FAH215H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Cotton Genesis, Aeneid, Toga
The Rise of Christian Narrative
The Codex
Many luxurious books had amazing covers – ivory plaques, decorated with scenes from the NT
The Vatican Virgil: c 400 Rome, Aeneid story MS, in the Vatican; earliest surviving illustrated
book!
Codex over scroll, around the 2nd c, more compact, flippable, book-markable, mobile, etc.
another 200 years for the codex to really take off – same time Xtianity does, as it was the
medium of the Xtians.
This would have been copied from a scroll by a scribe.
SIPFA:
- Style: images are Greco-Roman classic style [drapery, detail, shadow, highlight, volume,
etc]
- Icon: Roman temples, sacrifice at altar
- Patron: Pagan or Christian, but likely pagan, as there is lack of any obvious Xtian
reference; wealthy
- Function: read, learn, enjoy, entertain, participate in the culture and celebration of
Rome
- Audience: personal, family
The Quedlinburg Itala: c 400-450, early Latin version of the bible, illustrated codex: 4 scenes
from the book of Samuel [OT].
Compare and Contrast:
- Images in similar boxes with red border [minium]
- Similar clothing with detail
- Iconography is different – Christian imagery [or possibly Jewish]
- Patron: Christian, but also wealthy, literate
- Function: teaching, enjoyment, worship, guidance, etc
- Both are founding stories – they kind of oppose each other; celebration of themselves,
their ppl, their origins, their own story and representation of identification
Cotton Genesis: 5th-6th c, burned in a London fire in the 1750s.
Similar patron – wealthy, Christian; purple in color
We can reconstruct the imagery as 11th c mosaic in Cathedral of San Marco, has the Genesis
cycle of creation. Follows the story in the beginning of Genesis closely of god’s 7 days,
eventually creating Adam and Ever
- This was made from the Cotton Genesis [or one exactly like it] that they copied this
from!
- Image of god introducing Eve to Adam
- God with a cross-halo – God as Jesus/ Jesus as God, w/e
- When you read Genesis “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.”
Which god? We see here, Jesus.
- The Cotton Genesis is making a theological argument – it’s the OT, but Christianized –
inserting Jesus into the Genesis story, reclaiming the OT for Christianity
- God in Xtianity is always the trinity, and emphasizes that god is always also Jesus
