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A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Books in Art: The meaning and significance of images of books in Italian Religious Painting 1250 – 1400. Volume 1 - Text by Anthony Charles Ormond McGrath, BSc., BA, MA, FCA. submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the subject of ART HISTORY at THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX May 2012 Statement I hereby confirm that this thesis, entitled ‘Books in Art: The meaning and significance of images of books in Italian Religious Painting 1250-1400’, is my own work, that no part of it has been submitted to this or any other University for a degree, and that all the sources from which information or quotations have been derived are disclosed in the text with complete references. ……………………………………………………………………………………… Anthony McGrath Abstract This thesis uses images of books in Italian art of the duecento and trecento as pictorial evidence for the appearance of books and to establish a chronology for changes in the detail and style of book-bindings during those two centuries. The conclusions from the pictorial evidence is that there were material differences in the appearance of books in the duecento and trecento and that gold tooling was used to decorate books from about 1320, a hundred years earlier than previously thought. The thesis also considers how, and to what extent, medieval viewers related to images of books and whether it is possible to identify individual styles in the way artists represented books. There are four case-studies that are used to investigate how images of books were used, and what religious, social, political and psychological purposes were served. Part of the methodology is to identify and study those points of change when books appear or when the way they are shown changes. This is in the belief that when circumstances alter, the artist responds consciously and creatively rather than by imitation. A number of works of art are studied in detail and the thesis proposes new interpretations for, inter alia, the Stefaneschi Altarpiece, Guido de Graziano’s Dossal of St Francis, the Annunciation scene in the Arena Chapel, the Rucellai Madonna, and the S Caterina Polyptych. The case-studies have demonstrated that the image of a book was one of the most powerful visual signs, certainly for the period and region to which this study has been devoted. It shows that in the decades around 1300 the book became an established attribute in altarpieces, the book displaced the rotullus as the symbol of authority, and the book became the dominant attribute of the Virgin Mary in scenes of the Annunciation, displacing earlier formats. The book was the symbol of learning and therefore a key attribute for the mendicant orders and especially the Dominican Order. i Acknowledgements A successful completion of this undertaking would not have been possible without the guidance and wisdom of my supervisor at Sussex, Dr Michelle O’Malley. Her willingness to make time in her work schedule, and interrupt her own research, to have regular meetings and to calmly review my work and my, sometimes, wild ideas, is very much appreciated. Other faculty and staff at Sussex have always been helpful and a pleasure to deal with and I have enjoyed the sense of camaraderie among my fellow DPhil students. I am grateful to Dr. Joanna Cannon, who allowed me to attend and participate in her Giotto’s Circle seminar group at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and for her encouragement and advice on various aspects of my research. I am grateful to the staff of the following libraries for their help: The British Library (especially the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department for permitting me access to some of its collection), the Palaeography Room in Senate House Library, The Institute of Historical Research, The Warburg Institute, the Library of Heythrop College, the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Library at the National Gallery, The London Library, The University of Sussex Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. While nothing equates with seeing the original, obtaining photographs of works of art is a critical requirement for doing research in Art History. I am grateful to the British Library, the National Art Library, The Walters Art Museum - Baltimore, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute - Williamstown, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and the Berenson Collection at I Tatti – Florence, for providing digital images and giving permission for their use in this thesis. I am grateful to the Soprintendenza and staff of the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena for permitting me take photographs of all their paintings on display from the duecento and trecento. Likewise, I am grateful to the staff of the Museo di San Matteo in Pisa for allowing me to take some photographs of Simone Martini’s Polyptych. In addition, I have taken many photographs in churches and collections were photography is permitted, and made use of material on the internet, especially the excellent ArtStor resource, available through the University of Sussex Library. Finally, I wish to pay tribute to the patience and tolerance of my wife, Maggie, who, while she has encouraged my pursuit of scholarship, has also had to put up with seemingly endless visits to churches, museums and libraries in Italy and the United States, to a point well beyond the call the duty. My thanks to her are profound, although visits to churches, museums and libraries will undoubtedly continue for many years. ii Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii List of Plates v Glossary of Terms xiv Introduction 1 The structure of the thesis 3 Chapter 1 – The symbolism of books and images of books 6 Chapter 2 - The existing evidence of book covers and their decoration 23 Bindings of the period up to 1300: ‘Romanesque’ 29 Bindings of the period after 1300: ‘Gothic’ 33 Table: Summary of current knowledge about details of bindings in Italy 40 Chapter 3 – Pictorial evidence for the appearance of book covers and their 43 decoration Images of books: issues of realism and stylistic development 43 Images of books: using pictorial sources to derive information on the 51 appearance of books Gold tooling 61 Ancillary details and Summary of observations 64 Table: Summary of binding details from images. 65 The representation of books and the issue of individual style 66 Giotto 66 Duccio 68 Ugolino di Nerio 69 Jacopo di Cione 69 Summing up Chapters 1 to 3 72 Chapter 4 - Liber Dei et Ecclesiae – the book as symbol of authority of God, and 74 the clergy Symbolism of books 78 The Trinity, the Logos and the Word 83 iii Iconography of the Verbum prior to 1250 85 Post 1250 87 Books and the Clergy 88 The Stefaneschi Altarpiece 91 Conclusion 99 Chapter 5 – ‘Arma nostre militie’ – Books as the weapons of the Friars 101 Vita panels 105 Altarpieces 118 Conclusion 123 Chapter 6 – ‘Speculum Verbi’ – The Virgin’s Book in the Annunciation 125 Cavallini’s Annunciation at Santa Maria in Trastevere 135 The Annunciation in the Upper Church at Assisi 141 Duccio’s Triptych in the Royal Collection 144 Giotto’s Annunciation scene in the Arena Chapel 146 Iconographic Progression 149 Possible causes of the change in iconography 150 Conclusion 153 Chapter 7 – ‘Lux et libri’ – Illuminating the Church with symbols of wisdom 155 The S. Caterina Polyptych 160 The Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas – S. Caterina, Pisa 176 Conclusion 185 Chapter 8 - Conclusions 186 Appendix 1 – List of selected images of books in Italian religious painting 191 Appendix 2 – Examples of Hasps and Central Decorations 192 Appendix 3 - Survey of Italian Scenes of Annunciation to the Virgin – 1160 to 1393 196 Appendix 4– Light, Optics and Divine Illumination 202 Bibliography 206 iv List of Plates 1. Jacopo di Cione, Coronation of the Virgin, c.1370, National Gallery, London. a. Detail of left panel showing books held by St Stephen and St Bartholomew. 2. An example of a decorated binding. This is an original Byzantine binding from the 12th or 13th centuries. The country of origin is unknown. Vatican Library, ms: Vat. gr. 508. 3. Cloister’s Collection, NY, MS 68.174, f. 16v. Manuscript of the Apocalypse, c.1330, Normandy, France. 4. Codex Vindobonensis 2554, f.57r., c.1215-1230, Östrrreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien, Austria 5. Taddeo di Bartoli, Christ with the Twelve Apostles, c. 1400, Berenson Collection, Villa I Tatti, Florence. 6. Detail of apse mosaic at Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome, c. 1140, showing St Peter, Pope Cornelius, Pope Julius and Bishop Calepodius 7. Duccio, Polyptych No 28, c.1305, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. a. Detail of book held by St Augustine. b. Detail of Christ. c. Detail of St Paul. 8. Duccio, Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea, c. 1315, National Gallery, London. 9. Bonaventura Berlinghieri, Dossal of St Francis, 1235, San Francesco, Pescia. 10.Master of Città di Castello, St Peter, c.1315, Yale University, New Haven. 11.Bartolomeo Bulgarini, St Peter Enthroned with St Paul and St John the Evangelist, c.1340, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.