Carolingian Innovation and Observation in the Paintings and Star Catalogs of Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Ms. 3307 (2008)
Ramirez-Weaver, Eric M. (Author)
New York University
Alexander, Jonathan J. G.
Edition Details: Advisor: Alexander, Jonathan J. G.
Physical Details: 633 pp.
Language: English
The Astronomical-Computistical-Pedagogical Handbook in Madrid (Biblioteca Nacional de España, Ms. 3307) is the most reliable record of the lost Handbook of 809. The Handbook of 809 arose at the intersection of Carolingian needs for a teaching book facilitating calendrical and astronomical study, an orthodox Christian assessment of late antique science and its pagan roots, and scientific interest in the classical forms of the star pictures. This dissertation identified three discrete recensions of manuscripts derived from the lost original Handbook of 809, which was created after Charlemagne convened a synod on astronomical and calendrical reform under the direction of Adalhard of Corbie. The copy of the Handbook of 809 in Madrid includes the truest copies after the original miniatures, but each handbook displays artistic differences. This dissertation shows that this is at least in part because the early, finely illustrated copies of the Handbook of 809 are linked to members of the royal Carolingian family. The copy in Madrid was made for Drogo, who was Bishop of Metz (beginning in 823), at the moment of the book's manufacture in Metz ca. 830. In this dissertation, it is argued that three noteworthy projects intertwined and influenced the creation of the text and images in the Handbook of 809 and its copy in Madrid. First, the miniatures in Madrid hark back to classical pictorial prototypes. Second, Hrabanus Maurus in his De clericorum institutione Book III.25 underscored the need for young clerics to study the technical skills associated with astrology in order to reckon feasts and perform medical treatments accurately. The Madrid book is designed to make this possible. Third, the philosophical and theological texts of Isidore of Seville encouraged students of the liberal arts to recognize their place within the ordered cosmos. The great innovation of the Handbook of 809 as revealed by this analysis of the copy in Madrid was to recombine this Christian outlook with the classical scientific learning available in the ninth century.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/05 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3312920.
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