codex decoration 4. initial decoration

The Decoration of the Codex 4. Initial Decoration Script for video: https://youtu.be/FRQJz64paak

The Decoration of the Codex 4. Initial Decoration

Ana B. Sánchez Prieto University Complutense of Madrid

Script for video: https://youtu.be/FRQJz64paak

Quite frequently decoration tends to accumulate at the beginning. It can be at the

beginning of the manuscript as a whole or the beginning of the work, since we sometimes

find a prologue lacking any sort of decoration, followed by the proper start of the main

work with its corresponding illustration. Other manuscripts may contain several texts,

with each one having its own initial decoration. On the other hand, it can also happen that

a manuscript lacks any sort of initial decoration at all.

These decorations can adopt different types and different combinations of those types,

depending on the time and geographical area, and on the general circumstances that

contributed to the production of a given manuscript.

The possible types of initial decoration are the following:

Labyrinth (that we already know from a previous video)

Carpet page

Decorated initial or letrine (at full page or not)

Author portrait

Representatio (that is, the image of the patron or person to whom the work has

been dedicated)

Praesentatio

Book owner

Narrative miniature or historiated initial

https://youtu.be/FRQJz64paak


A carpet page is a fully ornamented page, entirely covered (or almost entirely covered) by

a pattern of ornamental motifs that sort of mimic very intricate oriental carpets. The

designs are mostly abstract and of a more or less geometrical nature.

The most famous carpet pages come from the Irish and Aglo-Saxon evangelistaries from

the 7th to the 9th centuries, where they precede each of the four gospels, and therefore

make up a very convenient means of text articulation. In these Insular carpet pages,

geometrical motifs combine with cross-shaped designs, where elements from Germanic

art are synthesized with Celtic and Mediterranean elements.

Figure 1. Book of Lindisfarne, carpet page. http://www.orthodoxresource.co.uk/orthodoxy/lindisfarne.jpg

However, the invention of the carpet page is far older than the Insular gospel books. They

go back to Antiquity, perhaps in Egypt or Syria, where we find frontispieces with cross-

shaped designs, such as the crux ansata surrounded with decoration of birds and foliage

of the Codex Glazier, from the 5th century.

It is not impossible that the arts of mosaic and bookbinding have exerted some influence

on this type of decoration, and more recently it has been suggested that the carpet pages

could have found some inspiration in the praying carpets that we know were used in

Roman liturgy in very old times.


The ornamental character of the carpet page mustn’t conceal a possible symbolic function

as materialization of the Word (capitalized) in a non-verbal and non-figurative form. Other

interpretations have ventured some sort of relation to the Holy Places.

The author portrait is, according to Weitzmann, the oldest modality of book illustration in

the West. Initially, the author’s head or bust was inscribed in a medallion or clipeus. Our

oldest witness for this practice is the poet Martial, who mentions it already in the 1st

century A.D. The manuscripts transmitting Terence’s comedies (Vatican Library, Vat. Lat.

3868), which is a 9th century replica of a 4-5th century model, is a magnificent example of

this sort of author portrait.

Figure 2. Portrait of Terence. Vat. Lat. 3668. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Portrait_of_Terence_from_Vaticana%2C_Vat._lat.jpg.

Then came the fashion of the full-length portrait, with the author almost always sitting,

such as can be seen in the magnificent codex known as Vergilius Romanus (Vatican

Library, Vat. Lat. 3225).

Figure 3. Portrait of Virgil. Virgilius Romanus, fol. 14r. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/RomanVirgilFolio014rVergilPortrait.jpg


A third type inherited from Antiquity is the author in dialogue with some other characters,

for example the Muse. And derived from this ancient model is probably the less circulated

theme, but nevertheless of equally classical roots, of the author as a master, teaching his

disciples. Conceptually and iconographically derived from this model are the motifs of the

author represented as a preacher or addressing his audience.

However, without doubt the most circulated model is the author sitting and writing his

work. This model, although pagan in origin, was borrowed by the Christians and ended up

giving rise to the very characteristic iconographical prototype of the evangelist as

transmitter of the Good News. Later, the growing social appreciation of the copyists as

material authors of the manuscripts propitiated the spread of the evangelist model to

other authors of not so sacred texts. These later representations can be very realistic, with

all sorts of details meticulously featured.

A peculiar modality of the writing author portrait is the representation of the author as a

chronicler, narrating events as they occur, or the author dreaming his work.

The confluence of all these practices ultimately established the use of the idealized author

portrait as a way to express both authorship and authority.

The Repraesentatio is the representation of the patron or addressee. That is, the person

to whom the work has been dedicated, usually sitting hieratically, without apparently

showing any connection to the surrounding world. The only relation to the literary work is

the fact that patron or someone in his or her entourage is holding a book. According to

Davis-Weiner, the origin of this model can go back to the iconography of the Traditio

Legis.

Generally no distinction is made between dedicatio and presentatio, in the understanding

that both represent the act by which the author of the work offers it, in humble attitude,

to someone in a higher position (that can also be a saint or holy person). However, the

term dedicatio (dedication) should be reserved for the images of this sort that belong to

religious texts, as, in its original sense, the word dedicatio implies submission for the

service or adoration of a divine being. In the case of persons or works of a secular nature

the word praesentatio should be preferred.

The roots of the dedicatio iconography go back in time to Antiquity as well. According to

Peter Bloch, this model is actually the result of a combination of the Hellenistic religious

offering practices and the classical repraesentatio. Our oldest witness of a dedicatio in a

manuscript comes from the Codex Rabbula, and is dated in 587.


Figure 4. Codex Rabbula, y. 587. http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bytype/manuscripts/survey/0000/84.JPG.

The graphic representation of the owner as the person ultimately responsible for the

materiality of the actual manuscript is as old as the very concept of the book. This practice

is already witnessed in some Egyptian rolls of the Book of the Dead, where the deceased,

as protagonist of his last journey, was painted in the volume that should be deposited in

his tomb.

During the late Middle Ages, the portraits of the owners of the books, most of the times

noble women, became very common, especially in France and other Francophone areas of

Europe. Many times they are represented reading or meditating about what they have

just read, as if in dialogue with the book.


And a final type of initial decoration is the narrative miniature or historiated initial. As

every other narrative miniature, the opening decoration must have some relation with the

text, but usually it adds a symbolic value. For instance, many copies of the Golden Legend

are headed by a miniature featuring the Coronation of the Virgin, and some bibles start

with a miniature featuring the Creation and the Crucifixion side by side.

Figure 5. Golden Legend, French translation (ca. 1370). Paris, Mazarine MS 1729 http://www.europeanaregia.eu/sites/www.europeanaregia.eu/files/manuscripts/mazarine-ms-1729-fol1r_0.jpg

codex decoration 4. initial decoration

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