illustrazione di Cassiodoro il Giovane.) Entrambe le
figure si posano su un cuscino che ricopre uno scabello
decorato. Le parti sotto i due scabelli hanno prospettive
errate, ma in differente direzione, con un angolo di circa
vente gradi di differenza tra loro ( vedi nota 1)
Sia Matteo che Ezra
indossano prevalentemente abiti rossi e verdi e sandali,
hanno capelli grigi, la barba, leggermente curvi sul loro
lavoro, la mano destra con cui tengono la penna, esattamente
nella stessa maniera con entrambe le dita indici dritte. La
mano sinistra tiene un libro. Il ginocchio destro sollevato
a questo scopo per mantenere il libro ed la gamba sinistra
pìu distesa verso fuori. Gli stili artistici differiscono,
tuttavia: il Vangelo di Lindisfarne è illustrativo con una
chiarezza meravigliosa. Il Codice Amiatino riflette un
ritratto tridimensionale. Due diversi modi di espressione
della stessa fonte originale: il Codice Amiatino
probabilmente è una copia diretta e il Vangelo di
Lindisfarne nello stile dell’artista di Lindisfarne
Eadfrith.
Il Codice Amiatino da
l’idea di un punto di fuga all’interno della composizione
dove le linee convergerebbero. Nel Vangelo do Lindisfarne
tuttavia le linee divergono come se portassero fuori
dall’imagine. Forse l’artista Eadfrith notò la discrepanza
con l’originale e il risultato è un compensazione. Eadfrith
allenao nella tradizione celtica non aver precedentemente
considerato la prospettiva del tardo stile classico. Nel
Libro di Kells, per esempio, le figure maschile sono seduti
di fronte all’artista. Solo la Vergine e Bambino ha un
posizione leggermente girata mentre la sua seduta è
bidimensionale, una schema adottato anche da Eadfrith
riferendosi a Luca e Marco. Forse cominciò con Matteo, e poi
ha trovato il fenomeno di una prospettiva confusa che lo
distrasse dal suo lavoro per mancanza di tempo.
Eadfrith
aveva studiato miniatura nelle tradizioni Celtici:
tradizioni usate anche nel Libro di Kells, ed iniziato su
Iona. Il Santo Aidan, fondatore di Lindisdarne si è
trasferito da Ioro per aiutare il suo amico Re Osvaldo.
Osvaldo è cresciuto in esilio su Iona prima di tornare e
restituire il suo regno di Northumbria.
Come sperimento ho
disegnato schizzi di Matteo ed Ezra –
alla stessa misura – e l’ho messo l’uno accanto
all’altro.(figure 4 e 5). Mentre non sono sufficientemente
simili, per aver usato lo stesso stampino o stencil di
tracciamento, la somiglianza è molto vicina per mera
coincidenza.
Poi io ho disegnato lo
schizzo di Luca (Figura 7) che guarda
nella stessa direzione. E’ più curo e il viso guarda più
l’artista, (forse un passo avanti rispetto all’originale?).
Ma il suo sgabello è più alto (forse come quelli usati nel
scriptorium del monastero di Lindisfarne?). Egli usa un
rotolo invece di un libro e il suo dito indice della mano
destra è curvo. Tuttavia sembra pìu tridimensionale di
Matteo. Eadfrith ha forse persuaso un fratello monaco a
modellare la posa della Figura “L” nel
Codice Amiatino.(figura 8)
La figura di Marco fronteggia nelle direzione
apposta. L’ho tracciato, l’ho capovolto, e l’ho fotocopiato
nella stessa dimensione di Ezra. Il risultato è stato
estrememento interessante. Forse Eadfrith è stato in
possesso della stessa abilità degli ambidestri disegnando a
specchio come Leonardo? O ha puntellato l’originale di Ezra
rigirato?
Giovanni
(Figura 19) fatto prima di 698 dopo Cristo, è seduto a vista
di fronte, secondo lo stile celtico che si vede nel Libro di
Kells in Dublino. Eadfrith essendo studente di Sant’ Aidan, sapeva come fare la miniatura in
modo celtico dove le figure sono seduti di fronte. Comunque
nel Codice Amiatino l’unica seduto di fronte è Cristo, nel “Cristo della Maestà (trattato nella
sezione B).
Forse c’era
collaborazione tra i due monasteri di Monkwearmouth/Jarrow e
Lindisfarne. Entrambi il Vangelo di Lindisfarne e il Codice
Amiatino fanno qualcosa di unico a Northumbria, (figure 7,
912) mettendo figure degli evangelisti insieme con i suoi
simboli (animali o angeli), così mischiano tradizioni
celtiche e europee.
Un’ulteriore somiglianza
è l’uso di archi per contenuti ed indici (figure 1415). Ma è forse pratica
standard all’epoca (usato anche più tardi nel Libro di
Kells), come i cerchi erano per i calcoli (figure 40-41).
B) LA MAESTA'
DI CRISTO NELLA BIBBIA AMIATINA E I LONGOBARDI DI
CIVIDALE
orprendentemente
(per noi) durante gli “Anni Bui”(medioevo) c’era una
grande diffusione di viaggi, anche solo considerando
Biscop, Ceolfrith, Columbanus, Wilfrid, Agilbert, Agostino
di Canterbury, Paulinus, Theodore, Willibrord, Willehad,
Willibald, Winfrith……la lista è interminabile. Così si
ebbe anche una grande difusione di “scambi culturali”. Un
esempio può essere l’effetto del Codice Grandior sul
Northumberland. Ci influa fra le varie forme d’arte
(incisione, miniatura, e scrittura di poesia e libri ) si
sarebbero riciclate vecchie mode in nuove forme, proprio
come sono oggi. I monasteri, oltre alla loro funzione
religiosa, furono Università, Case Editrici, gallerie
d’arte, centri di formazione del loro tempo. Forse potremo
considerare Biscop e Ceolfrith come prototipi degli anni
bui per gli accademici della “Small World” di Bradbury,
che tenevano incontri ovunque nel mondo con la stessa
gente interessata alle stesse cose!
Mentre
le figure umane erano (apparentemente) rare negli
illustrazioni, non era la stessa cosa nella scultura. Io
dico apparentemente pensando che il vello (e persino il
legno) non era cose dura come la pietra, specialmente nei
climi freddi e umidi del nord, soggetti
alle razzie dei Vichinghi. Detto ciò, dobbiamo
tenere in mente i quadri su “La Vita di Cristo”, immagini
della vita di S. Paolo ed altri soggetti – compreso Isaaco
che porta la legna per il sacrificio e Mose che tiene su
il serpente nel deserto. Biscop portò questi quadri dal
suo quinto viaggio a Roma. Questi quadri probabilmente
hanno influenzato il lavoro a Jarrow e Monkwearmouth. E
così pure Eadfrith può aver visitato i monasteri di
Monkwearmouth/Jarrow ed essere stato influenzato sia
dall’arte Romana che celtica.
Un esempio di arte ancora
esistente di quell’epoca del Codice Amiatino e il Vangelo
di Lindisfarne è la croce di Ruthwell, che mostra scene
della vita di Cristo insieme con una scena non biblica di
due eremiti del deserto e poesia scritta in rune dal
“Dream of the Rood” (sogno della Croce). Una croce in
pietra cosi avrebbe molte funzioni in una società senza
molte chiese parrocchiali. Erano posti in cui fare
incontri per pregare, studiare la Bibbia, ascoltare omelie
ed una risposta viva allo Spirito Santo. Il tutto in un
simbolo cristiana chiaro.
Altrove
nell’Europa di quell’epoca, ci sono bassirilievi compresi
la tomba di Agilbert a Jouarre e l’altare Pemmo a
Cividale. I loro scultori erano residenti o itineranti,
monaci o laici? Conoscevano o si visitano tra di loro?
Porteranno in giro bozzetti e dipinti o illustrazioni
prodotti in uno scriptorium, o schizzi di affreschi e mosaici visti, come fonte di
materiale delle loro commissioni dato che non sono stati
chiavi di memoria per un computer in quell’epoca. Gli
scultori Northumbriani avevano mecenati, come Hilda o
Ceolfrith o Wilfrid, con una rete di connessioni europee?
Hilda, per esempio, nata e cresciuta come principessa di
Diera (la regione nel sud di Northumbria) è la stessa
abatessa prima di Hartlepool, poi di Whitby. Aveva una
sorella, Hereswith, che rinunciò al matrimonio con
Aethelric di East Anglia per essere una monaca in Gaul
(Francia o Belgio). Lì probabilmente incontrò Theochilde,
badessa di Jouarre, sorella di Agilbert, il vescovo prima
di Winchester e poi di Parigi. Agilbert era alleato di
Wilfrid in 664dc quando stettero al abbazia di Hilda a
Whitby. Agilbert e Wilfrid rappresentavano la Chiesa
Romano Cattolica mentre Colman e Chad rappresentavano la
Chiesa Celtica. Forse Chad e Wilfrid, come ragazzi,
potrebbero essere stati studenti insieme nella scuola di
Aidan, sull’isola di Lindisfarne.
Uno
dei monaci nell’ Abbazia di Hild a Whitby fu Caedmon, che
potrebbe aver scritto la poesia del Sogno della Croce,
trovata in rune sulla Croce di Ruthwell. Ceolfrith
probabilmente era coinvolto ad installare la Croce.
Theochilde,
sorella di Agilbert, morì nel 662 e Agilbert nel 685dc,
entrambi sepolti in sarcofagi di pietra a Jouarre. La
tomba di Agilbert fu ordinata e completata in anticipo
dietro sua richiesta, essa mostra la Maestà di Cristo in
una mandorla con i simboli degli evangelisti agli angoli
(figura 17).
Biscop e colleghi probabilmente
hanno visto e fatto schizzi di questo notevole sarcofago
durante l’ultimo viaggio di Biscop a Roma nel 685 (l’anno
della morte di Agilbert). Certamente il Codice Grandior di
Cassiodorus mancava di un illustrazione introduttiva per il
Nuovo Testamento, e stranamente il Maestà di Cristo nel
Codice Amiatino segue questa stessa non comune
caratteristica della tomba di Agilbert – come si nota anche
nel manuscritto Fredegar, Merovingio del 715 (figura 18) e
l’altare di Pemmo, longobardo, a Cividale. (figura 21)
I parallelli sono spesso fatti
tra il Manuscritto do Fredegar e l’altare di Pemmo e si
menzionano similitudine nelle stile. Penso che questo
similitudine si riferisca al fatto che entrambi esibiscano
il fenomeno della ginocchia in posizione di m maiuscolo, non
uno stile ma una ovvia reazione do qualcuno senza conoscenza
della disegno in prospettiva delle figure che guardano
l’artista di fronte. Il risultato delle ginocchia assomiglia
al marchio commerciale del Macdonald! (che non può dirsi uno
stile).
Per me, il Cristo di Fredegar
assomiglia a quello della tomba di Agilberto piuttosto che a
quello dell’altare di Pemmo a Cividale, ma tutte e due
assomigliano (figura 19) la figura di Giovanni fatta da
Eadfrith a Lindisfarne, che ha le sue radici nell’arte
celtica.
Un altro interessante confronto
(considerando i legami della Chiesa Celtica con l’oriente) è
il Calice di Salamone (Figura 16) con i suoi cavalli alati
ai lati.
Tutte le arti: persiane, greche etrusche e romane usavano le figure alate (nelle figure 22-27)
Gli animali alati ci
riportano ai simboli evangelisti del toro (Luca) leone
(Marco) e ai Vangeli di Lindisfarne. L’aquila, il toro e il
leone di Agilberte somigliano i simboli evangelici di
Eadfrith e a quelli dei frammenti del sarcofago di San
Cuthbert. Tuttavia per l’artista della Maestà di Cristo del
Codice Amiatino il leone era ovviamente una bestia mitica.
Finisce come un carino Roger Rabbit!
Il Codice Amiatino ha
collaborato o è stato influenzato con Lindisfarne nell’uso
dei simboli umani e animali. Ma ha dato luce ad un’altra
immagine. Mentre il Cristo di Agilbert
è solitario, nel Codice Amiatino ha un angelo su
tutti e due lati. Quello a destra ha la barba. Questo
formato fu ripetuto 30 anni dopo – a Cividale, dove l’altare
Pemmo mostra Cristo nella mandorla con due angeli. L’altare Pemmo non usa i simboli
degli evangelisti. Ci sono invece quattro angeli che volano
nei quattro angoli, fuori dalla mandorla. Poiche l’altare di
Pemmo, essendo un altare, e nel formato Landscape e la
Maestà di Cristo nel Codice Amiatino essendo un libro, ha il formato Portrait. Le
similitudini non sono state considerate nel passato.
Io l‘ho ridisegnato come
“landscape” e usato l’angelo simbolo di Matteo nel Codice
Amiatino per le due figure
degli angeli che sono al di sopra. La risulta è figura 20.
Ma
chi era questo Pemmo? Il padre del re Ratchis, fondatore del
monastero del Santissimo Salvatore su Monte Amiata.
Veramente, il mondo è piccolo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADES,
H. “The Book of Kells” (Tara/Paragon: Bath) 1999
BACKHOUSE,J.
“The Lindisfarne Gospels” (British Library: London) 1995
BEDE.
“History of the English Church and People” (Folio
Society:London) 2010
BLAIR, P.H. “An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England” (CUP:
Cambridge) 1960 CORVINI, R. “Abbazia del
Ss Salvatore al Monte Amiata” (Monaci Cisterniensi: Abbazia
S Salvatore) 1982
DOLCINI, L.“La Casula di San Marco Papa” (Opificio di Pietre
Dure: Firenze) 1992
GRAHAM, F. “Northumbrian Castles, The Coast” (Frank Graham:
Newcastle-upon-Tyne)1972
HOLLOWAY, J. “Hilda
and
Caedmon: The Dream of the Rood” 1996
MAKEPEACE, M. http://www.florin.ms/pandect.html
MARYGATE HOUSE PUBLICATIONS (Berwick upon Tweed) 1980
MEYVAERT, P “Bede, Cassiodorus and the Codex Amiatinus” (in
“Speculum”: Cambridge, Mass.) 1996
MUTINELLI, C “Cividale: Guida Breve” (Comune di Cividale)
(n.d.)
OATES, D., TALBOT-RICE, D. “The Dark Ages. The Making of
Western Europe” (Thames and Hudson: London) 1969
PALLOTTINI, M. “Civiltà Artistica Etrusco Italico” (Sansoni:
Firenze)1985
SODINI, S. “Informazioni dalla sua ricerca dell’arte e
archittetura storica di Abbazia Ss Salvatore) 1997
SORDI,
BARBIERI, STEUER, RIPOLI, CHIERICI, GUIDETTI, PENCO, WICKAM.
“I Barbieri in Italia” (Fratelli Melita Editori: Italia)
1992
WEBB, J.F & FARMER, D. “The Age of Bede”
(Penguin:London) 1971
WICKAM, C. “L’Italia nel Primo Medio Evo: 4001000” (Jaca
Book: Milano) 1982
WILLIAMS, A; SMYTH, A.P.; KIRBY, D.P. “A Biographical
Dictionary of Dark Age Britain” (B.A.Seaby: London) 1991
PowerPoint
http://www.florin.ms/MariaAmiata.pptx
Maria Makepeace, LLM, MIfL, BA(Hons) and MA(TM),
Durham; B.Ed (Newcastle); Cert.Ed (Oxford).
THE
CELTIC RELIQUARY AT THE SAN SALVATORE ABBEY,
MONTE AMIATA
The Abbey of San Salvatore at
Monte Akiata was one of the most importent in all of
Italy in the Early Middle Ages, second only to the
Abbey of Montecassino.
The importance of an abbey in
the Middle Ages, was not measured just by its own
wealth and possession but also because it held relics
of saints that were venerated by the faithful and by
pilgrims.
There are more than five
hundred relics at the Abbey of San Salvatore and among
these are the relics of Saint Columbanus, the saint
from Ireland who was one of the greatest missionaries
in western Europe.
The saint's relics are
contained, probably, within one of the most precious
objects present in the Museum of Sacred Art of the
Abbey of San Salvatore: the Scoto-Irish reliquary,
The reliquary came to the Abbey
at the time of its foundation (VIIIth century) or,
more likely, was given to the Abbot Winizzo and the
monks at the consecration of the new curch in 1035.
The reliquary is a house-shaped
box in wood of the VIIIth century, incised with
mosaic and ornamental designs and metallic elements,
which measures 10 centimtres in height, 12 of length
and 5 of depth.
It was found during restoration
work at the Abbey in 1928, in a sack sealed with wax
with the head of an unidentified abbot, within a block
of stone in the high altar.
All the sides of the box are
reinforced with bars of copper and on the back seide
are two fastenings whcih join the bottom part to the
cover. On only one side there is a hinge made of
copper which tied the leather thongs used for carrying
the reliquary around the neck.
On the back side of the box and
on the cover is a grillwork of lead with some small
perns positioned as a cross between the lines and
columns. Finishing that part are three circular bosses formed from
circles of gilded copper with a geometric interlace
motive and a central element in ruby coloured glass.
Ing. Paolo Castrini
Direttore Museo d'Arte Sacra Abbazia San
Salvatore
Via Monastero 42
53021 Abbadia San Salvatore (Si)
Click
on images to enlarge them
Cliccare
per aggrandire le immagini
IL COFANETTO
SCOTO-IRLANDESE A L'ABBAZIA SAN SALVATORE, MONTE
AMIATA
L’Abbazia San Salvatore al
Monte Amiata è stata nell’alto medioevo una delle
abbazie più potenti di tutta l’Italia seconda solo a
Montecassino.
La potenza di un abbazia,
nel medioevo, non si misurava solamente con le proprie
ricchezze ed i propri possedimenti ma anche per la
conservazione delle reliquie dei santi che venivano
venerate dai fedeli e dai pellegrini.
Nell’Abbazia San Salvatore
sono presenti oltre cinquecento reliquie dei santi e tra
queste ci sono le reliquie di San Colombano, santo
irlandese ed uno dei maggiori artefici
dell’evangelizzazione dell’Europa Occidentale.
Le reliquie del santo
sono, probabilmente, contenute all’interno di uno degli
oggetti più preziosi che sono presenti nel Museo d’Arte
Sacra dell’Abbazia San Salvatore: il cofanetto
scoto-irlandese.
Il cofanetto pervenne
all’Abbazia all’epoca della sua fondazione (VIII°
secolo) o con maggior probabilità fu donato all’abate
Winizzo ed ai monaci durante la consacrazione della
nuova chiesa nel 1035.
Il cofanetto è un
reliquiario del secolo VIII° a capanna in legno
cesellato con mosaico e rifiniture ornamentali ed
elementi metallici le cui misure sono contenute, circa
10 cm di altezza, 12 di larghezza e 5 di profondità.
Fu ritrovato , durante i
lavori di restauro dell’Abbazia del 1928, all’interno di
un cippo di pietra rinvenuto nell’altare maggiore dentro
un sacchetto con sigillo in cera il cui timbro evidenzia
il busto di un abate non ancora identificato.
Tutti i lati del cofanetto
sono rinforzati da barrette di rame e nel lato
posteriore sono presenti due cerniere che collegano la
cassetta (parte inferiore) al coperchio (parte
superiore); purtroppo su un solo fianco è presente un
cardine in rame che serviva per fissare la cinghia in
cuoio utilizzata per portare il reliquiario appeso al
collo.
Sulla parte anteriore sia
sulla cassetta, sia sul coperchio, è presente una
griglia in piombo con alcuni piccoli perni posizionati
all’incrocio tra alcune righe e colonne; completano tale
parte tre borchie circolari formate da un bordo di rame
dorato percorso da un motivo ad intreccio geometrico e
con un elemento centrale in vetro rosso-rubino.
Perfeziona l’ornamento del
cofanetto un coronamento longitudinale sul coperchio
realizzato in rame con un intreccio al centro e due
protomi animali arricciate alle due estremità.
Al mondo ci sono pochi
esemplari di cofanetto di questa tipologia e
precisamente nel Museo Vitenskapsmuseet di Trondheim
(Norvegia), nel Museo Nazionale di Copenaghen
(Danimarca), nel Museo Nazionale di Dublino (Irlanda),
nel Museo Nazionale della Scozia di Edimburgo (Regno
Unito) e nel Museum Fine Arts di Boston (USA).
Ing. Paolo Castrini
Direttore Museo d'Arte
Sacra Abbazia San Salvatore
Via Monastero 42
53021
Abbadia San Salvatore (Si)
ANGLO-SAXON
PILGRIMAGES TO ROME IN THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES
AND THE BIRTH OF THE VIA FRANCIGENA
'n these times many English
people, noble and commoner, men and women, officials
and private persons, moved by Divine Love, would come
from Britain to Rome'./1 With these words Paul the
Deacon in his History of the Langobards recalled a
phenomenon from the end of the VII century which left
a profound impression concerning the dimensions of
pilgriamges to Rome on the part of the inhabitants of
England, following the strengthening of ties between
the Papacy of the Anglo-Saxon kings. In the last
decades of the VII century the Chrstianizing of
England was renewed by the sending of a new mission
ton the part of Pope Vitaliian to Canterbury, led by
the monks Theodore and Hadrian, and the foundation of
the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow.
Basically Paul the Deacon was just repeating what Bede
had already written in 730 when he noted how his
fellow nationals, "noble and commoner, lay and
religious, men and women", typically sought together
to attain the Holy Places of the Apostles.
The
two descriptions, one should note, match almost
literally, are strengthened by many other contemporary
observations, that confirm the existence of a noable
influx of pilgrims from England, taking on themselves
the full title of being part of Christendom, through
coming to Rome.
The
initiation of this venerable tradition was given
by the illustrious persons and among them
Anglo-Saxon kings: already the king Ine in 726
"after having governed for thirty three years left
his kingdom
to younger men and took himself to the threshold
of the Apostles". Other kings followed him: in
737, the queen of Wessex, Fridugyth; in 795, the
king of Kent, Eadburgh; in 855,
the king of Wessex, Aethelwulf./3 And in the same
years numerous bishops left memories of their
visits to Rome. Among the first are recorded:
Aldhelm (709) and Forthere (after 739) of
Sherbourne, Daniel of Winchester
(745), Wilfrid (709) and Egbert (766) of York,
Wigbert (814) of Wessex, Wilfred (832)) of
Canterbury,/4 other than those archbishops who had
to go to Rome to receive the pallium from the Pope
of their office, as in 990 would the Canterbury
prelate, Sigeric, who left the most detailed
account of his journey./5
Of the pilgrim abbots there were primarily
those of the important monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow,
which Ceofrith left in 716, dying during his journey at
Langes, without reaching the Pope with the precious gift
of the manuscript that came to be called the Codex
Amiatinus./6
As Bede records, six voyages were made to Rome
by one of the most significant persons in Anglo-Saxon
ecclesiastical history in this period, Benedict Biscop,
noted to have brought back not only many manuscripts, but
also church furnishings and masons capable of constructing
churches in the Roman manner./7
Following the example of kings, bishops and
abbots, "multi Anglorum gentes", many English people,
to use Paul the Deacon's expression, left their
country to come to Rome, feeding that particular
devotion to St Peter that would convince the Roman
Popes to send missions to convert them having chosen
the English as favoured children among the people in
Christendom.
The number of pilgrims
coming from England would also be noted in 747 when Pope
Boniface arote to the Archbishop Cuthbert forbidding women
(mulieres), and nuns (velatae feminae) to make the
pilgrimage to Rome, as many of them lost their chastity,
adding that in some cities in Lombardy, France there were
English prostitutes (meretrix generis Anglorum).
Not only that, witnessing in favour of the
amount of pilgriamges fed from England, is the existence
of a "Schola Saxonum"; documented in the same years
between the Vatican and the Sant'Angelo bridge were the
"Scholae" of the Franks, the Langobards, the Frisians and
the Greeks, which were hospitable institutions each of
which was delegated to care for their people which greatly
contributed to feeding the flow of pilgrims who came to St
Peter's tomb./9 Andassistential structures
which provided services to pilgrims from the British Isles
were born also in other places along the way to Rome, as
indicated in the "xenodochium" at Pavia, noted since 868,
significantly called "Sancta Maria Bretonum", or that at
Vercelli, documented in 1153 as the "Hospitale Scotorum",
or the hospital of St Bridget at Piacenza, which received
pilgrims from Ireland, who, in the Middle Ages, were
called "scoti"./10
The rise of these hospitals reminds us of one of
the effects of the English pilgrimages of the seventh and
eighth centuries: to have contributed to the priviledged
routes for Rome that began to be known as the 'via
francesca" or the 'via francigena", because of their
derivation.
During the two centuries in question Christendom
in the West in fact reformed the infrastructure of the
roads crossing the region and pilgrims played a major role
in determining this. After the fall of the Ancient World
and collapse of the Roman road system with its efficiency
that had allowed it rapid access to Rome, the centre of
the Empire, to which the Provinces were peripheral, there
now began a need to relate the North and the South of Europe,
and among the motives which required this was the movement
of people from great distances that without doubt came
from religious orders. We don't want to say there were not
other reasons in determining the the long distance routes
(for some time now we have overthrown the Henri Pirenne
thesis of a European Christendom closed within itself),
but clearly amongst these it is important to take into
account persons who sought one of the Sacred Places of
Christendom. With the pilgrims there were also at the same
time merchants, or men of rank or ecclesiastical
dignatories, but this is part of another discourse, that
faces difficulties when one wishes to separate medieval
people into diverse categories that never were exclusive.
The road to Rome is distinguished from others
solely of local importance, not only because of character
of road building as much as the existence in place of a
series of infrastructure of the receiving and assisting
type. One journeyed in fact on foot or on horseback or on
a donkey and there was no need for a carriage road, but
only of finding along the route points of assistance and
rest (hospitals, taverns, inns), especially where the road
presented difficulties (at river crossings, obstacles and
mountain crossings).
The densification of such infrastructures along
a designated route determined its fortune: and that was
true of the via Francigena. Not by chance did the
Longabard rulers seek to augment the travellers; they
would found their regal abbeys along the routes that the
pilgrims used, creating their journeys along preferred
lines they chose. Thus was born, among others, in 773, the
Abbey of San Salvatore on Mount Amiata, a point for
controlling traffic, but also a place of assistance for
recuperation from the difficult tract of the road from the
Val d'Orca to the Val di Paglia./11
It
is significant that the Abbey of San Salvatore
preserved for centuries the precious manuscript of the
so-called Codex Amiatinus, tied to the English
pilgrimages. It was a gift for Pope Gregory II that in
718 Ceolfrith, Abbot of the monastery of
Wearmouth-Jarrow, had wanted to present
personally, but was prevented by his death. We hold
neverheless that someone
had carried out
the will of
the Abbot (it is unthinkable that the monk travelled
alone). But how to explain the possession of the
monumental work by the Amiatine abbey, documented
since the beginning of the eleventh century, if it was
destined for others? It was perhaps the fruit of a
"traslazione furtiva", the euphemistic expression that
came to be used for the theft of relics, a frequent
phenomenon in the Middle
Ages (we need not recall in giving examples how the
remains of Saint Foy came to Conques, or those of St
Nicholas to Bari).
I would like to present my hypothesis. We know that
the ancient abbey church of San Salvatore was
reconsecrated following
its rebuilding in the grand form which has come down
to us, that of the crypt./12 The upper church later
rose in great part in the XIV century. Well over
thirteen nave crossing make up in fact the belowground
ambience of the abbey, exceptional for their two
dimensional aspects, for the great variety of
decoration of the capitals of the columns, which
recall the miniatures and the calendars of
pre-Romanesque Eastern
manuscripts, but which with the human figures and
beasts represent even one of the first attempts at
strong plastic relief
in Tuscany.
Now it is not improbable
that precisely on the occasion of the reconstruction of the
abbey the precious manuscript came into the hands of the
monks, either by purchase of the same or in receipt as a
gift, perhaps from the Pope himself. In this way the abbey
would have at its disposition an element to attract pilgrims
who always in numbers came on the via francigena, rather as
like relics of saints' bodies and miraculous images which
came to give so many churches along the route to Rome. And
likewise could the precious manuscript of the Bible, the
sacred book of Christendom, itself be a sacred object.
Renato Stopani
Centro Studi Romei
IL PELLEGRINAGGIO DEGLI
ANGLI A ROMA NEI SECOLI VII E VIII E LA NASCITA DELLA VIA
FRANCIGENA
«
is
temporibus multi Anglorum gentis nobiles et ignobiles, viri
et feminae, duces et privati, Divini Amoris instinctu de
Britannia Romam venire consuerunt»./1 Con queste parole
Paolo Diacono nella sua Historia Langobardorum
ricorda un fenomeno che intorno alla fine del VII secolo
dovette lasciare una profonda impressione per le dimensioni
delle sue manifestazioni: il pellegrinaggio a Roma da parte
degli abitani dell'odierna Inghilterra, che fece seguito
all'intenisficazione dei rapporti tra papato e regni
anglossasoni. Negli ultimi decenni del VII secolo era
infatti ripresa la cristianizzazione dell'Anglia con l'invio
da parte del pontefice Vitalino, di una nuova missione a
Canterbury, guidata dai monaci Teodoro e Adriano, e con la
fondazione del doppio monastero di Wearmouth-Jarrow.
In
fondo Paolo Diacono non fece che ripetere quanto nel 730
aveva scritto Beda/2 quando accennava appunto alla pia
tradizione instauratasi tra i suoi connazionali, per la
quale "nobili e non nobili, laici e religiosi, uomini e
donne solevano tutti competere l'uno con l'altro" per
recarsi ai Luoghi Santi degli Apostoli.
Le due testimonanza che, come si può notare, collimano quasi
letteralmente, sono confortate da moltiplici altre
attestatazioni coeve, che confermano l'esistenza di un
notevole flusso di pellegrini che dall'Inghilterra,
rientrata a pieno titolo a far parte dell "Christinianitas",
si portavano a Roma.
L'avvio alla venerabile tradizione era stato dato da
illustri persnalità e dagli stessi sovrani anglosassoni: già
il re Ine nel 726 "dopo aver governato per trantassette anni
lasciò il suo regno a uomini più giovani e si recò alla
soglia degli Apostoli". Lo seguirono altri sovrani: nel 737
la regina del Wesssex, Fridugyth; nel 795 il re del Kent,
Eadbergh; nell'855 il re di Wessex, Aethelwulf./3 E negli
stessi anni lasciarono memoria del loro viaggio a Roma
numerosi vescovied abati. Tra i primi sono da ricordare:
Aldhelm (709) e Forthere (post 739) di Sherborne, Daniel di
Winchester (745), Wilfrid (709) e Egbert (766) di York,
Wigbert (814) del Wessex, Wulfred (832) di Canterbury,/4
oltre a quegli arcivescoci che recheranno personalmente a
Roma per ricevere dal papa il "pallium" del loro officio
arcivescovile, come nel 990 farà il presule di Canterbury,
Sigeric, che ci ha lasciato la più detagliata memoria
itineraria del suo viaggio./5
Tra
gli abati pellegrini ci furono in primo luogo quelli
dell'importante monastero di Wearmouth-Jarrow, da cui nel
716 si diparti anche quel Ceolfrid che morì durante il
viaggio a Langres, senza arrivare a portare al pontefice il
prezioso dono del manoscritto che sarà poi chiamato la
"Bibbia Amiatina"./6
Come ricorda Beda, ben sei viaggi a Roma furono fatti da uno
dei personaggi più significativi della storia
ecclesiastica anglosassone di questo periodo, Benedict
Biscop, noto per aver sempre riportato al suo ritorno non
solo grandi quantità di codici, ma anche arredi sacri e
maestranze capaci di costruire edifici religioso "more
romano"./7
Sull'esempio dei re, dei vescovi e degli abati "multi
Anglorum gentes", per usare l'espressione di Paolo Diacono,
dal loro paese si mossero per Roma alimentando quella
particolare devozione per San Pietro che farà nascere la
convinzione che i pontefici romani nell'inviare i missionari
a convertitrli avessero scelto gli inglesi come figli
prediletti fra tutti i popolu dell'orbe cristiano.
Il numero dei pellegrini provenienti dall'Anglia dovette
essere invero ragguardevole se nel 747 il pontefice
Bonifacio arriverà a scrivere all'arcivescovo Cuthbert to
proibire alle donne ("mulieres") ed alle suore ("velatae
feminae") di effettuare viaggi a Roma, in quanto molte di
esse "periscono e poche rimangano intatte", aggiungendo che
"ci sono pocchissima città in Lombardia, o in Francia o in
Gallia in non ci sia una prostituita di origine inglese
("meretrix generis Anglorum")./8
Non solo, testimonia a favore della consistenza della
corrente di pellegrinaggio alimentata dall'Anglia,
l'esistenza a Roma di una "Schola Saxonum", documentata
negli stessi anni in cui tra il Vaticano e il Ponte
Sant'Angelo erano sorte le "Scholae" dei Franchi, dei
Longabardi, dei Frisoni e dei Greci, cioè quelle istituzioni
ospitaliere ciascuna delle quali era deputata all'assistenza
di ognuno dei popoli che maggiormente contribuivano ad
alimentare il flusso dei pellegrini che giungevano alla
tomba di San Pietro./9 E strutture assistenziali che
prestavano i loro servizi a pellegrini provienienti dalle
isole britanniche nacquero anche in altre località sulla via
per Roma, come sembra indicare lo "xenodochium" di Pavia,
ricordato sin dall'868, significativamente chiamato "Sancta
Maria Bretonum", o quello di Vercelli, documentato dal 1163
come "Hospitale Scotorum", oppure lo spedale di Santa
Brigida a Piacenza, che accoglieva i pellegrini irlandesi, i
quali, come si sa, nel medioevo erano chiamati anch'esse
"scoti"./10
Il sorgere degli spedali ci richiama ad uno degli effetti
che ebbe il pellegrinaggio degli Angli nei secoli VII e VII:
aver contribuito a far nascere quella direttrice viaria
privilegiata per Roma che di lì a poco comincerà ad essere
denominata "via Francesca" o "via Francigena", a motivo
della sua provenienza.
Nei
due secoli in questione ripresero infatti nell'Occidente
cristiana le comunicazioni stradali a orizzonti
sovraregionali, e i pellegrini svolsero ai riguardo un ruolo
determinante. Dopo il tracollo del Mondo Antico e il venir
meno del sistema stradale romano con la sua efficienza che
consentiva di collegare in tempi rapidi Roma, centro
dell'Impero, con le Province più periferiche, di nuovo si
cominciò a sentire l'esigenza di rapporti tra il Nord e il
Sud d'Europa, e tra le motivazioni che sollecitarono gli
spostamenti delle persone per grandi distanza è fuor di
dubbio che prevalsero quelle d'ordine religioso. Non
vogliamo asserire che siano state assenti altre ragioni nel
determinare i viaggi ad ampio raggio (è da tempo superata la
tesi del Pirenne di un Europa cristiaa chiusa entro i suoi
confini), ma è certo che non di rado coloro che
intraprendervano essere persone che si ricavano ad uno dei
"loci sacra" della Cristianità. Che poi i pellegrini fossero
nel contempo anche mercanti, o uomini di rango, o dignitari
ecclesiastici, questo fa parte di un altro discorso, che
rientra nella difficoltà che s'incontra quando si voglia
separare nell'uomo del medioevo le diverse categorie, che
non furono ma esclusive.
Il percorso per Roma, che poi proseguiva per il Santuario di
San Michele Arcangelo sul Gargano (altra grande meta del
pellegrinaggio altomedievale), e per i porti della Puglia,
punti d'imbarco per la Terrasanta, prese corpo proprio sotto
la spinta dei "viatores" che si muovevano sollecitati dalla
volontà di visitare i principali Luoghi Santi del mondo
cristiano.
L'itinerario fu il risultato di una sorta di "collage" fra
tratti di antiche consolari rimasti andora in uso, almeno
come direttrici viarie, e nuovi tracciati, come era ad
esempio il percorso toscano, rappresentato da quella via di
Montebardone che si era venuta formando per le necessità dei
longobardi di raccordare le due parti del loro "Regnum"
tenendosi lontani dalle aree troppo prossime ai territori
rimasti in mano bizantina.
La via per Roma si distinguerà dai percorsi di importanza
solo locale, non tanto per i caratteri del manufatto strada,
quanto er l'esistenza luogo il tragitto di tutta una serie
di infrastrutture di tipo ricettivo e assistenziale. Si
viaggiava infatti a piedi o a dorso di cavallo (o di asino),
e non vi era l'esigenza di disporre di strade carreggiabili,
ma soltanto quella di trovare lungo l'itinerario punti di
assistenza e di ristoro (spedali, osterie, alberghi), specie
ove il cammino presentava difficoltà (attraversamento di
fiumi e di aree palestri, superamento di valichi montani).
L'addensarsi
di tali infrasstrutture lungo un determinato percorso ne
determinera la fortuna: e quello che avenne per la via
Francigena. Non a caso i sovrani longobardi, sollecitati
dall'aumento dei transiti, fonderanno lungo il traddiato che
i pellegrini andavano creando con il loro passaggio nella
linea preferenziale scelta, le loro abbazie regie. Nacque
così, tra le altre, nel 773, l'abbazia di San Salvatore sul
monte Amiata, punto di controllo dei transiti, ma anche
luogo di assistenza di ricovero nel difficile tratto della
via tra la val d'Orca e la val di Paglia./11
Significativamente
ad Abbadia San Salvatore si conserva per secoli il pregevole
manoscritto della cosidetta "Bibbia Amiatina". legato al
pellegrinagio degli Angli. Era un dono per il pontefice
Grregorio II che nel 716 Ceolfrid, abate del monastero di
Wearmouth-Jarrow, avrebbe voluto consegnare personalmente,
se non fosse intervenuta la sua morte. Riteniamo comunque
che qualcuno abbia portato a compimnto la volontà dell'abate
(non è infatti pensabile ch il religioso viaggiasse da
solo). Ma come spiegare il possesso della monumentale opera
da parte dell'abbazia amiatina, documentato fin all'inizio
dell'XI secolo, se essa era destinata ad altri? Fu forse il
frutto di una "traslazione furtiva", eufemistica espressione
che viene usata per i furti delle reliquie, fenomeno
abbastanza frequente nel medioevo? (non importa ricordare,
tanto per fare defli esempi, come giunsero a Conques i resti
di Sainte-Foy, oppure come nacque a Bari il culto per San
Nicola).
Vorrei
al riguardo esprimere una mia ipotesi. Sappiamo che l'antica
chiesa abbaziale di San Salvatore fu riconsacrata in
conseguenza della sua ricostruzione in quelle forme
grandiose delle quali da testimonianza il principlae residuo
a noi giunto (la cripta),/12 la chiesa superiore risalende
in gran parte al XIV secolo. Ben tredici navatele compongono
infatti l'ambiente sottoterraneaotriabsidato dell'abbazia,
eccezionale, oltre che per le due dimensioni, per la grande
varietà di decorazioni del capitelli delle colonne, che ci
ricordano le miniature e i calendari dei codici preromanici
dell'Oriente, ma che con le loro figurazioni umane e
bestiali rappresentano anche uno dei primi tentativi di
plastica a forte rilievo realizzati in Toscana.
Ora non è improbabile che proprio in occasione della
ricostruzione dell'abbazia il prezioso codice sia pervenuto
in mano dei monaci, o per acquisto dello stesso o perchè
ricevuto in dono, forse dallo stesso pontefice. In tal modo
l'abbazia venne a disporre di un elemento di attrazione per
i pellegrini che sempre più numerosi transitavano per la via
francigena, un po' come erano per le relique, i Corpi Santi
e i simulacri miracolosi di cui si andavano dotando tante
chiese lungo il prcorso per Roma. E tale potava essere il
prezioso manoscritto della Bibbia, il sacro libro della
Cristianità, esso stesso un oggetto sacro.
Renato Stopani
Centro Studi Romei
NOTE
1 PAOLO DIACONO, Historia langobardorum. Libro VI,
capitolo 3 (a cura di L. CAPO), Fondazione Lorenzo Valla,
Milano:Mondadori, 1993.
2 BEDA, Ecclesiastical History of the English People,
trad. di J. CìMcClure, R. Collins, Oxford, 1994.
3
L'elenco è tratto dal saggio di J.L. NELSON, "Viaggiatori,
pellegrinie vie commerciali", in Il futuro di
Longobardi:ì. L'Italia e la costruzione dell'Europa di
Carlo Magno (a cura di C. Bertelli e G.P.
Brogiolo), Milano:Skira, 2000, p. 164.
4 Ibid.
5 W. STUBBS (a cura di), Adventus archiepiscopi
nostri Sigrici ad Romam: Rerum Britannicarum Medii
Aevii Scriptors, LXIII, cap. VII, pp. 391-399
6 M.B. Parkes, The Scriptures of Wearmouth-Jarrow,
in Jarrow Lectures, Jarro, 1982.
7 BEDA, Vita Abb, I, edizione a cura di C. PLUMMER,
Oxford, 1896, pp. 367-373.
8 BONIFACIO, Epistulae 78, trad. di C.H. Talbot, in The
English Missionaries in Germany, London, 1954.
9 M. ARMELLINI, Le chiese di Roma dal secolo VI al
XIX, ediziome a cura di C. Cecchelli, Roma,1942.
10
G.C BASCAPE, Le vie dei pellegrinaggi medievali
attraverso le Alpi Centrali e la pianura lombarda,
Milano, 1937, e R. STOPANI (a cura di), La via
Francigena in Lombardia. Storia e cultura di una strada
medievale, Firenze: Centro Studi Romei, 1998.
11 Sulla fondazione dei monasteri regi e dell'abbazia di San
Salvatore sul monte Amiata vedi W KURZE, La via Francigena
nel periodo longobardo, in Passent la terre, Toscane et
Montbardon, De strata Francigena. Studi e riceerche
sulle vie di pellegrinaggio del medioevo, Firenze: Centro
Studi Romei, 1998 (VI/1), pp. 29-37.
12 La riconsacrazione dell'abbazia rinnovata avvenne il 13
novembre 1036, alla presenza di ben diciotto tra vescovi e
cardinali, tra cui il patriarca di Aquileia. La notizia è
riportata da P.F. KEHR, Italia Pontificia. Regista
Pontificum Romanorum, III, p. 237, Berlin, 1913.
s early as in the fourth century, before
Jerome in Rome and Bethlehem, Bishop Wulfila from
Bulgaria translated the Bible and converted the Goths.
And then, as if in a parallel universe to the explosion
of Biblical sharing in Ireland and Northumbria in the
seventh and eighth centuries, the Slavic world was also
exploding with the energy from Cyril and Methodius'
ninth century work, first with their studying Masoretic
Hebrew with its added vocalization, in the Crimea, which
made it possible for non-Hebrew readers such as the
Khazars, to read the Bible, where Jewish Biblical
scholars borrowed from the vocalizing technology of the
Arabic alphabet that had led to the rapid spread of
Islam. In Rome the two saints next developed the
Glagolitic alphabet adapted to the Slavic languages.
Again it is Bulgaria that plays a great part in the
early Glagolitic manuscripts and their precarious
preservation, this period resulting in the Golden Age of
literacy and the Bible in the Baltic, becoming Cyrillic
with the amalgamation with Byzantine Greek, as had the
abbeys of Whitby, Lindisfarne and Wearmouth Jarrow
caused a Golden Age in Nortumbria. Then Northumbrian
manuscripts were subjected to destruction by the Vikings
and the Reformation, as were Bulgarian manuscripts by
the Ottoman Turks. Common to these explosions is the
making available of the sacred text even in the
languages of children and women and slaves, their
democratization, as in Christ's actions in the Gospel.
Tatiana Nikolova-Houston, Ph. D. in Library
Information Science at the University of Texas,
Austin, has worked to preserve the HACI collection of
priceless manuscripts,
including glogolitic Bibles, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
MEDIEVAL BECOMES MODERN:
PRESERVATION, ACCESS, AND INCREASING
THE VISIBILITY OF SLAVIC MANUSCRIPTS
For
video of presentation click here
he collapse of the Soviet regime allowed
Bulgarian libraries to provide worldwide access to their
medieval manuscript heritage, but it left them without
financial resources. This paper relates the author's
collaboration with the Historical and Church Institute
in Sofia, Bulgaria, to preserve and provide access to
1,500 manuscripts, thanks to the generous support of the
Order of St. Ignatius.
The paper also presents the intellectual value of the
Slavic manuscripts as part of our Orthodox cultural and
historical heritage through the marginalia inscribed in
those manuscripts as one of the most important
historical sources about the history of book production
and, more so, the daily lives and concerns of the
inscribers. South Slavic manuscript texts, images, and
marginalia convey invaluable historical information
about political, social, religious, economic, and
environmental conditions under the Ottoman Empire.
Finally, the author discloses her experience in
reproducing and introducing manuscript decorations to
Western audiences. By doing so, the illuminations have
received additional visibility, becoming part of our
modern lives.
See also
http://www.florin.ms/SlavicManuscripts.ppt
https://web.archive.org/web/20040604143747/http://www.ischool.utexas.edu:80/~slavman/
https://digitalcommons.kent.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=acir
ll'inizio del quarto secolo
Wulfila in Bulgaria tradusse la bibbia e convertì I Goti.
Allora, come in un universo parallelo rispetto alla
fioritura di condivisione
biblica in Irlanda e Nortumbria del settimo e ottavo
secolo, anche il mondo slavo esplose con l'energia del lavoro di Cirillo e Metodio
risalente al nono secolo: questi dapprima studiarono in Crimea l'ebraico masoretico
con l'aggiunta vocalica; ciò rese possibile leggere la
bibbia a lettori non ebrei come i Kazari. Gli studiosi
biblici ebrei avevano preso a prestito la tecnologia
vocalizzante dell'alfabeto arabo, che aveva portato alla
rapida diffusione dell'Islam. A
Roma I due santi svilupparono
poi l'alfabeto glacolitico adattato alle lingue slave. Di
nuovo è la Bulgaria che gioca un importante ruolo nella
produzione dei primi manoscritti glacolitici e la loro
precaria conservazione; questo periodo risultò nell'età
d'oro dell'alfabetizzazione e della bibbia nel Baltico e
l'amalgama col greco bizantino dette
il Cirillico, così come le
abbazie di Whitby, Lindisfarne e Wearmouth/Jarrow dettero
inizio a un'età dell'oro in Nortumbria. In seguito i
manoscritti nortumbrici subirono la distruzione ad opera
dei Vichinghi e della Riforma, così come i manoscritti
bulgari per mano dei Turchi Ottomani. Queste fioriture
hanno in comune il fatto di rendere disponibile il testo
sacro anche nelle lingue dei bambini, delle donne e degli
schiavi, ovvero la loro democratizzazione, riflettendo le
azioni di Cristo nel Vangelo.
Tatiana Nikolova-Houston, Ph. D. in Library Information
Science (Scienza dell'informazione libraria)
all'università del Texas, Austin, ha lavorato per conservare
preziose raccolte di manoscritti bulgari a Sofia.
IL MEDIEVALE DIVENTA MODERNO:
COME
CONSERVARE, ACCEDERE AI MANOSCRITTI SLAVI, E AUMENTARNE LA
VISIBILITA'
l
crollo del regime sovietico permise alle biblioteche bulgare
di provvedere l'accesso in tutto il mondo al suo retaggio di
manoscritti medievali, ma le lasciò senza risorse
finanziarie. Questo contributo riferisce della
collaborazione tra l'autore e l'Istituto Storico ed
Ecclesiastico di Sofia, Bulgaria, per conservare e dare
accesso a 1500 manoscritti, grazie al generoso supporto
dell'Ordine di Sant'Ignazio.
Il
contributo presenta anche il valore intellettuale dei
manoscritti slavi come parte del nostro patrimonio culturale e
storico ortodosso attraverso i marginalia (annotazioni
in margine) che si trovano in questi manoscritti; queste
annotazioni sono una delle più
importanti fonti storiche per la storia della produzione
libraria e, ancor di più, per le vite quotidiane e gli
interessi di coloro che le hanno scritte. Il testo dei
manoscritti slavi meridionali, le immagini e i marginalia
trasmettono informazioni storiche importantissime sulle
condizioni politiche, sociali, religiose, economiche e
ambientali sotto l'impero ottomano.
In
fine l'autore mostra a un
pubblico occidentale la sua esperienza nel riprodurre e
introdurre decorazioni nei manoscritti; ciò getta ulteriore
visibilità sulle miniature, che diventano parte della nostra
vita moderna.
La sua presentazione si trova a:
VideoTatianaNikolovaHouston
http://www.florin.ms/SlavicManuscripts.ppt
https://web.archive.org/web/20040604143747/http://www.ischool.utexas.edu:80/~slavman/
https://digitalcommons.kent.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=acir
Tatiana and the reliquary cupboard with the relic of St
Cuthbert
MONTE AMIATA
Photographs, Tatiana Nikolova-Houston
BOOK REVIEWS:
Martin McNamara. The Psalms in the Early Irish Church.
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000. 492 p., indices.
ISBN 1-85075-925-4.
hen I was an
Anglican novice in a Sussex convent I found a series of
conferences for novices taken down as notes in a manuscript
and was touched by a statement that Jesus gave two most
precious gifts, apart from Himself, the Lord's Prayer and the
Psalter. I also found a Psalter and a Bible in Hebrew in their
library, as well as books for teaching oneself Hebrew and a
Hebrew prayer book and so learned that monasticism continues
the Hebrew prayers with the Psalter, as before Christ, as in
the presence of Christ, and in the centuries and now two
millennia after Christ. The Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks
studied, copied and daily used Bibles and Psalters, travelling
with these as pilgrims in their satchels, even to continuing
the same Psalms in the morning and evening Offices of Prayer
as do Jews.
Martin McNamara gathers into the pages of one book a series of
essays he has written on the early Irish use of the Psalms and
their commentaries, glosses and headings, from both Irish
manuscripts at home and abroad and as well manuscripts in the
other British island and on the Continent. He discusses the
two forms of the Psalter that prevailed in Irish usage, the
Gallicanum, Jerome's initial translation from the Greek, and
his Hebraicum, his later translation from the Hebrew, of which
the first is still the general usage in he Roman liturgy. He
notes the scribal comparison of the two versions through using
obeli and asterisks in the manuscripts, for instance in the
Gallicanum Cathach, these symbols comparing and contrasting it
to the Hebraicum. He also discusses the two strands of
commentaries, one deriving from Antioch, through Diodorus of
Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, translated into Latin in
Julian's Epitome, which concentrates on the literal,
historical reading of the psalm reading, one of the present,
combined with another, of the future, of two histories, with a
further reading, the Alexandrian allegoresis (by way of Philo
and Origen through Augustine and Cassiodorus), becoming
mixed in a specifically Irish fourfold exegesis, of the Psalms
as Davidic, as of two histories, while foreshadowing Christ,
and the moral reading. His findings are like those of Auerbach
with Dante, of allegory as having first the literal base,
being incarnational. While Frederic Jameson in his essay,
'Metacommentary', PMLA 86 (1971),
9-17, reads
the Christian fourfold exegesis, as the combining of
cultures, Hebraic and Hellenic. The level of learning
so far from Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria,
is astounding, both in these early centuries and in
Martin McNamara's research amongst manuscripts today.
For the scope of this conference it would be best to
first read his esssay, 'The Psalter in Irish Monastic
Spirituality', pages 353-377, which discusses the
education of the child with the Psalter and its Three
Fifties, as in the Springmount Bog wax tablets, best
epitomized in the endearing poem a scholar monk
addresses the tattered Psalter he has found that he
had had when seven years old, as his virgin bride, the
Irish acquaintance with Greek and Hebrew, and the rich
liturgical life of prayer through the Psalter's daily
recitation. Using the 'Index of Manuscripts',
particularly look up references to the Anglo-Saxon Codex
Amiatinus in Florence's Biblioteca Laurenziana,
with its Irish Hebraicum version of the Psalms,
Cassiodorus' Psalm Commentary in Durham's Cathedral
Library, the Double Psalter of St Oen, with its facing
page Gallicanum and Hebraicum versions of the Psalms,
and the Vatican, Pal. lat. 68 manuscript with both Old
Irish and Old English glosses, produced in Northumbria
in a mixed Celtic and Anglo-Saxon monastic community.
Julia Bolton Holloway
25 August 2018
Martin McNamara's City and Book I,
2001, notes:
PSALTER TEXTS IN IRELAND
Presumably the first Psalter Texts to be taken
to Ireland were Old Latin. No Irish Old Latin
Psalter text has survived.
The Irish Psalter par excellence was the
Gallicanum, used from the late sixth or early
seventh century (the CATHACH ) onwards. Two
Irish texts are used in the Benedictine
critical edition of the Gallicanum of Jerome
(the CATHACH , siglum C, and Double Psalter of
St Ouen (Rouen, Bibl. mun. 24 [A. 41]; siglum
I).
Jerome's Hebraicum was well known in Ireland
from a very early age (5th-6th cent.?). There
is in fact an Irish family (sub-group) of the
Hebraicum, represented by the MSS AKI
(AMIATINUS, Karlsruhe, Landesbibl. Aug.
XXXVIII) and the Double Psalter of St Ouen
(Rouen, Bibl. mun. 24 (A. 41). The purest
representative of the group is I; A and K are
already corrupt. This Irish family is
characterised by certain omissions (single
words, phrases) and other smaller errors. The
Hebraicum is well represented in Irish Psalter
MSS.
The CATHACH of St Columba
i. The purpose of the obeli
and the asterisks in the CATHACH; evidence of
correction of a Gallican against a Hebraicum
text, and against a specifically Irish
Hebraicum text. Consequences re dating: a date
ca. 600 too early?
ii. The Psalm Headings in
the CATHACH; in red; Christological; purpose;
relation of many to the Glossa Psalmorum ex
traditione seniorum; ca. 600; South-west
France. Bearing on dating of the CATHACH?
COPY OF COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY
CASSIODORUS (A.D. 800-850)
MS: Laon, Bibliothèque municipale 26 (with
Irish glosses).
Edition of Irish glosses: K. Meyer, 'Neu
aufgefundene altirische Glossen', ZCP 8
(1912), pp 175176; edition of Cassiodorus's
commentary: M. Adriaen, Magni Aurelii
Cassiodori expositio psalmorum (CCSL 97-98;
Turnhout: Brepols, 1958) (critical edition
with introduction).
Studies: M. Adriaen, Magni Aurelii Cassiodori
(on Cassiodorus and his commentary); Kenney,
Sources, p. 666 (no. 517).
ST COLUMBA OF IONA, ST FINNIAN AND ST FREDIANO
OF LUCCA
Jerome's Revision: The Vulgate Text in Ireland
A text of the Vulgate seems to have reached
Ireland at an early date. A tradition given by
Manus O'Donnell in his Life of Columba
(1532) tells how the young Colum Cille
(520/522-597) visited Finnian (Findéin) of
Druim Finn (Droma Findi; = Dromin, Co. Louth)
and borrowed a book from him which he copied
without the owner's permission. This led to
the famed judgment of Diarmuid O Cerbal, King
of Erin at Tara, on the matter: " To every cow
her young cow (le gach boin a boinin), that is
her calf, and to every book its transcript"
(le gach lebhur a leabran). Finnian of Dromin
may have been the Finnian of Moville, one of
Columcille's teachers. Although Manus Ó
Donnell says that the book in question was the
Psalter known as the CATHACH , it is possible
that it was a copy of the Four Gospels
recently brought from Italy to Ireland by, or
for, Finnian of Moville, who died in 579 or
580, under whom Columcille is said to have
studied as a youth. (Columba went to Iona in
563 or 565.)
There
is a tradition that Finnian went to Rome and
brought back to Ireland a copy of the Gospels,
presumably of Jerome's new (Vulgate) revision.
There is confusion among Irish hagiographers
as to the identity of the persons variously
named Vinnio, Finnio, Finnian, Findbar. Colum
Cille's tutor Finnio (Finnian) has been
identified with Finnian of Druim-Finn, and
later with Frediano, bishop of Lucca in Italy,
a historical personage mentioned and praised
by St Gregory the Great. This identification
has led to the introduction into the Life of
Frediano of Lucca, and thereby preserving,
anecdotes from the Life of the Irishman
Finnian. despite the confusion in the evidence
and the uncertainties, modern scholars accept
as possible that Finnian (of Moville) may have
introduced into Ireland one of the first
copies of Jerome's revision of the Gospels,
later to be known as the Vulgate.
Giovanni Villani, Cronica I.xlix, 'La
citta` di Lucca ebbe in prime nome Fridia, e chi
dice Aringa; ma perche` prima si converti` alla
vera fede di Cristo che citta` di Toscana, e
prima ricevette vescovo, cio` fu Santo Fridiano,
. . . e per lo detto Santo prima fu luce di
Fede, si` fu rimosse il primo nome e chiamata
Luce, e oggi per lo coretto vulgare si chiama
Lucca'.
Giovanni Villani, Chronicle, XIV
Century: 'The city of Lucca was first called
Fridia, which means 'herring', but because it
was the first city in Tuscany to convert to the
true faith of Christ, and the first to receive
the bishop, who was St Fridiano . . . and
through this said saint the first to have the
light of faith, its earlier name was done away
with and it was called 'Light', and today in
common parlance is called Lucca'.
An Insular
Odyssey. Manuscript Culture in Early Christian Ireland
and Beyond. Rachel Moss, Felicity O’Mahoney &
Jane Maxwell, editors. Four Courts Press, Dublin 2017.
24 cm. 334 p. ill., index, €55,00. ISBN 9781-84682-633-7
his beautiful and informative book is to be
highly prized. Written to honour the retiring Keeper
of Manuscripts of Trinity College Library, Bernard
Meehan, it is a multi-faceted collection of essays
which throughout demonstrates his collegiality and
generosity of knowledge. It is profusely illustrated
in colour, though one could wish it had been printed
on Fabriano ivory Palatino which takes colour well,
with less weight and without a glossy reflecting
coating. Even internally one finds a comment on vellum
as matte and deliberately used as such amidst
contrasting glossy pigments, pp.150154, which
photographic reproductions fail to present. The book
begins with the Book of Kells (Dublin, TCD
58), in the days when that manuscript was viewed in
Trinity College’s Long Library beneath green velvet, a
page turned each day, and ends with the Lindisfarne
Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero
D IV), first in the British Museum, sometimes also
under velvet, and then in the new British Library, and
it describes the coming together in 1961 of the two
magnificent manuscripts side by side at the Royal
Academy.
After the Introductions we first come to Michelle P.
Brown’s essay on the stories of manuscripts being a
blend of hagiography and history, in which she
discusses the thaumaturgical volumes, the book
shrines, book satchels, belts and bells, and their
hereditary possession by Irish families, the Book
of Armagh (TCD 52) found with the dead body of
its keeper on the Battle against the Norman invaders
at Downpatrick. She notes the relation of the Book to
the Body of Christ, flesh made Word in a sacred
paleography that reached from the Orient to Ireland,
the book held in hands draped in cloth, as relic, as
icon, in relation to saints.
Mark Stansbury’s essay on the Usserianus Primus
(TCD 55) is heavily paleographical. It notes that with
the gradual knowledge of the script of the Springmount
Bog wax tablets (Dublin, National Museum of Ireland)
it could be seen that cursive-influenced Italian
script was making its way to Ireland. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
takes issue with Yitzhak Hen’s insistence on
Anglo-Saxon and not Irish influence on the Echternach
liturgical fragments (Paris, BNF lat. 9488), noting
the monastery was founded by Irish Rath
Melsigi-trained Willibrord whose band included Irish
and Anglo-Saxon followers, while he transcribes the
fragments and notes the rich variety of Irish
liturgical practices.
Denis Casey discusses the obtaining of skins for the
vellum of the Book of Kells revising earlier
estimates and concludes that Iona would not have had
the necessary acreage for the cattle, while the
hierarchical use of land by kings and religious houses
around Kells would have been sufficient for its
production. John Gillis and Bernard Meehan note that
the Book of Dimma (TCD59)’s production for the
first three Gospels differs from that for John, by
examining the original Coptic sewings of the bindings,
noting that one restoration had to be undone in order
to read the text fully, that it had been nailed shut,
and that the various colophons attributing the
manuscript to Dianchride are likely additions. Susie
Bioletti and Allyson Smith use modern spectography to
discern what pigments were used, finding these to be
orpiment, red lead, iron oxide, indigo, vergaut, iron
gall, malachite, hematite and gypsum adding to earlier
work so that now all seven of Trinity College Dublin’s
earliest Insular manuscripts have been analyzed (TCD
52, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60), all the pigments save
orpiment available in Ireland. Paul Mullarkey finds
similar use of pigments by goldsmiths, illuminators
and scribes and carefully analyzes Irish artefacts and
their relationships to manuscript ornamentation,
suggesting the possibility of their being created in
some cases by the same person working as scribe and as
goldsmith. He mentions that the Irish High Crosses
would originally have been painted and that all this
art needed was a straight edge and a compass.
Heather Pulliam’s essay demonstrates the special
effects of Insular illuminations in their interlacing
with the description of Moses’ Tabernacle, as with the
double page spread in the Codex Amiatinus
(Florence, Laurentian Library, Amiatino 1), the
juxtaposition of vibrating colours, the use of optical
illusions, as in the knotwork, the collapsing of time
as in the ‘Dream of the Rood’, the already mentioned
deliberate use of blank matte vellum in the midst of
prepared colour patterns, the playing with the frame,
also the playing with scriptural numbers, as in Bede.
Dominique Barbet-Massin discusses the circular drawing
in the Book of Mulling (TCD 60) and the Fleury
Prayer Book (Orléans, Bibliothèque municipal, 184), in
order to consider its liturgical use as a lorica or
litany rather than as mapping a monastery with its
surrounding High Crosses.
Throughout the volume we have been finding links with
the Continent, for instance in the previous essay with
the Irish Virgil of Salzburg. Carol A. Farr’s essay
now discusses three leaves of the St Gallen Irish
fragments (Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 51 &
1395), seen paleographically in relation to such
manuscripts as the eighth-century Fadden More
Psalter (Dublin, National Museum of Ireland)
found in a peat bog and the Johannine sections of the
Book of Mulling (TCD 60), the Book of Dimma
(TCD 59), the Stowe St John and the Stowe Missal
(Dublin, Royal Irish Academy D ii 3), as well as
others. She also comments on the depiction of book
covers with tabs and buttons like the Fadden More
Psalter, and footwear often seen in Insular
illuminations, contrary to the Gospel text and
observance outside the British Isles. Her essay next
intertwines with that of Colleen M. Thomas, who
discusses monastic shoes (not barefoot or sandalled as
elsewhere), particularly in pocket Gospels, as well as
tonsure, cowl and dress.
William Endres discusses the liturgical psalm 69.2,
and the illustrations to the second Eusebian
cross-referencing canon table in the Book of Kells,
deriving from Coptic practice and reaching Ireland
through Cassian’s teaching and Benedictine practice,
going on to speak of Bede’s De Templo as
interlaced with psalms. Felicity O’Mahoney uses
Gombrich’s ‘God is in Detail’ in the title to her
essay on two magnificent Kells folios. She
discusses the figures opposite the Virgin and Child,
folio 8r, and adds two more vocabulary words to the
colour pallet, madder and woad. She next discusses the
Four Rivers of Paradise of folio 130r in relation to
Mark’s incipit on the Baptism of Christ and its use of
the Physiologus.
Francis Newton and Robert G. Babcock discuss Irish
book-binding fragments discovered by Hartmut Hoffmann
in Berlin (Dahlem, Geheimes Staatsarchiv
XXHA_HS_Nr84_71a-b-c), that are similar to the script
in the Book of Kells. Rachel Moss discusses
the mysteries of the Garland of Howth (TCD
56), its provenance, its dating, its iconography, and
the legend, as with other manuscripts, of it having
been submersed in the sea. She concludes it may be
eleventh century and with Viking elements. Timothy
O’Neill tackles the development of initials in Irish
manuscripts over a thousand years, those of the
Cathach (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy D ii 3) being
almost the earliest.
The final essay by Claire Breay chronicles the
museology of the Lindisfarne Gospels, at first
of little interest save for its scriptural text, then
coming to be admired for its marvellous illuminations.
The volume has an Index of manuscripts and a general
index where the figure numbers are bolded. Concerning
the title nowhere are mentioned its oxymoron nor that
there is an Old Irish retelling /wandering of the
ancient Greek tale, the Merugud Uilix maicc
Leirtis, edited by Kuno Mayer in 1886, nor that
James Joyce, especially in the Ulysses Library
chapter plays with the figure of Richard Best. I found
the volume of the greatest use while preparing a
lecture for Monte Amiata on St Cuthbert and the Codex
Amiatinus.
Julia Bolton Holloway
24 July 2018
And then there is this splendid review of a book on
Cassiodorus:
Olsen, Derek A. The
Honey of Souls: Cassiodorus and the Interpretation
of the Psalms in the Early Medieval West.
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017. Pp. xii,
313. $32.44. ISBN: 978-0-8146-8414-6.
Reviewed by
Ann W. Astell
University of Notre Dame
Derek Olsen's Honey of
Souls is notable both for its content and for
its approach. It is the first book-length study of
Cassiodorus's Explanation of the Psalms, a
text of monumental importance for the Middle Ages. It
is also something rare and refreshing: a specialized
study expressly written for non-specialists.
In his commitment to taking
a broad, pedagogical approach to Cassiodorus's great
work, Olsen imbibes and exudes the spirit of
Cassiodorus himself, who wrote his commentary on the
Psalms precisely as a textbook that proved to be
foundational for the learning of literacy. "This is
the book," Olsen argues, "that taught the Middle Ages
how to read" (ix).
At present, when Medieval
Studies as an interdisciplinary field has become
increasingly specialized, Olsen's book provides a
model for how a single work might be approached within
a broad context from multiple angles: historical,
paleographic, codicological, doctrinal, liturgical,
literary, and pedagogical. Olsen presumes little prior
knowledge on the part of his readers: he takes pains
to define terms, to provide digital illustrations, and
to select memorable and clear examples; he patiently
explains the difference between the Vulgate and the
NRSV numbering of the psalms; he points to key works
of previous scholarship, while keeping footnotes to a
minimum. His style is colloquial. Olsen is also
rhetorically skillful at capturing interest. Chapter 1
begins in medias res with the words: "Radegund
was furious" (1)! One might imagine Honey of Souls
as an attractive textbook for an introductory
proseminar in Medieval Studies, open to advanced
undergraduates and students earning Masters degrees.
Appealing to a wide
audience, Olsen's engaging work may well spark new
interest in a text that has received relatively little
scholarly attention to date, especially in comparison
to the Variae and the Institutions
of Divine and Secular Learning. As Olsen notes,
P. G. Walsh's three-volume 1990 English translation of
the Explanation of the Psalms does not include
the marginal notations found in most of the
manuscripts of the work--authorial notations that mark
the Psalter as a site for learning the trivium and
quadrivium. (M. Adriaen includes the notations in his
critical edition of the Latin text, CCSL 97 and 98.)
Like my own, Olsen's rhetorical analysis of
Cassiodorus's discussion of Psalm 6 (239-244) shows
how much may be gleaned from attention to these
markings, which connect the Psalter to every branch of
learning.
Olsen's book arguably
breaks little new ground in the field of scholarship
on Cassiodorus, but it is definitely suggestive of,
and offers an incentive for, further studies.
Discussing Psalm 66, for example, Olsen demonstrates
that Cassiodorus alludes to the liturgy and carefully
situates his commentary within a "liturgical
environment" (256). Olsen points to Cassiodorus's
frequent use of concluding prayers. He makes
interesting observations, too, about Christology in
the Explanation of the Psalms. Commenting upon
psalm after psalm, Cassiodorus insistently foregrounds
the Incarnation (250, 257) and expressly teaches the
Chalcedonian doctrine of one Person in two natures.
Cassiodorus performs this catechesis, moreover, within
a fraught historical context when Arian and
Monophysite views contended (often violently) with
Catholic orthodoxy: "Cassiodorus consistently locates
material that he uses to reinforce orthodox
Christology against heretical beliefs" (234). Through
careful source study, Olsen characterizes
Cassiodorus's relationship to Augustine as one of
genuine faithfulness to Augustine's vision of the
Psalter--albeit a faithfulness expressed in a radical,
pedagogical reframing of Augustine's voluminous Enarrations
on the Psalms: "Augustine was the preacher;
Cassiodorus was the author" (187).
The Honey of Souls
includes ten chapters, the first three of which set
the scene for Cassiodorus's composition of Explanation
of the Psalms. Chapter 1, "The
Psalter, a Bible in Miniature," describes the place of
the Psalter in the life of the early Church,
emphasizing "the centrality of the psalms, the
importance of literacy, and the connections between
the psalms and the gospels" (7). This chapter features
Jerome's recommendation of psalm-use in his letters to
holy women (Laeta, Paula, Eustochium), Athanasius's
letter to Marcellinus (one of Cassiodorus's
acknowledged sources), and the rise of monasticism,
for which psalmody was the "soundtrack" (26). Chapter
2, "Technological Challenges," provides a
down-to-earth description of practical difficulties in
providing and transmitting written commentary on the
Psalter, including "issues inherent in manuscript
production, language barriers, and rampant illiteracy"
(30). Chapter 3, "Cassiodorus and His Work," sketches
the remarkable career of the man from Ravenna and Rome
who wrote the Explanation of the Psalms
in Constantinople (540-555 CE), dedicating it to an
abducted pope.
The next three chapters of
Olsen's book begin to examine Cassiodorus's
commentary. Chapter 4, "An Initial Glance at the Explanation
of the Psalms," invites the reader to take a
look at folio 101, recto and verso, of a ninth-century
codex from St. Emmeram's Abbey in Regensburg, Germany
(now housed in the Bavarian State Library, BSB Clm
14077). Explaining that the codex once belonged to a
three-volume set that preserved the complete text of
Cassiodorus's commentary, Olsen uses digital images of
the leaf in question to discuss the page layout,
scoring, rubrication, hierarchy of scripts,
abbreviations, and marginal notations. This
visualization then lends its support to Olsen's
general characterization of Cassiodorus's commentary
on the psalms as disciplined, highly structured,
interested in classical learning, Christological,
verbally attentive, and well attuned to etymologies
and other verbal associations ("word-chaining").
Chapter 5, "Cassiodorus and
the Interpretive Framework," introduces three sources
for Cassiodorus's commentary: Augustine's Enarrations
on the Psalms, Hilary of Poitiers' Tractates
on the Psalms, and Athanasius's Letter to
Marcellinus. Within the "big-picture milieu"
(121) of the ancient quarrel between the interpretive
schools of Alexandria and Antioch, Olsen suggests that
Cassiodorus's commentary is a synthetic effort that
combines (Alexandrian) Christological allegory with an
Antiochene predilection for literal analysis. Chapter
6, "Editing Augustine and Reading the Scriptures,"
builds upon chapter 5, describes the relation between
Augustine's Enarrations and Cassiodorus's much
briefer Explanation, and uses that comparison
to highlight Cassiodorus's originality: "He has
completely reframed Augustine's work, in some places
summarized Augustine's thought, and in others gone in
new directions on his own" (187).
Chapters 8 and 9 provide "A
Thorough Reading of Psalm 87" and "Short Takes" of
"Five Psalms," respectively. Through these close
readings, Olsen demonstrates the four-part structure
of Cassiodorus's explanation of each psalm (title,
division, line-by-line commentary, conclusion) and
highlights Cassiodorus's original, thematic groupings
of psalms, especially the penitential psalms and the
psalms of the Passion. (See 179, 239-244, 244-252).
Finally, in chapter 10,
"The Legacy of Cassiodorus," Olsen narrates the
dramatic tale of the transfer of copies of
Cassiodorus's commentary from Vivarium to Rome and
from there to Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria at
the time of Bede. Manuscript evidence suggests that
"the Explanation of the Psalms
spread to the wider world not from southern Italy but
from northern England," according to Olsen, who
follows the account of Pierre Courcelle (277).
Combining the lists of James W. Halporn and Friedrich
Stegmüller, Olsen counts "109 sets of Cassiodorus's
work from which something survives" (279). In
addition, passages from Cassiodorus's Explanation
can be found inserted into Bibles and Psalters.
The complex portrait of
Cassiodorus that emerges gradually from the ten
chapters of Olsen's book is that of a highly cultured,
adroit administrator who navigated through and
survived tumultuous political, social, and religious
upheavals; an educational reformer and philanthropist;
and a devout, Augustinian Christian deeply committed
to the monastic movement as an anchorage for a renewed
society. Pushing back against those like Jean Leclercq
who have sharply contrasted the spiritualities of
Cassiodorus and Saint Benedict, setting the schoolman
against the monk, Olsen argues that "the techniques of
reading that [Cassiodorus] taught--grammar, rhetoric,
dialectic, allegory, typology, etymology--offered
tools for understanding that would be transformed into
wings of prayer with which monks would ascend
spiritually in their communal chanting of the Daily
Office as well as in their private contemplation"
(303). Judging by the reception of Cassiodorus's
commentary by monks throughout the European Middle
Ages, Olsen is surely right.
Church Times,
Poet's Corner, 15 February 2019
Malcolm Guite surveys some
ancient manuscripts at the British Library
I AM just back
from a visit to the British Library’s
“Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms” exhibition. I spent
the whole afternoon there, but would happily
have stayed for a week, standing in the
presence of so many moving and beautiful
manuscripts about which I had read, but
which I had never thought I would actually
see.
But there they
all were, including the Vercelli manuscript
that contains The Dream of the Rood,
the poem spoken by the cross, which is, for
me at least, the foundation of all English
Christian poetry. It was flanked on one side
by the only manuscript of Beowulf, and
on the other by the Exeter Book,
that contains the enigmatic riddles that so
fascinated Tolkien and which he wove into
his Legendarium.
It was a perfect
place for the manuscript of The Dream;
for, on the one hand, that poem speaks
deeply into the heroic world of Beowulf,
and, on the other, it is itself a kind of
riddle, in which a strange tree tells the
story, from its own perspective, of how it
discovered that the wounded man whom it bore
on its boughs was God Almighty. It is only
part way through the poem, which has no
title, that the tree reveals itself as “the
rood”, the cross of Christ.
But the most
moving book of all was the smallest book in
the exhibition: the St Cuthbert Gospel. A
seventh-century manuscript copy of the
Gospel of St John, it has an extraordinary
aura and presence, not simply because it is
the oldest bound book in Europe, but because
of the saint whose book it was, the long
centuries it has endured, and the glorious
Gospel it contains.
This was the one
book that I had seen before, in Durham,
which is where it really belongs. I had
visited an exhibition there, “Bound to Last:
Bookbinding from the Middle Ages to the
Present Day”, and had been expecting little
more than the beautiful leather tooling and
luxury embossing of prestige binders.
And then I came
face to face with the St Cuthbert Gospel:
the very book that they placed on his breast
in his coffin, the Gospel that he loved the
most, and lived so fruitfully; a little
pocket-book, red-leather-bound and all
intact, which had sailed through centuries
to meet me there on Palace Green.
And,
in that presence, it seemed that every concern
for bindings and covers fell away, and I
seemed to hear the saint himself, chanting the
words that St Augustine heard and that brought
him also to the Gospel, Tolle lege, Tolle
lege: take up and read! That experience
moved me to rite a sonnet, which I published
in my book Parable and Paradox, and,
standing again before that little book
yesterday, in London, I called that sonnet
back to mind:
Cuthbert’s
Gospel
I stand in awe
before this little book,
The Gospel that lay close on Cuthbert’s
breast,
Its Coptic binding and red leather-work
As sound and beautiful as when they placed
This treasure with the treasure they loved
best
And set them sailing through the centuries
Until these coffined riches came to rest
In front of me as open mysteries.
But as I look I seem
to hear him speak
“This book is precious but don’t waste your
breath
On bindings and half uncials and the like,
Breathe in the promise of a better birth
Tolle et lege, try and find it true,
The bound Word waits to be made flesh in you.”
FLORIN
WEBSITE © JULIA
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1997-2024: ACADEMIA
BESSARION || MEDIEVAL: BRUNETTO LATINO,
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New: Dante vivo || White Silence
or centuries the Anglo-Saxon Codex
Amiatinus, the huge and most authoritative version of
Jerome’s Vulgate Bible we have, was stored in a cupboard in
the monastery church of San Salvatore, Monte Amiata, Tuscany.
In 1587 Pope Sixtus V had it be consulted for the Sistine
Vulgate that preceded the Clementine Vulgate. Then, with the
secularisation of the monasteries, it was placed in the
Laurentian Library in Florence in 1786.
ur Aureo Anello Associazione
exists to create a golden ring between Italy, England and
the rest of the world. It supports a polyglot library and
restores an ecumenical cemetery, where many Anglican priests
found burial. In 2001 Manuela Vestri and I collaborated on
our first City and Book international conference, held in
the Certosa in Florence, where we brought together Hebrew,
Russian, Irish, Icelandic, English, Italian and Spanish
scholars to discuss the Alphabet [1-2Development
of the Alphabet] and the Bible, neither of which came from
Europe but which profoundly shaped Europe’s culture, 4-5 and where we discovered that 3 Saints Cyril and Methodius had
been sent from Constantinople to convert the Khazars to
Christianity, and who studied the new Masoretic Biblical
texts in the Crimea, when for the first time, to compete
with Arabic, pointing came to be used to show the vowels, so
that non-Hebrew speakers, like the Khazars, could also read
the sacred texts. From this experience Cyril and Methodius
went on to invent an alphabet adapted to the Slavic
languages, Glagolitic, from which Cyrillic developed. For
Bibles and Psalters are like computers for recording voices
across time and space, with important vocal coding to be
transferred across cultures, from Phoenician runes to
Humanist letters. Next, as a result of our Florentine
conference the British Library created its magnificent
exhibition and book, ‘Sacred’, on all the Peoples of the
Book, 6 while our Irish
scholars kept us abreast of their findings, such as the
discovery of the Fadden More Psalter, its binding lined with
Egyptian papyrus, buried in a bog with its satchel. Armenian
and Coptic manuscripts before this and Icelandic manuscripts
after use the same methods for preserving books. 
ere in
Monte Amiata we have the cupboard built to house the huge
Anglo-Saxon Codex Amiatinus brought to the Continent by
Abbot Ceolfrith, the Venerable Bede’s Abbot at
Wearmouth-Jarrow.
16
el
maggio 1998, mentre vivevo come eremita a Montebeni,
influenzata da Don Divo di San Sergio a Settignano e da Don
Lorenzo delle Stinche nel Chianti, ricevetti doni preziosi
da un monaco greco ortodosso in America, che era stato un
orefice, che affrescava le chiese greco-ortodosse, che, a
sua volta, divenne eremita: padre Nathanael Aghiopalamites,
e che in effetti era irlandese. Voglio onorare la sua
memoria e la sua gentilezza nei miei confronti, allorquando
avevo perduto la mia anima nella Chiesa d’Inghilterra.
I doni che mi fece erano un’icona che egli aveva disegnato
di Julian di Norwich, una reliquia della nocca di San
Cuthbert ed un pezzo della bara di quercia del santo.
uì, sul Monte Amiata, abbiamo l’armadio, al
momento vuoto, costruito per custodire l’enorme Codex
Amiatinus anglo sassone, portato sul continente europeo
dall’Abate Ceolfrith, l’abate del Venerabile Beda a
Wearmouth-Jarrow.
