Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 9163
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Wright , Rosemary Muir.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Virgin in the Sun and in the Tree [The author explores motifs and theological ideas which contributed to the image of the coronation of the Virgin. Wright argues that secular queenship has very little in common with this image that placed Mary above mortal women. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Women and Sovereignty.  Edited by Louise Olga Fradenburg. Cosmos: The Yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society, volume 7Cosmos: The Yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society, 7.  Edinburgh University Press, 1992.  Pages 36 - 59.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Apocalypse Ara Coeli [Altar of the Heavens, Vision of Mary and the Child Shown to Augustus by the Sibyl] Motif in Art Art History- Painting Authority Illumination of Manuscripts Mary, Virgin, Saint Mary, Virgin, Saint- Coronation in Art Sources Theology T
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: 12-13
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Six Figures. Figure One Manuscript illumination, Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great tree being cut down by an angel, Liber Floridus, early twelfth century (Ghent University Library, MS 92, fol. 232v). Figure Two Manuscript illumination, Mary and Ecclesia flanking Christ (Wölfenbüttel, MS Gud. Lat. 2.1 4305, fol. 253v). Figure Three Manuscript illumination, Birth of the Virgin, Winchester Psalter. Figure Four Manuscript illumination, closeup of the preceding illustration showing a seated woman holding a child. Wright suggests that the figures are the Virgin Mary and the Christ child whom Saint Anne is seeing in a vision. Figure Five Manuscript illumination, Figures from the Apocalypse including the Woman Clothed in the Sun (Wölfenbüttel, MS Gud. Lat. 2.1). Figure Six Manuscript illumination, Figures from the Apocalypse including the woman who gave birth to a male child and was pursued by the Dragon (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 180, fol. 43).
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  • Author's Affiliation: University of St. Andrews
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0748603204