Routledge Revivals: The Illuminations of the Stavelot Bible (1978)

Wayne Dynes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351395038
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

First published in 1978, this book offers a comprehensive study of the illuminations of the Stavelot Bible. The illuminations themselves have been recognized as occupying an important place in the incipient stage of the Romanesque style in the Meuse valley. The two volumes of the Bible contain no less than ninety-seven illuminated initials, almost half of them containing figures. Wayne Dynes's study brings this into context by giving the historical background of the abbey of Stavelot and the manuscript itself, and then the exegetical and illustrative tradition shaping earlier illuminated Bibles. A third chapter examines the question of the assignment of the hands, providing at the same time a survey of the contents. This clears the way for discussions of areas of importance including the famous full-page composition of Christ in Majesty, and analyses key miniatures and groups of miniatures. This procedure serves to clarify the overall scheme of illumination and permit a comparison with earlier achievements in the history of Bible illumination.

Appendix I
Recension of the Text

The Stavelot Bible was first sold in 1847 together with other manuscripts coming from the abbey; it was acquired by the British Museum in 1869.¹ The Bible is in two volumes. In its present state it contains ninety-eight miniatures which have been attributed by the author to five different masters. All of the books had illuminated initials (with the possible exception of Malachi where the leaf is missing). Unfortunately, five miniatures have been cut out. Of the surviving illuminations fifty-four have been attributed to the Master of the Minor Prophets, eleven to the Pentateuch Master, two to the Jeremiah Master, six to the Majesty Master and twenty-five to the Luke Master (see chapter III).

The first volume (Add. Ms. 28106), which ends with the Book of Malachi, measures 22 7/8 in. (581 mm.) by 15 3/8 in. (390 mm.). Each page of the text is divided into two columns measuring 4 ¾ in. (121 mm.) by 10 ¾ in. (274 mm.). In volume one the columns have fifty-one or fifty-two lines. The text is written in a fine Caroline minuscule. For rubrications of primary rank capitalis quadrata is used, that is for the incipits of books and prologues. Uncial script is employed for secondary matter at the head of books and prologues as well as for most explicits. Minuscule has a tertiary function in the rubrication and is habitually used for the incipits of chapter listings and for habets. The gatherings for the first volume can be expressed as 1 + xxviii⁸ + 4. In most of these gatherings the number within the sequence is indicated in Roman numerals at the bottom of the verso of the last leaf. There seems to be little doubt that these notations are contemporary with the main body of the script. The initial 'F' in Jerome's letter to Paulinus Probus (fol. 2v a), measuring 9 1/16 in. (231 mm.) by 4 9/16 in. (116 mm.), is typical of the more important miniatures. The great 'I' of Genesis (fol. 5v a) is exceptional: 16 15/16 in. (431 mm.) by 4 3/4 in. (120 mm.).

The flyleaves and the material extracted from the original binding of the manuscript shed much light on the interests of the monks of the abbey. In Add. Ms. 28106 there are two letters on fasting. The second is the first part of the "Epistola Sigeberti Gemblacensis de quattuor temporibus" which has been printed by Migne.¹ Also the flyleaves contain the valuable catalogue of the Stavelot library as it existed in 1105.² In addition to these items a sermon of St. Augustine ("Passionem vel resurectionem domini..."³), a list of the emperors and popes to Frederick I and Celestine II, a fragment of a tenth-century copy of St. Augustine's "Enarratio in Psalmos" and a fragment of a twelfth-century psalter may be found.

The second, volume of this Bible is similar to the first in size, measuring 22 ¾ in. (578 mm.) by 15 1/8 in. (384 mm.). in script and in gatherings, where they run 1 + xxix⁸ + 5. Unlike the first volume Add. Ms. 28107 frequently replaces minuscule rubrications with the capitalis rustica. Likewise the miniatures of this volume are similar in size to those of the first volume: the illumination for Job (fol. 4v a), for example, measuring 4 1/8 in. (104 mm.) by 4 ¾ in. (121 mm.). The additional material included in this volume is more various than that in the other volume. Here one finds the "Versus domini Wolfhelmi abbatis [of Brauweiler] super novum et vetus testamentum"¹ as well as an unidentified "Versus quibus nota sunt anni singula festa." Moreover, there are included three hymns on the cross; two attributed to St. Gregory ("Audi benigne conditor" and the "Lignum crucis mirabile"²) and the famous "Vexilla regis prodeunt" by Fortunatus.³ A letter of the dean and chapter of the Abbey of St. Peter at Malmédy relative to a bequest to the church, a list of monasteries allied to Stavelot, which was drafted in the fourteenth century, some fragments of Leo of Ostia's Chronicle,¹ and a letter of the Emperor Henry IV to Philip, King of France, in 1106² complete the additional material.

In the descri...