Holy Saturday

This week is Holy Week and tomorrow many break their Lenten fasts, or feast on chocolate. The two are not mutually exclusive.

As part of the Easter story (well, that accepted in the Middle Ages), Jesus spent the time between his crucifixion and resurrection harrowing hell. This 'harrowing', a term which means either ploughing or the sacking of a place, essentially meant that those that had died, but were not sinners, were now permitted to enter heaven as a result of Christ's intervention. The gates of heaven were now open, death was no longer a waiting room for salvation.

There's shedloads of stuff to read regarding the harrowing of hell (Is it a part of the original easter story? Was it invented later? Was salavation only possible after?....etc.etc.), but like other famous myths it lends itself wonderfully to artists:

Happy Easter (tomorrow) everyone!

Baltimore, Walter Art Museum, MS W. 918 f. 149 v.

London, BL, Arundel 157, f. 110

 

New York, The Madison Library, MS W.2 f. 139 v.

Philadelphia, Penn Library, MS Codex 738, f. 127 r.

Patrologia Latina

I've missed a couple of weeks of blogs now - but for a good reason!

I'm in the process of putting together a first draft of my thesis which has resulted in much editing and rewriting, but little new research. No new research, means no new blogs. However, I do have an useful source to share with the interwebs and a nifty MS image.

The source is the Patrologia Latina which is essentially a source book for early church texts. It exists in physical form in many, many volumes or in searchable form via a subscription database (my nearest subscribing library is the Bodleian).

When chasing a single reference however, an online edition would be more helpful. Never fear! This wonderful website lists multiple sources for each volume:

http://patristica.net/latina/

You're welcome.

"Two women attempting to catch flying hearts", British Library, Stowe MS 955, f. 13r 

This image is in a collection of 16th century love poems and no, I'm not really sure why the ladies are capturing winged hearts. It's a lovely image though isn't it?