Bilder zum Betreten der Zeit : Bible moralisée und kapetingisches Königtum

The present work sets out, for the first time, to review the appearance and content of
all four surviving versions of the Bible moralisée from a common aspect. The
manuscripts concerned, which date back to the first half of the 13th century, are the
two one-volume Viennese versions ÖNB 2554 and 1779 and the other two currently
four-part versions, one of which is divided between Toledo (Cathedral archives) and
New York (Pierpont Morgan Library MS 240), and the second of which is to be found
in Oxford (Bodleian 270b), Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, Latin 11560) and London
(British Library, Harley 1526 and Harley 1527).
Although originally completed in 1997, the work has been revised to take account of
the latest literature, particularly the ground-breaking study by John Lowden, The
Making of the Bibles Moralisées, Volumes I and II, University Park, Pennsylvania
2000. In order to thematise the content of all four versions, it was necessary to concentrate
on a particular aspect, namely the influence of the contemporary Capetian dynasty
on the manuscripts‘ representation of monarchy. The work focuses on the special
type of imagery used to present this theme, which may well have first been
developed for the Bible moralisée. By means of a clever visual strategy, the
designers, painters and scribes who created these manuscripts successfully
introduced details relating to the Capetian kings‘ view of themselves as a second
level of meaning in the unfolding of the biblical story of redemption. Contemporary
gestures, rituals, clothing and heraldry play an important part in this.