Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
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Title:
Virgo
Creator:
Description:
This red ink illustration of the astrological sign Virgo decorates the margins of a calendar page for the month of August, in a liturgical calendar preceding a psalter likely made in Winchester. The personification of Virgo carries a flaming torch in her left hand and gestures toward the text with her right. She wears elaborately draped garments with large sleeves along with a draped cowl. Virgo’s dress is consistent with contemporary Anglo-Saxon womens’ dress. The drawing occurs next to red rubric text that indicates the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin. This positioning of the illustration may possibly emphasize harmony between the liturgical and the astral calendars. Astrologic calculations and the zodiac were crucial to Anglo-Saxon understanding of the operations of medicine, science, and cosmology. Respected theologians such as Bede and Aelfric of Eynsham condemned the use of astrology in divination, yet several Old English treatises survive that use astrological calculation to determine favorable days for medical procedures such as bloodletting. Astrological positions, particularly the lunar cycles, also helped to determine the proper dates for Easter and other prominent liturgical feasts.
Source:
Wikimedia Commons
Rights:
Public Domain
Subject
(See Also)
:
Allegory
Astrology
Virgo
Zodiac
Geographic Area:
British Isles
Century:
11
Date:
After 1073
Related Work:
See further illustrations of the Zodiac in this manuscript: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8761&CollID=20&NStart=60
Current Location:
London, British Library MS Arundel 60, f5v
Original Location:
England, S., possibly near Winchester
Artistic Type (Category):
Digital Images; Manuscript Illuminations
Artistic Type (Material/Technique):
Vellum (Parchment); Paint
Donor:
Height/Width/Length(cm):
30.5 cm/19.5 cm/
Inscription:
SOL/IN/UIRGINEM (Translation: Sun in Virgo)
Related Resources:
Jolly, Karen. 'Controlling the Future: Popular forms of Divination," in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages. Ed. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. pp. 53-58; Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, 1989. pp. 86-90; Derrien, Virginie. "Prédictions zodiacales anglo-normandes" Romania 128. 1- 2 (2010): 170-92.