The romance of the Maccabees in mediaeval art and literature

The essential concern of this study is an investigation of the impact of the Naccabean legend on the art of the Kiddle Ages, To this end, we have seen fit to divide our subject under two general headings, the first treating of the literary aspects of this theme and the second dealing with the visual tradition as manifested in particular in illuminated manuscripts. Part One is devoted to a consideration of two fundamental currents of mediaeval vernacular literature on the Maccabees that we have designated quite simply as the "secular" and the "religious." The secular current, best characterized by the epic fragments in Berne and the prolix romances of Gautier de Belleperche and Pierre du Riés, was essentially the province of the jongleur or lay poet, and the form and presentation of this poetry was invariably in conformity with that of epic and courtly literature. Moreover, the most salient feature of these poems was a concentration upon the implicit knightly and chivalric elements in the Maccabean histories; in short, those aspects of the biblical account most readily subject to interpretation as an exhortation to, and a justification for, the Crusades. The religious tradition of vernacular literature on the Maccabees is best defined as an attempt to synthesize mediaeval exegesis with the Vulgate account in a form at once poetic and understandable to the lay reader. The emphasis in these works lay, quite naturally, within the biblical framework. Throughout the Middle Ages, poets frequently made allusion to the worth of the Maccabees and it was most frequently upon the image that had evolved in the literature of the secular tradition that they drew in singing the praises of these noble Jewish warriors. Above all, it was the figure of Judas Maccabaeus that gradually emerged in the epics and romances as the preux chevalier, the peer of Roland, Charlemagne and Lancelot, and, in the l4th and 15th centuries, he was to become one of the most celebrated of ancient heroes by mediaeval poets. Part Two can be construed ostensibly as a study of the miniature cycles that illustrate the extant manuscripts of the Romance of the Maccabees. The Maccabean romances are of particular significance in that it is in the illustration of this legend - the only histories illuminated both as a part of the Bible and as secular literature - that we can most immediately and effectively view the important transition from religious to profane art in the late Romanesque and early gothic periods. Chapters one and two of this section are concerned with the tradition of the illustration of the Maccabees in Latin and Greek Bibles. Chapter three treats of the previously unpublished miniature cycles that decorate the manuscripts of the Maccabean romances while chapter four is an attempt to determine what relationships, if any, can be established between the biblical and romance cycles of the Maccabees. In addition, chapter four contains a discussion of the two principal means of decorating secular texts, "literal" and "formulistic" illustration. Chapter fire can be interpreted as an epilogue to the considerations of the previous sections in that.it deals with the expansion of the Maccabean legend in lJfth and 15th century illuminated histories, chronicles and other literary texts. Our conclusions, briefly summarised, reveal that the influence of religious upon secular iconography was of a profoundly important but diverse nature. Apropos of our immediate concern, secular artists evolved a process of adapting religious schemes to use within the profane context far too generalised to admit the direct dependence of the illustration of the Maccabean romances on the biblical cycles. Additionally, the impact of secular illumination back upon religious art is a discernible phenomenon from the late 12th century on^that was of equal measure and significance to the reverse of the equation. In fine, the unity of the text and decoration of the Romance of the Maccabees resides in the pronounced secular character of this art that makes it more at one with the literature and illustration developed to delight and instruct chivalric and courtly society than to the older, more traditional^ current of biblical art that emerged from a monastic culture.