ý'i 'L, ý, "ý ýe. ý 's , ý.,, rC , ! ý- ý r44 ý' ý Ofprint from ESSAYS IN THE HISTORY OF ART PRESENTED TO RUDOLF \1'ITTKOWER PHAIDON 1967 ERWIN PANOFSKY Hercules Agricola :A Further Complication in the Problem of the Illustrated Hrabanus Manuscripts `Ea memorare volo, explicare nequeo. ' I (W. M. Lindsay) Since the end of the nineteenth century, Hrabanus' Magnentius Hrabanus Maurus, born in 780, received De universo has aroused the interest not only of his education at Tours under Alcuin but spent the palaeographers and students of medieval literature but greater part of his adult life in the Monastery at Fulda also of art historians. Of the c. thirty manuscripts which he directed as Abbot from 822 to 842. After which have come down to us, ranging from the tenth five years (842-847) of withdrawal to the nearby to the fifteenth century, no less than five are illustrated, Monastery on the Petersberg-his own foundation- though only two provide us with a nearly complete he was elected Archbishop of Mayence, where lie died set of miniatures. And these illustrations bear witness in 856.1 to a constant representational tradition still rooted in In his retreat he composed-or, rather, compiled-a the art of classical antiquity. De big encyclopedia entitled naturis rerum (but mostly The two completely illustrated and completely pre- cited as De universo) which he dedicated to his old served manuscripts, separated by about four centuries, friend, Bishop Hemmo of Halberstadt, and a copy of are, first, the `Codex Casinensis 132' (hereafter referred which he offered to King Louis the Germanic. Con- to as `Cas.'), which has never left the Monastery of cerned with `omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis', this Montecassino where it was both written and illumin- work is largely copied from the Etymologiae (occasion- ated in 1022-1023; and, second, a manuscript in the Origines) by Isidore Seville Vatican ally quoted as of (c. 560- Library, Cod. Pal. lat. 291 (hereafter referred it differs from its in 636); but model several respects. to as `Pal. '), which was written in South or Central is in different Germany The vast material presented a order in 1425 (the explicit even states the precise books instead (there are twenty-two of twenty, and the date: November 8) and is no less fully-as a matter of Hrabanus discussion starts, as thought proper, with fact, a little more fully-illustrated in a charmingly Trinity God, the and the angels instead of with the provincial version of what is now generally called the liberal arts); some of Isidore's entries are omitted; and `International Style of around 1400'. ' most of them are lengthily `moralized' by the applica- interpretatio Christiana foreign Many-unfortunately tion of an still to 3. not all-of its three hundred and sixty- illustrations Isidore. ' one are reproduced in P. A. Amelli, Miniature sacre e profane dell'anno 1023, Montecassino, 1896, but only in Cf. M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des 1. chromolithographs which, being hand-made, obscure the style Mittelalters, Munich, ff.; 1911-31, z, pp. 288 III, p. 1o62. of the miniatures and isolate them from the script. Photographic So far I know there is Hrabanus' De 2. as no critical edition of reproductions exist only of some thirty pictures or pages selected based comparative the according universo on a study of manuscripts which to the requirements of a given context. See, e. g., differ in individual but in E. A. Lowe, tend to not only readings also the Scriptura Beneventana, Oxford, 1929,1, P. 344, the be in numbering of chapters and, as will seen, the presence and II, pl. 59; R. Wittkower, 'The Marvels of the East', Journal sentences For Warburg or absence of single or even whole sections. the of the and Courtauld Institutes, v, 1942, pp. 159 if., being the text is from Migne's E. Panofsky, time normally quoted vol. cxi of p1.42b; It Significato nelle arti visioe, Turin, 1962, Latina (hereafter P. L. ), Patrologia referred to as cols. 9-614, p. 52, Fig. 13; and, above all, F. Saxl, 'Illustrated Medieval is reprint of G. Colvenerius (George Colvener Encyclopaedias', Lectures, London, which a straight 1957,1, pp. 228 if., and 11, Colveneer), Magnenti Hrabani Mauri ('p. or ed., opera omnia, pls. 155 a 107' should read 'p. Io6'), c, e ('p. 290' should Cologne, (not in P. L. ). This in 'p. b-d; 1626-7 1617, as stated turn read 291'); 156 157 a, c; 158 a, c, e; 159 a, c; 16o a, c largely the princeps: Rabanus, de ('P. 'P. agrees with editio opus 474' should read 472'), e; 161 a, c, e; 162 a, c; 163 a, c; de proprietate universo seu sermonum et mystica rerum signifi- 164 a, e; 165 a, c; 167 c; H. Giess, 'The Sculpture of the Strasbourg, Adolf Rusch, before Santa catione, probably shortly 1467 Cloisters of Sofia in Benevento', Art Bulletin, XLI, 1959, *13669); incunabulum (Hain-Copinger, photostats of this were pp- 249 if., Fig. 26. For the general problem of illustrated kindly disposal by Dr. Curt F. Bühler placed at my of the medieval encyclopedias, see Sax], loc. cit., and 'Die Bibliothek Morgan Library. In to the text I keep to the Warburg ihr Ziel', Vorträge referring order of and der Bibliothek Warburg, i, chapters adopted in P. L. Isidore's Etymologiae is accessible in 1921-2, pp. i ff.; further, A. Goldschmidt, 'Friihmittelalterliche Latina, Patrologia LXXXII, cols. 74-1054, and in the critical illustrierte Enzyklopädien', ibid., III, 1923-4, pp. 215 if. by W. M. Lindsay, Oxford, Cf. J. Engels, `La Pal, discovered edition 1911. 4. was and excellently described as well as 1'Etymologie Port6e de Isidorienne', Studi medievali, Spoleto, analyzed by P. Lehmann, 'Illustrierte Hrabanus Codices; Series III, i, 1962, pp. i if. Fuldaer Studien, II', Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-his- [2 0] IV HERCULES AGRICOLA: THE PROBLEM OF THE ILLUSTRATED HRABANUS MANUSCRIPTS 21 Of the three other illustrated manuscripts two are great value were it not for the fact that blank spaces mere fragments: two isolated vellum leaves, probably are left for all the pictures planned but not executed- written and illuminated in West Germany about 1200, which enables us to compare its organization with that which belong to Book IV, Chapters 2-5 (De martyri- of Cas. and Pal. bus, De Ecclesia et Synagoga, De religione et fide, De clericis), in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. II 5 disiecta bra (more 17177; and the men: than one That these five illustrated manuscripts are interrelated hundred from pages or clippings pages) of a manu- cannot, I think, be doubted. ' There arise, however, Catalonian hand late script ascribed to a of the two questions. First, do all the manuscripts postdating fairly in fourteenth century, good quality with respect Cas. depend on it, or do some derive from a common illustrations but barbarously to script as well as cut archetype now lost? Second, if we do have to postulate Most, its fragments apart. though not all, of surviving such a parent manuscript, how do we have to imagine by Preussische Staats- were acquired and assembled the the genesis of this chef d'oeuvre inconnu? bibliothek in Berlin (Cod. fol. lat. 930) and are at The first of these questions has been conclusively Library Tubin- present on deposit in the University at answered by Paul Lehmann. He demonstrated that ` The fifth (Vatican Library, Cod. gen. manuscript Pal. and Reg. constitute a family related to but different Reg. lat. hereafter `Reg. ') dates 391, referred to as from Cas., and that, therefore, these two manuscripts from fifteenth the early century and was most prob- derive from a model antedating Cas. And, since Pal. in Italy (it in fact by ably produced was owned an was written and illuminated in Germany, this model Italian humanist The is as early as c. 1450). text was presumably produced at Fulda, perhaps within in complete, except that it abruptly ends the middle the orbit of Hrabanus Maurus himself. ' This Lehmann (XXII, but of the antepenultimate chapter 14); the proved by pointing out that no less than four pictures illustrator died, dismissed or in Pal. rather rustic either was present and planned for Reg. -witness the lost heart after having produced seven pen drawings lapis the beginning. ' Late, scantily and one sketch at 8. This to the Berlin fragments illustrated, indifferently in also applies which, according to written, and careless the Swarzenski, loc. cit., `seem to deviate from the other known rendering of the text, this manuscript would not be of illustrated copies of this work'. It is true that Paul Lehmann, 'Reste einer Bilderhandschrift', cannot see a `direct connection between the Berlin fragments and one of the other manuscripts'; torischen Klasse der Bayrischen Akademie der Wissenschaften but he admits that `not infrequently an affinity is evident' be- Cas. In zu München, 1927, pp. 13 if. The only trivial objection which tween them and my opinion this affinity is so close that direct descent Berlin fragments from may be raised is that the chapter references do not consistently even a of the Cas. might be The destroyed Decapitation refer to either the order adopted in P. L. or to the occasionally considered. miniature, showing a Scene formerly illustrating deviant numeration in Pal. itself. Cf. also E. Panofsky and and the chapter De theatro (xx, 36, F. Sax], 'Classical Mythology in Medieval Art', Metropolitan illustrated in Rotulus, no. 1583, and our Fig. 3), agreed with Cas., (Amelli, in it Museum Studies, IV, 2,1933, pp. 228 if., particularly p. 258, p. 489 pl.