The Vatican Book of Kings (*Vat

The Vatican Book of Kings (*Vat. gr. 333) 227

Chapter 14 The Vatican Book of Kings (*Vat. gr. 333)

Ioli Kalavrezou

The illustrated Vatican Book of Kings (*Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 333) is a unique manuscript, which contains the Old Testament text of the four books that in the Eastern Church are referred to as the Books of the Kings or Kingdoms and in the Latin West as the two Books of Samuel and the two Books of Kings. They follow directly after the Book of Ruth, which is the last book of the Octateuchs. The four books of Kings are strictly narrative. They tell the story of Israel from the time of the birth of the prophet Samuel until the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the departure of the Israelites to their exile in Babylon. The manuscript does not have a colophon or other inscriptions to help deter- mine the date of its production, however it has been given a date to approxi- mately the middle of 11th century according to its stylistic, palaeographic and compositional evidence.1 From the first book of Samuel, which sets the stage with a theological assess- ment of kingship, it becomes evident that kingship is the focus of these texts. The stories cover the birth and feats of the prophet Samuel in connection with the events associated with the kings Saul and David and in the third book after David’s death with briefly the story of king Solomon. In other words the major sections of the narrative have as their focus the life of David, the prophet and king, and numerous events relating to his kingship until his death. Much is exceptional about this manuscript. Its uniqueness as an illustrated copy of the Books of Kings is astonishing. David had become by the 11th century a major figure in Byzantine imperial ideology, thus the Old Testament text containing his life should have been an obvious text to illustrate. It is surprising however, not to find more illustrated manuscripts of these books narrat- ing the Davidic episodes as would have been expected. Yet, throughout the middle Byzantine period David and famous events of his life continue to be represented in numerous examples on a variety of objects, most frequently in illustrated psalters. Also surprising is the fact that except for the thorough

1 Lassus, Livre des Rois, with previous literature. Here also one can find a short codicological description identifying the lost folios. The codex comprises 143 folios, measuring 28.5 × 21.6 cm.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/9789004346239_015 228 Kalavrezou publication by Jean Lassus, published in 1973, there has not been any further detailed study of this manuscript. In this publication there are only four illustrations printed in colour, all others are dark black and white photographs where most of the detail is not visible.2 The black and white photographs do not do justice to this rich and most colourful manuscript. Each double folio when open has at least two and more often additional images, which stand out with their strong colours against the light beige parchment, a delight to the eye and to the curious mind (Fig. 74). The oldest and only other surviving evidence for the interest in illustrating these biblical books, those of Samuel and Kings, is found on four fragmentary folios out of six leaves of an earlier codex, which were discovered in the second half of the 19th century re-used in the bindings of a number of books, all bound in 1618 in the monastic library of Quedlingburg.3 Two of them contain seg- ments of identifiable texts. The others have full-page images, which depict the textual narrative of the Book of Kings in successive frames, four on each folio. They are however not in good condition. They offer, on the other hand, in formation usually not visible. They contain in the form of “under drawings” instructions to the painter of how to compose the scenes.4 These leaves form the so-called Quedlingburg Itala (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ms. theol. lat. fol. 485) and have been dated to the 5th century most likely produced in Rome. This very fragmentary condition has made it difficult to say how much of the text was actually illustrated. It is not clear if only the first or more of the books of Kings were illustrated since the fragments with the surviving illustrations are only from the first book of Kings (I Samuel).5 The same question as to the intent of the illustrations in relation to the text can also be raised for the *Vat. gr. 333 of the 11th century. Was it an attempt to illustrate all Old Testament books that follow the books of the Octateuchs as Lassus has suggested or is it an independent manuscript, with a specific need and purpose? To my mind the Vatican manuscript

2 An additional color image of a whole folio in the volume by John Lowden, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, p. 305, fig. 177. 3 Degering/Boeckler, Die Quedlinburger Italafragmente; Levin, The Quedlingburg Itala. 4 These guidelines to the painter first make clear that at least two different people worked in the production of this manuscript, and secondly that the painter was being asked to create images from scratch, meaning that there was no earlier illustrated version available or not yet produced from which he could draw his images. It also suggests that there was someone, if not the scribe, who had very definite ideas as to the specific composition and characters he wanted to have depicted. 5 The illustrations correspond to I Kings 10:2-3 (I Samuel 10:2-3) and I Kings 15:13-33 (I Samuel 15:13-33).