Zuleika Murat The Compendium historiae in Genealogia Christi and its Iconographical Tradition: Legacy of Classical Antiquity in a Mediaeval Biblical Anthology

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa155-4-43
Title The Compendium historiae in Genealogia Christi and its Iconographical Tradition: Legacy of Classical Antiquity in a Mediaeval Biblical Anthology
Author email zuleika.murat@unipd.it
About author Zuleika Murat — Ph. D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Via 8 Febbraio 2, 35122 Padova, Italy
In the section Classical Antiquity on the Ribs of European Middle Ages DOI10.18688/aa155-4-43
Year 2015 Volume 5 Pages 404–411
Type of article RAR Index UDK 75.056 Index BBK 85.14; 8 4 ( 0 ) 4
Abstract

This article aims to analyse a little known, yet extremely important, phenomenon of reception of Сlassical antiquity and its legacy in the Middle Ages. It deals with the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, a biblical anthology created at the end of the 12th century by Peter of Poitiers, theologian and teacher at the Cathedral school of Paris. In the prologues, Peter himself declared that the purpose of his work was to help his students to fix in memory the complex biblical material. For this reason the text was written in a simplified and resumptive way, and it was also accompanied by an 15 On this very interesting manuscript see [11, p. 165] and [16, pp. 180–183, no. 21]. unusual apparatus of images that immediately visualized the main concepts which the students should learn and remember. Peter seems to have derived the figurative system from Greek and Roman mnemonic treatises. Through selected case studies, I aim to demonstrate how Сlassical antiquity and its legacy made a contribution in the creation of that specific art system, tracing the connections between ancient theory and mediaeval practice.
Keywords
Reference Zuleika Murat. The Compendium historiae in Genealogia Christi and its Iconographical Tradition: Legacy of Classical Antiquity in a Mediaeval Biblical Anthology. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 5. Eds: Svetlana V. Maltseva, Ekaterina Yu. Stanyukovich-Denisova, Anna V. Zakharova. St. Petersburg, NP-Print Publ., 2015, pp. 404–411. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa155-4-43
Publication Article language english
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