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Garden of Virtues
- Garden of Virtues
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RE: Garden of Virtues
Koen G > 23-03-2020, 09:34 PM
Nice! I don't think I've ever seen anything this similar. -
RE: Garden of Virtues
-JKP- > 23-03-2020, 09:59 PM
Yes, that manuscript has an interesting history. Two leaves cut out and they show up a few centuries later in private hands and are eventually donated to the Fitzwilliam museum rather than passed down through heirs (guilty conscience?).
It is sadly a common story and there are many similar examples. Plus, it still happens today... people going into libraries with knives, cutting out illuminations and selling them on eBay or abebooks.
But how long has it been going on? Could someone in the Middle Ages have cut them out as reference materials for a clandestine project?
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For a long time I wondered if the four figures might be specific saints, since the chain is sometimes used as an attribute for securing demons, or the Tarasque, or for Ignatius of Antioch, St. Peter, or You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Book chains in chained libraries sometimes had very large loops, also. Also I wondered if they might be the cardinal virtues, but those are usually Prudence, Temperance, Iustice and Fortitude (which are not shown with chains). -
RE: Garden of Virtues
R. Sale > 23-03-2020, 10:18 PM
That's a good one. As good as it gets for the VMs.
In more than ten years, I don't recall other attempts at a seven virtues investigation. And I don't recall your little gal with the chain being pointed out or discussed before. Others may know better.
It seems 'vinculum amoris' is the term. Too bad search images are all worthless.
I want to see the chain. -
RE: Garden of Virtues
-JKP- > 23-03-2020, 10:45 PM
The four cardinal virtues. This one is interesting because there are men rather than the more common use of four women. I don't know if the one on the right is holding a chain or a rosary, but it could be interpreted as a chain (since it sometimes was a chain):
Source: Digital Walters W.171
What I've always found interesting about this imagery in the VMS is that the inner portion looks like a fountain and there is a sun in the middle. Fountains often had sundials in the middle. The plumes that spread to the outside edge could possibly be the spray from a fountain. Water imagery is consistent with the traditional depictions of virtues. -
RE: Garden of Virtues
Koen G > 23-03-2020, 10:59 PM
(23-03-2020, 09:18 PM)arca_libraria Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'm sure you all know the VMS page with the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and the obvious suggestion is something like The Four Ages of Man as a way to interpret that page, but could it be pairs of virtues and vices?
The person opposite to the one with the chain has been given an exaggerated hook nose, and he is wearing a large ring. This is entering unpleasant terrain, but was the Jew already associated with avarice/greed? Might his headgear (some kind of skull cap?) also point to the same?
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RE: Garden of Virtues
-JKP- > 24-03-2020, 01:02 AM
(23-03-2020, 10:59 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
The person opposite to the one with the chain has been given an exaggerated hook nose, and he is wearing a large ring. This is entering unpleasant terrain, but was the Jew already associated with avarice/greed? Might his headgear (some kind of skull cap?) also point to the same?
I don't know, but quite a few held high professional positions as translators, scribes, goldsmiths, doctors, etc., ones that were better compensated than most.
When Jews were expelled, I'm almost certain part of the motivation was an excuse to divest them of their possessions (this is not just true of Jews but other minorities, as well, banishment meant looting them). Whether there was an association with avarice, I don't know. The people who expelled them certainly excelled in terms of avarice but it, of course, always seems to be a situation of, "It's okay for me to accumulate wealth but not you." -
RE: Garden of Virtues
-JKP- > 24-03-2020, 01:37 AM
Brill has an article on this:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall, but the first page is readable and there might be other similar articles about avarice and stereotypes of Jews in the Middle Ages. I can't say I've done much reading on this since it's such an unpleasant subject. It took me three months to read Schindler's List because I couldn't stomach the way people treated other people. I could only deal with it small chunks at a time. -
RE: Garden of Virtues
arca_libraria > 24-03-2020, 02:10 AM
(23-03-2020, 10:18 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It seems 'vinculum amoris' is the term. Too bad search images are all worthless.
I want to see the chain.
I am going to blame stress for that particular Latin disaster. Thank you for spotting it! I’m sure I’ve seen at least one other example of a personification of vice or virtue (or one of the cardinal virtues or liberal arts) holding a chain, but finding it is another matter entirely, particularly when the names and attributes of all of these allegorical figures are so unstable.
(23-03-2020, 10:18 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That's a good one. As good as it gets for the VMs.
I smiled for the first time in days reading that. I’ve benefitted so much from this forum, so it’s lovely to be able to offer you all something to consider as well. -
RE: Garden of Virtues
Aga Tentakulus > 24-03-2020, 07:52 AM
Was the Jew already associated with avarice / greed?
If history teaches us anything, it is that they were not. They were simply good merchants and still are today.
The expulsions came when people were once again too much in debt to the Jews.
It was a simple matter of putting something on the Jews so that they could be got rid of them. When the Jews are gone, the debts are gone.
But this could not be done with the other houses (Fugger, Venetian traders etc.). Therefore they became more and more powerful. What did not suit some kings. -
RE: Garden of Virtues
Ruby Novacna > 24-03-2020, 04:08 PM
If the upper image of 84r is related to the virtues or the vices I prefere the vices. And I wonder if the last label on the right dshedy is Latin desiduus=deses - idle, indolent ?