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Biblical History and Medieval Historiography: Rationalizing Strategies in Crusader ArtAuthor(s): Daniel H. WeissSource: MLN, Vol. 108, No. 4, French Issue (Sep., 1993), pp. 710-737Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2904959 .

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Biblical History and Medieval Historiography: Rationalizing Strategies in Crusader Art

Daniel H. Weiss

For Ruth Smith, on her retirement

In the wake of the fortuitous and even miraculous conquest ofJeru- salem in 1099 the European crusades to the Holy Land came to be associated gradually, but ever more consistently, with failure. In the ensuing two centuries the European armies in outremer endured far more defeats than victories as they struggled to maintain a ten- uous grip on an ever diminishing kingdom.1 However, the failure of the crusaders-in military and political terms, not to mention the effectiveness of their missionary work-is scarcely a matter of dis- pute.2 More intriguing are the underlying reasons the Latins per- sisted with this losing venture so long after harsh realities, and perhaps good sense, might have prevailed. Surely, the explanation is linked to the colossal implausibility of the conception rather than to any inadequacies in the execution of military strategy or even to the vicissitudes of Divine support, regardless of what we are told by the likes of William of Tyre and Oliver of Paderborn among others.3

1 For an overview on the military history of the crusades, see H. E. Mayer, The Crusades (Oxford, 1988); J. Prawer, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (London, 1972); and S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1951).

2 See B. Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches towards the Muslims (Princeton, 1984).

3 William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey, (New York, 1943); P. W. Edbury andJ. G. Rowe, William of Tyre: Historian of

MLN, 108 (1993): 710-737 ? 1993 by The Johns Hopkins University Press



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Apparently the ideological character of the enterprise so domi- nated an objective strategic assessment that little account seems to have been made either of Islam's numerical superiority or the tre- mendous logistical disadvantage associated with defending a kingdom perched precariously on the Palestinian littoral. What is more, the crusading armies and pilgrims were largely uninterested in es- tablishing robust and populous communities in Palestine.4 Most believed that their obligation to God and the pope was satisfied when the battle and subsequent burials were completed. Quite sim- ply, resettling in the Holy Land did not figure in their plans.5 As a result, the task of repopulating the new colony with live European Christians-the only group legally accorded the status of citizens- was a substantial and ongoing problem that contributed ultimately to the collapse of the Latin settlements.6

It seems clear in hindsight that the crusading enterprise was doomed before a single Christian knight ever stepped foot in the Levant precisely because the idea made little military or economic sense.7 Ultimately, then, the failure of the crusades was the result of a clash between a highly irrational strategy-grounded all too fully in religious ideology-and a harsh reality.

Of course, the near two-hundred year duration of this venture attests to a more complex array of motives. No doubt, Urban II was motivated by a desire to consolidate papal authority, and the idea must have had great currency also for many less devout who sought adventure, riches, or even escape from a dreary or tedious existence at home.8 Certainly, the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 should remind us that rapaciousness coexisted with, and occa-

the Latin East (Cambridge, 1988), p. 170; and Oliver of Paderborn, The Capture of Damietta, trans. J. J. Gavigan, (Philadelphia, 1948). 4 See Prawer, Latin Kingdom, p. 524, and idem, Crusader Institutions (Oxford, 1980), p. 88ff. 5 The crusaders' army, which numbered between 40,000 and 60,000 at the time of the conquest ofJerusalem on 15 July 1099, was reduced to about 1,200 by September of 1100. See W. B. Stevenson, The Crusades in the East (Cambridge, 1907), pp. 33-44, and Prawer, Crusader Institutions, p. 89.

6 For example, among other restrictions, Moslems and Jews were banished by official edict from inhabiting Jerusalem. See Prawer, Crusader Institutions, p. 90ff., and "Social Classes in the Crusader States: the 'Minorities,' " A History of the Crusades, V, The Impact of the Crusades on the Near East (Madison, 1985), pp. 59-115.

7 On the economics of the crusader settlements, see Prawer, Crusader Institutions, p. 91.

8 On the preaching of the crusades by Urban II, see P. J. Cole, The Preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095-1270 (Cambridge, MA, 1991).



712 DANIEL H. WEISS

sionally superseded, religious mission as a motivating force. Nev- ertheless, the crusades were first and foremost a manifestation of religious ideology. What is more, the crusades should not be construed as an exploration into other cultures-serving as an international or cross-cultural bridge-but rather, they were a means of reinforcing European value systems by imposing a western, feudal, and Catholic order on a new land.9 Indeed, the diversity of peoples, cultures, languages, and customs present in the Holy Land during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries seems to have provoked re- markably little interest on the part of the European knights.

It is not surprising that such a totalized expression of religious ideology would, from the onset, be described in biblical terms. The medieval West constructed its rationale for propagating religious wars in the Holy Land in large part by appropriating biblical precedent-especially that of the Old Testament. Within such a scriptural context, it was quite natural that Adhemar, bishop of Le Puy and martyred hero of the first crusade, would be eulogized as another Moses who, like his great Old Testament ancestor, led his people to the Holy Land but did not live to see the triumphant result.10 A half century later, when Louis VII took the cross for the ill-fated second crusade, Peter the Venerable also resorted to such biblicizing rhetoric,

The old times are renewed in our own age and the miracles of the old people are revived in the days of the new grace. From Egypt broke forth Moses and he destroyed the kings of the Ammorites with the peoples subjected to them. Joshua, his successor prostrated, on God's command, the kings of Canaan with their countless peoples, and after the impious had been destroyed, he divided that country by lot among the people of God. Starting out from the utmost ends of the West, yes indeed from the sunset itself, the Christian king threatens the Orient and, armed with the Cross of Christ, he attacks the nefarious people of the Arabs or Persians who had tried to subjugate anew the Holy Land."

This form of biblicism was indeed so fundamental a part of crusading rhetoric and ideology that it even determined the name

9 This point has been argued by Prawer (see, for example, Latin Kingdom and Crusader Institutions) and more recently by Stephen Nichols in a lecture at the Johns Hopkins University, "Anthropology of Space in Crusade Literature," Colloquim on Cultural Comparison, 14 April 1992.

10 See A. Derbes, "A Crusading Fresco at the Cathedral of Le Puy," Art Bulletin, 73, (1991), p. 573.

11 The Letters of Peter the Venerable, ed. G. Constable (Cambridge, 1967), 1:327.



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given to the new settlements, Regnum David."12 Such uses of biblical history were of course not new to the twelfth-century crusaders.

Indeed, the idea of embarking on military crusades to liberate the Holy Land may have had special resonance in France precisely because the Capetians so avidly defined themselves in biblical terms. This form of self-representation was affirmed by others including, most important, a long succession of popes such as Gregory IX who acknowledged that, like the great kings of Judah, the kings of France benefitted from preferred status in the eyes of God.13

The new "Chosen People," then, might have been especially recep- tive to the idea of a holy war in the land of Moses, David, and Solomon even if such a venture turned out to be arduous and fraught with risk. Indeed, the dominant role of the Franks in leading the crusades and defending the Latin kingdom, may well be derived from an inherent perception that France did possess a sacred legacy which was accompanied by commensurate responsibilities.

Such an entrenched and elevated legacy, notwithstanding, the decision by Louis IX to take the cross in 1244 must be seen as ill- conceived, which is indeed how it was viewed even in its own time.14 Although the king's mother Blanche may have been the most out- spoken critic, others too, saw crusading as an enterprise with a legacy of failure no longer worthy of a king's time and effort.'5 In fact, 150 years after the initial conquest, the Kingdom of David was in serious distress and European support for the crusades was wan- ing. By 1244, the Holy City, which had been regained fifteen years earlier only through the diplomacy of Frederick II, was again lost to the Korezmian Turks. Thus, the surprise and disdain registered by

12 See J. Prawer, "The Roots of Medieval Colonialism," The Meeting of Two Worlds, ed. V. P. Goss (Kalamazoo, MI, 1986), p. 24.

13 Dei filius, cujus imperiis totus orbis obsequitur, cujus beneplacito celestis exer- citus agmina famulantur, secundum divisiones linguarum et gentium, in signum divine potentie diversa regna constituit, diversa populorum regimina in ministerium mandatorum celestum ordinavit; inter que, sicut tribus Judah inter ceteros filios patriarche as specialis benedictionis dona susciptur, sic regnum Francie pre ceteris terrarum populis a Domina prerogitiva honoris et gratie insignitur. Layettes du Tresor des Chartres, ed. A. Tuelet, et. al. (Paris, 1863-1909), 2, #2835. See also J. Strayer, "France: the Holy Land, the Chosen People, and the Most Christian King," Medieval Statecraft and the Perspectives of History (Princeton, 1971), p. 312ff.

14 See W. C.Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade (Princeton, 1979), p. 3ff. andJ. Richard, Saint Louis: roi d'uneFrancefe'odale soutien de la Terre sainte (Paris, 1987).

15 According to Joinville, "When [Blanche] heard he had taken the Cross, she displayed as much grief as if she had seen him dead" in the Life of Saint Louis (see Chronicles of the Crusades, ed. M. R. B. Shaw, [London, 1962], p. 191). On the general reaction to Louis' decision in France, see also, Jordan, Louis IX, pp. 3-13.



714 DANIEL H. WEISS

the French court at Louis' bold pronouncement was only an expression of the prevailing perception that crusading was an outdated activity and more important, one that was unlikely to succeed even with modest aims. Whereas much has been written about Louis' reasons for taking the Cross, including especially his desire to gain emancipation from Blanche, such ascribed motives were quickly superseded by religious ideology, the defining characteristic of Louis' kingship. Saint Louis, the "most Christian" king was foremost re- sponding to a deeply held religious impulse.

The crusade of 1248 was indeed unprecedented in its fervor.16 It was to be the most well-equipped ever mounted and the goal was not only to re-acquire biblical lands for the faith but to subjugate all inhabitants to Christian rule, which in Louis' eyes included religious conversion of the infidel.17 Although conversion was not al- ways an explicit goal of preceding crusades, Louis IX openly asserted this objective and engaged in this enterprise with the utmost seriousness. Thus, when the French king was offered Jerusalem, the Holy City itself, in exchange for the recently conquered Egyp- tian city of Damietta, Louis declined, holding out for a higher goal, which according to the thirteenth-century chronicler Matthew Paris included making the sultan and his people glorify the Christian God.18

The ideological rhetoric of this crusade was stated perhaps most clearly by the French king himself who, upon arriving in Egypt in June of 1249, boldly proclaimed to the sultan al-Malik as Salih and to the Moslem world at large,

You will be aware that I am the head of the Christian community, as I acknowledge that you are the head of the Moslem community. I have given you sufficient demonstration of our strength and the best advice I can offer. I have told you about the armies obedient to me, filling the mountains and the plains, numerous as the stones of the earth and

16 The literature on Louis' first crusade is vast. Two firsthand accounts are known: Joinville, Life of Saint Louis and the continuation of William of Tyre's A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea in the so-called Rothelin manuscript (in Recueil des historiens des croisades [Paris, 1841-1906], 2: 483-639). For a useful overview with bibliography, see Jordan, Louix IX and J. Strayer, "The Crusades of Louis IX," in A History of the Crusades, II, The Later Crusades, 1189-1311, eds. R. L. Wolff and H. W. Hazard, (Mad- ison, 1969), pp. 487-518.

17 Royal accounts from the period put the cost at more than one million pounds tournois. See Strayer, "Crusades of Louis IX," p. 487, and E. M. Hallam, Capetian France: 987-1328 (New York, 1980), p. 215.

18 Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, ed. H. P. Luard, Rolls Series, 57 (London, 1872-1883), 5:309-310, and Kedar, Crusade and Mission, p. 162.



MLN 715

poised against you like the sword of destiny. I put you on your guard against them.19

After the seemingly effortless victory at Damietta, the fortunes of the crusade began to decline; in a series of engagements over the next several months, Louis lost his brother count Robert of Artois in Mansurah and shortly thereafter the king himself was captured by the Mamluks. In the course of five and a half months in Egypt, this most well-equipped crusade ever mounted was effectively deci- mated. After securing his release by ransom, Louis decided to con- tinue on with his now poorly equipped crusade to the Holy Land. In May of 1250 the king, accompanied by only the most loyal of his remaining forces, arrived in Acre.

During the four years he was based in Acre, among other activi- ties including the extensive rebuilding of crusader fortifications, the French king commissioned an illuminated manuscript, an ex- cerpted Old Testament with an extensive and complex series of frontispiece illustrations. The Old Testament, now in the Biblio- theque de l'Arsenal in Paris (Ms. 5211), appears to be the only surviving work of art produced for Louis IX while on crusade and its significance derives, at least in part, from the remarkable circumstances of its production.20 Whereas the pictorial cycle is clearly related to other works produced in France during this period, such as the sculpted interior facade of Reims Cathedral, the illustrations of the Louis Psalter, and the stained glass of the Sainte-Chapelle, the images in this manuscript are distinguished for their role in ex- plicating Louis' crusading ideology while he was still in the Holy Land.21 Produced at a time when the king's crusading objectives must have been challenged most directly by an unsatisfactory mili-

19 The letter and the sultan's subsequent response were recorded by Taqi ad-Din al-Maqrizi but are based on earlier sources. See F. Gabrieli, Arab Historians of the Crusades (New York, 1957), pp. 300-301.

20 On the Arsenal Old Testament see D. H. Weiss, "The Three Solomon Portraits in the Arsenal Old Testament and the Construction of Meaning in Crusader Paint- ing," Arte Medievale VI (1992), pp. 15-38; idem, The Pictorial Language of the Arsenal Old Testament: Gothic and Byzantine Contributions and the Meaning of Crusader Art (Ph.D. diss., The Johns Hopkins University, 1992); and H. Buchthal, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1957), pp. 54-68.

21 On the interior facade of Reims Cathedral, see W. Sauerlander, La Sculpture Gothique en France: 1140-1270 (Paris, 1972), p. 166 and plates 229-233, and D. Sadler- Davis, The Sculptural Program of the Verso of the WestFacade of Reims Cathedral (Ph.D. diss., University of Indiana, 1984). For the Louis Psalter (Paris, Bibliotheque Natio- nale, ms. lat. 10525), see H. Omont, Psautierde Saint-Louis (Paris, n.d.). On the stained glass of the Sainte-Chapelle, see M. Aubert, et al., Les Vitraux de Notre-Dame et de la Sainte-Chapelle de Paris, Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, France I (Paris, 1958), pp. 71-332, and J.-M. Leniaud and F. Perrot, Sainte-Chapelle (Paris, 1991).



716 DANIEL H. WEISS

tary outcome as well as recognition of an able and equally commit- ted opponent, the Arsenal Old Testament provides an intriguing perspective on a unique, even defining, moment in the history of Louis' kingship. These biblical images, moreover, reveal how medieval, or rather biblical, historiography was employed in art to affirm or at least to rationalize an increasingly unrealistic foreign policy. That is, one goal of medieval historiography was ideological: to vindicate motives.22

The pictorial cycle of the Arsenal manuscript comprises twenty illuminated frontispieces preceding selected books of the Old Testa- ment. The text of the manuscript is an extremely rare and clumsy version of Old French which was first translated from the Vulgate in England during the middle of the twelfth century.23 In contrast to the text, the illuminated frontispieces within this crusader manuscript derive from no single source: the format of the frontispieces is related both to western and Byzantine traditions, the style of the illustrations is derived from Byzantine painting, and the iconography, too, is drawn from diverse sources, east and west. Indeed, in the Arsenal manuscript the creation of a complex and sophisticated pictorial language appears to have superseded in required effort and re- sources the transcription of the biblical text. The pictorial aspect of the manuscript thus appears to take precedence over the written in a manner related to such French works of the period as the Bibles moralisee and the Pierpont Morgan Library Old Testament.24

22 On the topic of medieval historiography under the Capetians, see G. M. Spie- gel, Romancing the Past: The Rise of Vernacular Prose Historiography in Thirteenth-Century France (Berkeley, 1993), pp. 269ff. and esp. 317, and idem, "Political Unity in Medi- eval Historiography: A Sketch," History and Theory, XIV (1975), pp. 314-325.

23 The textual source for the Arsenal manuscript probably made its way to the Holy Land with its patron, a Templar knight named Richard of Hastings who may well have died in the battle of Hattin in 1187 thereby leaving his manuscript in the possession of his order which had established headquarters in Acre in the thirteenth century. On the history of the text, see Weiss, Pictorial Language, pp. 24-42; J. Folda, Crusader Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1275-1291 (Princeton, 1976), pp. 60ff; and S. Berger, Bible Franfaise in Moyen Age (Paris, 1884), pp. 100-108 and 368.

24 Like the Moralized Bibles and the Morgan Old Testament, the Arsenal Old Testament may thus be seen primarily as a picture book with accompanying text. On the Moralized Bibles, see H. F. de Laborde, Etude sur la Bible Moralisee Ilustree (Paris, 1911-1917), R. Haussherr, Bible Moralisee: Faksimile-Ausgabe in originalformat des Codex Vindobonensis 2554 des Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek (Graz and Paris, 1973). On the Morgan Library Old Testament (ms. M638), see S. C. Cockerell andJ. Plummer, Old Testament Miniatures (New York, 1969), and H. Stahl, The Iconographic Sources of the Old Testament Miniatures, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 638 (Doctoral Dissertation, New York University, 1974).



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This essay examines one segment of the Arsenal pictorial program: the narrative cycle illustrating the story of David and Solomon depicted in the three frontispieces preceding I-III Kings.25 These frontispieces are of interest not only because they exemplify the manner in which the entire pictorial cycle has been constructed but also because the images within them explicate one of the central historiographical themes of the manuscript's program: namely the role of David and Solomon as biblical exempla for Louis IX while he was in the Holy Land. The Kings cycle, then, is a form of synkrisis, related pictorially and conceptually not only to the royal art of the Capetians but to that of Byzantium as well.26

The cycle comprises sixteen scenes distributed on the three frontispieces (figs. 1-3). The program begins on the frontispiece to I Kings with the meeting of Hannah and Eli and the calling of Samuel which establish the role of Samuel as the Lord's appointed repre- sentative (fig. 1). The next scene in the narrative is Saul's anointing; the first king of Judah is shown crowned and seated on a faldstool with his head bowed towards Samuel who anoints him with the sacred unction.

Newly anointed, the king is seated upon a faldstool made of inter- secting legs terminating in lion heads. Known from antiquity as the sella curulis, this faldstool was the royal coronation throne for the kings of France during the Capetian period.27 Thought to have been the throne of Dagobert, the seventh-century Merovingian king, the actual faldstool was in use during the Carolingian period and was restored at Saint-Denis in the twelfth century. Thereafter it became the customary coronation seat for the Capetian kings. Thus,

25 The rubricator of the Arsenal Old Testament uses the Vulgate designation of I-IV Kings rather than I-II Samuel and I-II Kings. This essay follows the Arsenal Old Testament chapter headings.

26 On the topic of Byzantine synkrisis, see H. Maguire, "The Art of Comparing in Byzantium," Art Bulletin, LXX (1988), pp. 88-103; R. Nelson, "The Emperor in Byzan- tine Art of the Twelfth Century" Byzantinische Forschungen, 8 (1982), 123-183. For a similar use of Byzantine synkrisis in twelfth-century crusader art, see B. Kiihnel, "The Kingly Statement of the Bookcovers of Queen Melisende's Psalter," Tesserae: Fest- schrift fir Josef Engemann in Jahrbuch fir Antike und Christentum, 18 (1991), pp. 340-357.

27 The medieval history of this throne is recounted briefly in Le tresor de Saint-Denis, Musee du Louvre (Paris, 1991), pp. 63-68, and S. M. Crosby, The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis from Its Beginnings to the Death of Suger, 475-1151 (New Haven, 1987), pp. 43-44 and fig. 19. On the history of the sella curulis from its origins in the ancient period, see O. Wanscher, Sella Curulis: the Folding Stool: An Ancient Symbol of Dignity (Copenhagen, 1980).



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Figure 3. Paris, Biblioth/6que de l'Arsenal, ms. 5211, fol. 183v. Arsenal Old Testa- ment, frontispiece to III Kings.



MLN 721

in this image the king of Israel is not merely anointed as is called for in the biblical text, he is anointed as part of a coronation in the manner of the Capetian kings. The Old Testament image, then, has been rendered in a contemporary idiom, a practice that was quite common in French painting of the period as can be seen in the depiction of Saul's anointment in the Morgan Library Old Testa- ment, a manuscript produced most likely in Paris only a few years before the middle of the century (fig. 4). In the French depiction, Saul is again shown anointed as he is seated upon the golden faldstool.

The meaning of the sella curulis as a symbol of authority may also explain why, in the composition of Samuel before Eli in the upper register, Eli is shown seated upon the same faldstool. In the depiction Samuel explains to Eli that he has lost God's favor. Presumably, then, Eli will also relinquish the golden faldstool that symbolizes his authority.

In the scene adjacent to Saul's anointing, the rise of David is recounted with the depiction of the slaying of Goliath. The first frontispiece then concludes on the bottom register with two scenes illustrating the downfall of Saul. In the first, Saul is shown falling on his sword as he realizes that his army will be defeated by the Phi- listines and in the second scene the dead and vanquished king is beheaded. The six scenes in the frontispiece to I Kings record the passage of divine authority from the priest Eli who proved unworthy, to Samuel and then to Saul, who failed for his sins of pride and false piety. Moreover, the plight of Saul is contrasted directly with the rise of David.28

David is anointed and therefore established as the new king of Israel in the first scene of the second frontispiece (fig. 2).29 David is shown in the center of the composition, crowned, enthroned, and holding an orb in his left hand as he is anointed by Samuel who stands to the right holding a small container and extending the ram's horn with the sacred unction over David's head. A second attendant stands to the right of David holding the labarum. This composition, like many in the Arsenal Old Testament may well be

28 This theme was, of course, common in medieval exegesis. See A. S. Kapelrud, "King David and the Sons of Saul," The Sacral Kingship, VIIIth International Congress for the History of Religions, Rome 1955 (Leiden, 1959), pp. 294-301.

29 David was anointed three times: as a boy during Saul's reign, as king ofJudah at the age of 30, and as king of Israel at the age of 37. This scene is most likely the second anointing which established David as the king of Judah.



722 DANIEL H. WEISS

Figure 4. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, ms. M638, fol. 23v. Morgan Old Testa- ment, Anointing of Saul.

derived in selected details from Byzantine models.30 For example, we might compare the-Arsenal image of Samuel in the act of anointing David with a Byzantine miniature such as that found in the eleventh- century Kings manuscript now in the Vatican (ms. gr. 333) (fig. 5).31 Samuel, with long hair and beard, is standing to the right holding the ram's horn with his right hand as he pours the sacred unction on David's head. The overall composition, however, appears not to be based on a Byzantine model but rather on the French coronation ritual as it is described in numerous ordines including the Ordo of 1250, a manuscript produced for Louis IX shortly before he left for the Holy Land (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 1246).32 In the

30 See Weiss, Pictorial Language, pp. 84-88 and 156. 31 SeeJ. Lassus, L 'llustration Byzantine de Livre des Rois, vaticanus Graecus 333 (Paris,

1973), pp. 51-52. 32 On the Ordo of 1250 and its predecessor, the Ordo of Reims, seeJ. Le Goff, "A



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* ... . .. .

Anointing of David.

Ordo the French coronation ritual is described as a sequence of detailed stages. In the Arsenal image, the illuminator has combined two sequential moments in the composition: anointing and conferring the insignia. The anointing is performed by the archbishop during the ceremony inside the church at which time, according to the Ordo, the newly anointed king is like the Old Testament king David anointed by Samuel. The next stage, called conferring the insignia, involves placing the crown on the king's head, the en- thronement, and placing the scepter in his right hand, at which time the fullness of the king's dignity and power is conferred.33 The Arsenal illuminator combined these moments in the ritual into a single scene: David is already crowned and enthroned as he is anointed.34 The Capetian scepter has been replaced by the labarum,

Coronation Program for the Age of Saint Louis: the Ordo of 1250," andJ.-C. Bonne, "The Manuscript of the Ordo of 1250," in Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual, ed. J. B. Bak, (Berkeley, 1990), pp. 46-71.

33 This is recounted in detail in Le Goff, "A Coronation Program," pp. 51-55. 34 The conflation of several events into one image can be seen also in the illustrations of the Ordo itself. The rite of the sword and the king's unction are combined on fol. 17r, see Bonne, "The Manuscript," p. 66.



724 DANIEL H. WEISS

a more ancient symbol of royal authority used by Constantine and the later Roman emperors.35 The Arsenal image of the coronation of David, then, modified the Old Testament anointed by incorporat- ing elements of the Capetian coronation in the same manner as the depiction in the previous frontispiece of Saul's anointing.36

David's virtues are the subject of the remainder of the frontispiece (fig. 2). In the next scene the young king displays his military prowess and access to divine support by defeating the Philis- tines, offering another contrast to Saul's fate against the Philistines. It is however, David's virtues of piety and humility that dominate the remainder of the frontispiece cycle.

The middle register contains a representation in two frames of David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant,

When they told David that the Lord had blessed Obed-Edom's family and all that was his because of the Ark of God, he went and brought up the Ark of God ... to the city of David with much rejoicing. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced without restraint before the Lord. He and all the Israelites brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and blowing of trumpets (6:12-15).

In the left frame the Ark is being carried into the city of David on a litter resting on horizontal poles and in the right frame, David and the Israelites are shown playing instruments and celebrating. In several respects, the Arsenal portrayal finds a close parallel in the Morgan Library Old Testament (fig. 6). Both compositions are divided into two frames separated by a single column supporting a double arch and in both the Ark is depicted as a reliquary with a pitched roof and large central portal which is carried on horizontal poles by the Israelites who enter the composition from the left. However, the portrayals of David and the musicians on the right are distinctly different in the two works. In the Morgan manuscript David is represented as described in the biblical text, dancing without restraint beside numerous celebrating Israelites several of whom blow trumpets. In the Arsenal portrayal, David is standing frontally in the center of the composition playing a stringed instrument with

35 For Constantine, see Eusebius, Viti Constantini, 1.1:30-31. See also, G. Pitt-Rivers, The Riddle of the Labarum and the Origin of Christian Symbolism (London, 1966).

36 On the role of the Old Testament anointment and the French monarchs, see M. Bloch, The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France (London, 1973), pp. 36ff., and E. Kantorowicz, Laudes Regiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamation and Medieval Ruler Worship (Berkeley, 1946), pp. 56ff.



~; ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... 5t > - eqte~d~ve. - ,;qc qt~. i : ' i:~'-: ~,-<'~ ":""'=~0~'O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~d.?~r"

-~': Lji??: . . .. ? ,' :';:~-o ) --. i .,~~~" ,,.

.. . . . :

~~~"-~ * *I ;~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~?I .,' ?,,? - ;

ige .N o, M L. . , . . Mra Old T e, "d ;t:i th Ak a befoe. .t.. Lo rd

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Figure ?. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, ms. M635, fol. 39v. Morgan Old Testament, David Fetching the Ark and Dancing~~~~~~~~~' before?* ?3..i .te Lord



726 DANIEL H. WEISS

a vaulted back and fretted neck, presumably a lute.37 He is flanked by four figures, no doubt his co-psalmists Asaph, Ethan, Heman, and Jeduthun who play a psaltery, horn, tambourine, and cymbals. This composition is derived, not from a narrative source as is the Morgan depiction, but from a long tradition of illustrated psalter frontispieces of David composing the Psalms with four musicians. This compositional type was certainly well established by the Caro- lingian period, it was prevalent also in Byzantine painting, and its origins can be traced to the early Christian period. Thus, David's frontal pose and the symmetrical arrangement of four musicians in the Arsenal manuscript must have been adapted from an illustrated psalter which was then incorporated into the narrative of the Kings frontispiece.38

The meaning of the image was also well established. In dancing before the Lord, David exemplified humility. As David explained to Michal, Saul's daughter who accused him of debasing himself before the eyes of servants, "It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, that I have danced before the Lord" (6:21). Once again, then, the contrast between the two kings is implied by the image of David celebrating; David is elevated precisely because of his piety and humility. In a recent study on the ninth-century Vivian Bible (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 1), Herbert Kessler argued that the remarkable image of David dancing nude before the Lord was intended precisely to evoke David's humility and to imply a contrast to the reigning monarch Saul.39 That the comparison was explicit in the Carolingian period is attested not only by the portrayal of David in the nude but also by such writings as the Via Regia by the abbot Smaragdus, written for Louis the Pious, "You see, therefore, that [Saul] . . . was cast down from the royal throne by pride, and [David] was elevated to glory of

37 See F. Behn, Musikleben im Altertum and Fruhen Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1954), pp. 161-162.

38 For example, the eleventh-century Psalter in Munich (Bayerische Staatsbiblio- thek, Cod. clm. 13067, fol. 18r) in which a crowned David, wearing a mantle clasped at the right shoulder, plays a psaltery and is flanked by two musicians at each side. See H. L. Kessler, The Illustrated Biblesfrom Tours, Studies in Manuscript Illumination, 7, (Princeton, 1977), pp. 96-106 and fig. 143, and H. Steger, David Rex et Propheta (Nuremburg, 1961), pp. 41ff. and 190-191.

39 H. L. Kessler, "A Lay Abbot as Patron: Count Vivian and the First Bible of Charles the Bald," Committenti E Produzione Artistico-Letteraria Nell'Alto Medioevo Occi- dentale, Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi Sull'Alto Medioevo, XXXIX (Spoleto, 1992), pp. 647-679.



MLN 727

kingship by humility."40 Whereas the figure of David is fully clothed in the Arsenal and Morgan compositions, the meaning of the image is unmistakable and it is based on a long exegetical tradition. In- deed, in the Morgan composition the connection to Saul is made explicit by the portrayal of Michal in the upper window who ob- serves the proceedings below and clearly expresses through gesture her disapproval to David. Thus, as the king who exemplified humility, David is glorified precisely because he humbled himself before the Lord.

The themes of royal humility and piety are expressed even more explicitly in the composition on the bottom register of the Arsenal frontispiece. A depiction of David rebuked by Nathan extends across both frames of the register. As we have observed previous- ly, one of the more salient "crusader" characteristics of the Arsenal Old Testament-distinguishing it from other commissions of the French court-is the direct reliance of several images on Byzantine models. Such is the case in the depiction of David's rebuke. This composition finds close parallels with several Byzantine manuscripts of which perhaps the closest is the ninth-century illustrated homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (ms. gr. 510) (fig. 7).41 In both compositions a winged angel bran- dishing a sword stands beside and slightly behind a kneeling David who looks up at Nathan standing in front of him with his right arm extended. However, in the Arsenal image, an additional figure has been added to the composition. Standing directly behind David's head and wearing a billowing scarf, this figure is almost certainly a personification of Metanoia. The derivation of this figure is probably from Byzantine aristocratic psalters. In the Paris Psalter, for exam-

40 "Vides, ergo, rex, quia unus [Saul] . . . de regni solio per superbiam est dejec- tus, et alius [David] ad regni gloriam per humilitatem est evectus." Quoted in R. Deshman, "The Exalted Servant: the Ruler Theology of the Prayerbook of Charles the Bald," Viator, II (1980), p. 407.

41 See H. Omont, Miniatures des plus anciens manuscrits grecs de la Bibliotheque Natio- nale (Paris, 1929), pl. XXXIII. The scene is often found in the aristocratic psalters, but usually the figure of David is represented twice, seated before Nathan and prostrated on the ground (for example in Jerusalem, Greek Patriarchate, cod. Taphou 51, fol. 108v and Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. gr. 139, fol. 136v in A. Cutler, The Aristocratic Psalters in Byzantium [Paris, 1984], figs. 145 and 252). David's rebuke is also portrayed in the Vatican Kings manuscript where, again, David is shown twice although the composition is now reduced to four figures arrayed on a horizontal plane (see Lassus, Livre des Rois, p. 70). For a tabular summary of the variations in Byzantine representations of this scene, see H. Buchthal, The Miniatures of the Paris Psalter (London, 1938), p. 28.



728 DANIEL H. WEISS

~ -A

Figure 7. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, ms . gr . 510, . 143v. Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, David rebuked by Nathan.

pie, a standing figure with a comparable billowing veil is identified as Nyx in the frontispiece of Isaiah's Prayer (fig. 8).42 Moreover, the figure of Metanoia is usually included in renderings of David's Re- buke in aristocratic psalters. In the Paris Psalter depiction, for example, a figure identified by inscription as Metanoia is shown in the same place, seated directly behind the kneeling David (fig. 9).43 Most likely, the Arsenal illuminator modified the Byzantine arche- type, such as it appears in the Paris Gregory, by adding to his composition an image of repentence from such a Byzantine source as the aristocratic psalters.44

Thematically, David's rebuke complements the depiction of David dancing before the Lord in the middle register. The scene

42 See Cutler, Aristocratic Psalters, fig. 257. 43 Ibid., p. 66. 44 The use of Byzantine aristocratic psalters in such a manner is not restricted to

the image of Metanoia in the Arsenal rebuke composition. It can be found also in the first Solomon portrait, where the Arsenal illuminator has used a personification of Melodia from an aristocratic psalter as the model for his depiction of Divine Wisdom. See Weiss, "The Three Solomon Portraits," p. 17.



MLN 729

Figure 8. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, ms. gr. 139, fol. 435v. Paris Psalter, Isaiah's Prayer.

illustrate:s Davids repentence for having killed Uriah and taken his

widow, Bathsheba, as his wife. In submitting to God's will and ac- knowledging that he has sinned, David thus exemplifies royal contri- tion and humility. Moreover, he has shown that he heeds the counsel of Nathan, again offering a contrast to Saul who ignored the advice of Samuel. Indeed, according to such authorities as Hincmar, the ninth-century archbishop of Reims and Vincent of Beauvais, the

_t~P" ---~! .. }! .! -. !:!.. . . .....

.-. .... ... ! - _i . ... = i . -hi . . E :.

Prayer.

illustrates David's repentican friar aving killed Uriah and takene not only saved his soul, it also preserved his kingship Saulto God's will and ac-

knowledging that he has sinned, David thus exemplifies royal contri- tion and humility. Moreover, he has shown that he heeds the counsel of Nathan, again offering a contrast to Saul who ignored the advice of Samuel. Indeed, according to such authorities as Hincmar, the ninth-century archbishop of Reims and Vincent of Beauvais, the thirteenth-century Dominican friar, David's act of repentence not only saved his soul, it also preserved his kingship. Saul's disobedi-



730 DANIEL H. WEISS

?> _l.;~si -nil._._ ..a..... .

... . ........................

. .? !

1:!}}iAANA..

Figure 9. Paris, Bibiothque nationale, ms. gr. 139 fol. 136v. Paris Psalter, Rebuke of David. ence, on the other hand led to the downfall of his kingdom and Figure 9. Paris, Biblioth7que nationale, ms. gr. 139, fol. 136v. Paris Psalter, Rebuke

to his death.45 These two images of David dancing and David rebuked, express in

a complementary manner the theme of David's piety and humility. Beneath the depiction of coronation and military victory, David is

45 For Hincmar, see H. H. Anton, Furstenspiegel und Herrscherethos in der Karolin- gezeit, Bonner Historische Forschungen, 32 (Bonn, 1968), pp. 425ff. and Deshman, "The Exalted Servant," p. 407. On Vincent, see W. Berges, Die Firstenspiegel des Hohen und Spdten Mittelalters (Stuttgart, 1952), pp. 185-195, and R. K. Weber, Vincent of Beauvais: A Study in Medieval Historiography (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1965), pp. 114ff.



MLN 731

shown humbling himself before the Lord, first upon receiving God's favor and then upon being rebuked. Thus, the contrast with Saul is complete. Whereas Saul's rule was shortlived, David's piety and humility, in the face of success or failure, ensured the longevity and prosperity of his kingdom.

The frontispiece to III Kings is dedicated to a single theme: the orderly transition from the rule of David to that of Solomon (fig. 3). The narrative is limited in scope, containing only the events of the first one and a half chapters of the text, and the pictorial program consists of simple and redundant iconography including a series of repetitive bedside scenes and a depiction of Solomon's anointing that is a precise copy from the previous frontispiece.46

In the second scene on the first register, David is shown with Bathsheba and Nathan. Speaking first to his wife, David assures her that Solomon will succeed him to the throne. Then summoning Nathan to his side, David says, "Take with you the servants of your Lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. There let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him king over Israel" (1:33-34). David's instructions are fulfilled in the two scenes on the next register: Solomon rides David's mule to Gihon and is anointed by Zadok and Nathan. The second register thus establishes the legitimacy of Solomon's rule, first with an adventus image and then with a coronation in the manner of his father.

The transition of authority having been assured during his life- time, David is shown uttering his last words to Solomon on the bottom register. He implores his son, above all, to heed the words of God and he reveals to Solomon God's promise, "If your heirs take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel" (2:4). In other words, Solomon and his heirs would be assured of their kingdom only if they exercised the piety and humility of David. In the last scene Solomon and Bathsheba oversee the burial of the first priestly king.47

Like all of the miniatures in the Arsenal Old Testament, the Kings frontispieces are moralising and didactic images. They express in pictorial form the idea of royal exempla. David, embodying military

46 The only difference between the two coronations is that Solomon is shown in the act of grasping the labarum with his right hand as is prescribed for the conferring of the insignia in the Ordo of 1250. See Le Goff, "A Coronation Program," p. 54.

47 Kantorowicz, Laudes Regiae, p. 57.



732 DANIEL H. WEISS

prowess, courage, piety and humility before God, is contrasted with Saul who is presented as a tragic example of the consequences of pride and disobedience. Moreover, in the third frontispiece David ensures dynastic continuity through anticipatory succession, a device used by the Capetians for six generations and which, by the reign of Philip Augustus, effectively established the legitimacy of hereditary succession in the Capetian line.48

In the format and arrangement of the frontispieces-as in many of the individual scenes-the Arsenal manuscript appears to be related closely to Byzantine art. More specifically, the Byzantine rhetorical technique of synkrisis, particularly as it was employed in pictorial cycles of David may well have exerted an important influ- ence on the Arsenal cycle. As Henry Maguire has shown, whereas David served as a model for virtually all Byzantine emperors, the selection of events from the Old Testament narrative would be modified in a given work to suit the character and circumstances of a particular ruler.49 That is, narrative choice was governed by the specific theme of the encomium.

Thus, in these three frontispieces, and throughout the manuscript cycle, the themes presented in the Old Testament illustrations con- struct an ideology suited to the dual roles of Louis IX as crusader knight and Capetian king. The diverse iconographic sources selected for the creation of the cycle-including especially several French and Byzantine Bibles, Psalters, and other service books-served as the foundation for a complex visual program and, moreover, the recom- bination of these diverse elements reveals a highly sophisticated system of synkrisis, expressing in a unified manner Capetian ideology and biblical narrative.50 Among the central themes in the program are the primacy of God's role in the lives of men, in particular in the

48 See A. W. Lewis, Royal Succession in Capetian France: Studies on Familial Order and the State (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 44-77, andJ. W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus (Berkeley, 1986), pp. 13-14. 49 "The Art of Comparing," pp. 88-103. For example, Maguire links the David cycle in the eleventh-century Psalter of Basil II (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, cod. gr. 17) to the specific circumstances of Basil's rule. Maguire concludes, "In court rhetoric, all emperors resembled David, but each individual could find himself reflected in a different aspect of his model's life and character," p. 94. See also Kfihnel's essay on the covers of the Melisende Psalter in which Byzantine rhetorical techniques are adapted to a twelfth-century crusader context ("The Kingly Statement," pp. 340-357).

50 On the sources for the Arsenal cycle, see Weiss, Pictorial Language, pp. 43-110, and Buchthal, Miniature Painting, pp. 54-68. The cycle is illustrated in full in Buchthal.



MLN 733

lives of the Chosen people, and the concommitant responsibility to abide by His rule and conquer in His name. In the early part of the cycle God's covenant with Moses and his successors is therefore recounted in detail including especially the military conquests. In- deed, the idea of holy war-its legitimacy as well as potential costs-is of special importance and underlies much of the cycle.51 Other frontispieces, such as those for Job, Tobit, and IV Kings include ex- plorations into the mysteries and rewards of faith, and in frontispieces dedicated to three holy women-Judith, Esther, and Ruth- the virtues of bravery, royal devotion and fertility are recounted. Through an unusual ordering of the Old Testament cycle, the book of Ruth is not at the conclusion of the Octateuch but rather at the end of the manuscript and the final lines of the text provide special recognition of Ruth's status as the matriarch of David and his line.52 Not surprising, the theme of kingship dominates the Arsenal cycle. In addition to the three frontispieces from the books of Kings, Solomon is given prominence with three full-page portraits preceding sections of the book of Proverbs.53

The historiographical methods explored in the Arsenal frontispieces were firmly established in the writings of the Carolingian period in such works as Hincmar's influential Mirror of Kings, and were subsequently embellished in the Capetian period by such thirteenth- century figures as Vincent of Beauvais, William of Auvergne, and Gilbert of Tournai.54 For example, in Vincent's dedication letter to Louis for the monumental Speculum Historiale, the Dominican friar reminds his king to combine the study of history with active leadership; that the former should be a guideline for the latter, and he cites David and Solomon as examples of rulers who have suc- cessfully combined learning with statecraft.55 Moreover, Vincent's

51 The twenty illuminated frontispieces of the Arsenal Old Testament are, in order: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, I-IV Kings, Judith, Esther, Job, Tobit, I-III Proverbs, Maccabees, and Ruth.

52 "Ysai engendera David le roi. Ici fenie le livre de Ruth la Moabitiene." See Weiss, Pictorial Language, pp. 30ff.

53 These portrait images reveal much about the self definition and biblicism of Louis IX. See Weiss, "The Three Solomon Portraits," pp. 15-38.

54 On the Carolingian period, see Anton, Fiirstenspiegel, on the Capetian period, see Berges, Fiirstenspiegel; Y. Congar, "l'Eglise et l'Etat sous le Regne de Saint Louis," Septieme Centenaire de la Mort de Saint Louis, Actes des Colloques de Royaumont et de Paris, (Paris, 1976), pp. 257-272; M.-D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century, (Chicago, 1968), pp. 146-161. See also, Vincent of Beauvais, De Eruditione Filiorum Nobilium, ed. A. Steiner, (Cambridge, MA, 1938).

55 See G. Guzman, "Vincent of Beauvais' Epistola actoris ad regem Ludovicum: a



734 DANIEL H. WEISS

writings placed particular emphasis on the importance of kingly wisdom-a virtue which facilitates the conduct of councils as well as the waging of wars. In this, he exhorts the king to surpass all others, and Vincent cites King Solomon as the exemplar of a wise ruler. Such an emphasis on wisdom was indeed shared by Vincent's royal sponsor as is attested not only by the record of his deeds but also by his art, including such works as the three Solomon portraits in the Arsenal Old Testament entitled, Wisdom, Parables, and Proverbs respectively.

The idea of associating the Old Testament leaders with the Cape- tian kings was also expressed in numerous commissions closer to home. In sculptural programs, such as the interior facade of Reims Cathedral, the royal coronation church, the Old Testament kings served as exempla, arrayed in monumental form on the west wall as part of a comprehensive "royal guidebook" or sculpted Mirror of Kings for the edification of the newly crowned French kings.56 As Donna Sadler has observed, in this program sacred history is used to educate the French monarchs, thereby contributing to what she calls the "religion of monarchy."57 Illuminated manuscripts, too, served such a function. In the Psalter of Saint Louis, produced near the end of the king's life, the Old Testament narrative was still cast in a royal Capetian perspective and the ancestral significance of the biblical kings continued to be asserted. As Harvey Stahl observed, in the Psalter of Saint Louis the Old Testament illustrations are historical, prescriptive, and personalized.58 Perhaps nowhere was this ideal more highly developed than in the Saint-Chapelle, a work produced under the auspices of the royal court during the years just preceding the crusade of 1248. In the monumental stained-glass program of the upper chapel, biblical kingship assumes an ancestral role both for Christ and for the Capetian dynasty in the guise of Louis IX, the only king of the Christian era pictured in the entire program.59

Critical Analysis and a Critical Edition," Vincent de Beauvais: Intentions et Receptions d'Une Oeuvre Encyclopedique au Moyen Age, Actes du XIVe Colloque de l'Institut d'ttudes medievales, ed. M. Paulmier-Foucart, et al., (Paris, 1990), pp. 57-85; T. R. Eckinrode, "Vincent of Beauvais: a Study in the Construction of a Didactic View of History," Historian, 46 (1984), pp. 339-360; and A. L. Gabriel, The Educational Ideas of Vincent of Beauvais (Notre Dame, 1956).

56 See Sadler-Davis, Sculptural Program, pp. 270-409. 57 Ibid., p. viii. 58 These observations were made by Harvey Stahl in a paper delivered at Princeton

University in October 1987, "Royal Perspectives in the Psalter of Saint Louis." 59 On the role of biblical kingship, especially that of Solomon, in the stained glass

of the Sainte-Chapelle, see Weiss, "The Three Solomon Portraits," pp. 23-30.



MLN 735

The ideology of dynastic continuity-that is, of royal genealogy- which is emphasized in the third Kings frontispiece of the Arsenal manuscript (fig. 3), was developed still further at Saint-Denis in the 1260s. In an artistic commission initiated jointly by Louis IX and Matthew of Vendome, according to the Latin Chronicle of Guillaume de Nangis, the bodies of numerous French kings and queens were placed in newly carved tombs within the transepts and choir.60 They were now arrayed so that those of the genus of Char- lemagne were placed in the right part of the monastery and those of the line of Hugh Capet in the left. Thus, by creating this "royal necropolis" within the church at St-Denis, Louis asserted the sacred aspect of the kings of France-now unmediated by biblical associations-and conveyed to his biological ancestors a status worthy of holy pilgrimage.61 Such a concern with royal genealogy on the part of Louis is supported also by the evidence of the Grandes Chroniques, a project initiated by Louis and dedicated in large part to genealogy.62

The resilience of these historiographical traditions was almost certainly based on their political force. Such an emphasis on the synonymity of biblical and French kingship would, of course, have no greater political currency than in a manuscript produced for the French king while engaged in a holy war in biblical lands. Whereas such associations had clear ideological significance in France, the prescriptive force of the Old Testament narrative had greatest rele- vance to the enterprise of the crusades. In the Arsenal Old Testa- ment, then, these typological themes were indeed personal, adapted to express themes of central importance to Louis IX and his uncertain crusade in the early 1250s.

No doubt the ideological-even zealous-character of Louis' crusade at the onset contributed to the early catastrophy in Egypt. Shortly after he boldly proclaimed that he was poised against the Moslem world, "like the sword of destiny," the French king was captured by the Moslems. While in captivity, the amir Husam al-Din asked Louis how a man of such apparent wisdom and good sense

60 Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis de 1113 d 1300 avec les continuations de cette chronique de 1300 d 1368, ed. H. Geraud, 2 vols., (Paris, 1843), 1:232-233, and Lewis, Royal Succession, p. 116. See also G. R. Sommers-Wright, "A Royal Tomb Program in the Reign of Saint Louis," Art Bulletin, 56 (1974), pp. 224-243. Sommers-Wright argues that Louis was not likely to have conceived or paid for the tomb program at Saint-Denis.

61 See A. D. Hedeman, The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274-1422 (Berkeley, 1991), pp. 2-3.

62 See Spiegel, Romancing the Past, pp. 316ff., and Lewis, Royal Succession, p. 115.



736 DANIEL H. WEISS

could have conceived such an audacious plan, "To go on planks of wood, embark on this sea and come to this land, so full of Moslems and soldiers, thinking that you could conquer it and become its ruler?" The amir went on to tell Louis that in the Moslem world, "When a man exposes himself and his property to such a risk his testimony is not accepted in a court of law because such behavior suggests to us that he is mentally defective." The king laughed in response and had to agree.63

In the wake of these recent experiences, the king almost certainly would have been challenged to reevaluate his crusading objectives. Such would appear to be the case if the evidence of the Arsenal Old Testament is any indication. For the illustrations within this manuscript do not merely espouse the ideology of holy war and inspire the crusaders in their daunting military and religious quest. Rather, they were created to fulfill a more subtle purpose.

If the writing of history in the Middle Ages could be construed as a "call to action" as Vincent of Beauvais would have it, then the Arsenal Old Testament validated the crusade regardless of outcome.64 In the thirteenth-century conception of history, especially biblical history, the past affirmed the legitimacy of the present. Historical writing and imagery was selective, guided by present ne- cessities and conversely, contemporary events were presented as the fulfillment of prophecy. This "secularization of typology", as Gabrielle Spiegel has labeled it, was a central element in medieval historiography in Capetian France.65 Thus, as Spiegel observed, ex- emplum, "not only illuminated universal moral realities, it com- manded men to pursue them; like custom, it determined modes of behavior."

On these terms, the crusade must have been understood by Louis IX as nothing less than his sacred responsibility as the "most Chris- tian" king and leader of the new "Chosen People". In the images of the Arsenal Old Testament this typological conceit is undeniable. Presumably, such a motive was, at least in part, its raison d'etre. The biblical images within the manuscript exhort the king to rule with courage, piety, humility, and wisdom, to heed the advice of counsel- ors and above all to obey the word of God. Moreover, the use of Byzantine styles and subject matter in the construction of the manu-

63 See U. and M. C. Lyons, Ayyubids, Mamlukes, and Crusaders: Selections from the Tarikh al-Duwal wa'l-Muluk of Ibn al-Furat (Cambridge, 1971), 2:42.

64 See notes 45 and 55 above and Spiegel, "Political Unity," p. 319. 65 "Political Unity," p. 316 and 321.



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script served to enhance the authority of its message.66 For the prestige of Byzantine-inspired images would have elevated the religious status of the codex and, equally important, enhanced the perception that the Arsenal manuscript was a product of the Holy Land. What is more, the Byzantine rhetorical technique of synkrisis was appropriated for the crusader manuscript precisely because it was a useful propagandistic device for portraying selected aspects of the royal persona. By virtue of its connection to the Holy Land and its Byzantine elements, the Old Testament manuscript was imbued with a sacred aspect-like that of a relic. For such was precisely the status accorded to many Byzantine objects brought to the West during the middle of the thirteenth century.67 The biblical illustrations thus took on the properties of privileged images, which, when read synchronistically as biblical narrative and contemporary chronicle, served as a testament to the legitimacy of the French king's sacred crusading responsibilities.

As the product of a society that appropriated biblical history as exempla for appropriate action-and that explored these relation- ships in its art-the Arsenal Old Testament thus promulgated the ideal of the crusade as an enterprise of historic and eminently worthy aspirations. The inevitable outcome, of course, was still uncertain in these years; it would be left more properly where it belonged: in God's hands.

The Johns Hopkins University

66 See Weiss, Pictorial Language, pp. 66-110 and 224-230. 67 See H. Belting, The Image and Its Public in the Middle Ages (New York, 1990), pp.

214-218, and Weiss, Pictorial Language, pp. 227-229.



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