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The Wound of Love |
Individual images and pdf of complete MS
may be downoaded at:
https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3432521
NAMED for the famous family in whose collection it remained until the early twentieth century, the so-called “Rothschild Canticles” is a medieval florilegium, a richly-illuminated collection of biblical and spiritual texts intended to facilitate meditation and contemplation, created around the year 1295.1 The biblical (especially the Song of Songs) and patristic (especially the De Trinitate of Augustine) texts are arranged in a pastiche intended to facilitate meditation and prayer.
Jeffrey Hamburger has published the most complete study of this florilegium to date, and he believes it is deliberately arranged to facilitate spiritual progress according to the three traditional mystical levels of:
[1] ascetical purification;
[2] meditative-contemplative illumination (contemplation of creation); and
[3] union with God and knowledge of the mysteries of the Blessed Trinity.
Immediately after the Coat of Arms bearing the motto, Tunc Satiabor the florilegium provides six images of monastic asceticism, taken from the Lives of the Fathers and the Life of Antony, of which these two are representative:
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Description: In the top half of the miniature a reclining monk on the right gestures a group of other similarly bearded and hooded hermits on the left. In the lower half, an angel iwth its wings spanning the width of the picture plane kneels and attends to a frying pan.
Interpretation: Illustration of the Vitae Patrum, unaccompanied by text. The image illustrates the virtue of patience. For 30 days a monk fasted alone in his cell, nourished by an angel. His brothers, thinking him dead come to visit and break down the door despite the monk's protests. The angel vanishes and the old man chastises his visiters for driving away his angelic visitor, then dies.
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Quam pulchri
sunt gressus tui in calciamentis filia principis
Dic sapientiae soror mea es et
prudentiam voca amicam tuam Pedes eorum pedes recti et planta pedis eorum ut planta pedis vituli Their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot. (Vers.Com. Evang, cf..Ez 1:7) Pax aeterna
ab aeterno Patre huic domui, pax perennis Verbum Patris sit pax huic
domui, pacem pius Consolator huic praestet domui.
Mihi adhaerere Deo bonum est; ponere
in Domino Deo meo spem mea.
Erit mihi Dominus in Deum et lapis
iste [...] vocabitur Domus Dei (Gen 28:21-22) Dilectus
meus mihi et ego illi |
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HOW beautiful are your sandaled steps, O prince's daughter! (Song 7:1) SAY to wisdom: You are my sister, and call prudence your friend, (Pro 7:4) THEIR feet were straight feet, and the sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot. (Vers. Com.Evang, cf..Ez 1:7) ETERNAL peace from the eternal Father be to this house; The perpetual peace of the Word of the Father be to this house; the peace of the blessed Comfortor be granted to this house. (Magn.Ant. Ded. Ch.: Sarum, et.al) IT is good for me to cling to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God (Ps 72.28) THE Lord shall be my God, and this stone shall be called the House of God MY beloved is mine and I am his.(Song 2:16) |
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Quam pulchri
sunt gressus tui in calciamentis filia principis
Dic sapientiae soror mea es et
prudentiam voca amicam tuam Pedes eorum pedes recti et planta pedis eorum ut planta pedis vituli Their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their foot was like the sole of a calf's foot. (Vers.Com. Evang, cf..Ez 1:7) Pax aeterna
ab aeterno Patre huic domui, pax perennis Verbum Patris sit pax huic
domui, pacem pius Consolator huic praestet domui.
Mihi adhaerere Deo bonum est; ponere
in Domino Deo meo spem mea.
Erit mihi Dominus in Deum et lapis
iste [...] vocabitur Domus Dei (Gen 28:21-22) Dilectus
meus mihi et ego illi |
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The Yale Library in which the MS currently resides offers the following details:
An intensely
illustrated florilegium of meditations and prayers drawing from Song of Songs
and Augustine’s De Trinitate, among other texts, the Rothschild Canticles is
remarkable for its full-page miniatures, historiated initials, and drawings,
which show the work of multiple artists.
Description: Bound in two volumes ca. 1966; previously bound in brown
leather in a single volume. Abstract: An intensely illustrated florilegium of
meditations and prayers drawing from Song of Songs and Augustine’s De Trinitate,
among other texts, the Rothschild Canticles is remarkable for its full-page
miniatures, historiated initials, and drawings, which show the work of multiple
artists.
See: Hamburger, Jeffrey. 1990. The Rothschild canticles: Art and mysticism in Flanders and the Rhineland circa 1300. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Manuscript on parchment (uneven quality, severely trimmed) of a Florilegium comprised of a series of meditations and prayers. The text, apparently a unicum, is a cento of biblical, liturgical, and patristic citations, with some additional material spuriously attributed to St. Bernard. The most important sources are the Song of Songs, the other the other Wisdom books, the Prophets, and, in the Trinitarian section, Augustine's De Trinitate.
the most recent
texts date from the 1290s. The Trinity painter developed a vocabulary of
apophatic literalism to give visual form even to such unlikely statements as
“Truly you are a hidden God” and “My center is everywhere, my circumfer¬ence
nowhere.” The intimate link between text and miniatures suggests that the
designer of these paintings was a seasoned contemplative, almost certainly a
monk.
Manuscript on parchment (uneven quality, severely trimmed) of a Florilegium
comprised of a series of meditations and prayers. The text, apparently a unicum,
is a cento of biblical, liturgical, and patristic citations, with some
additional material spuriously attributed to St. Bernard. The most important
sources are the Song of Songs, the other Wisdom books, the Prophets, and, in the
Trinitarian section, Augustine's De Trinitate.
Physical Description:
parchment ; 118 x 84 mm.
\
De Trinitate Book 8
| 20 (fol. 76v) Pater complacet sibi in Filio et Filius in Patre, et Spiritus sanctus ab utroque. (Peter of Celle, Sermo XI in Nativitate) | The Father is well pleased in the Son and the Son in the Father, and the Holy Spirit is from both |
| In spiritalibus autem omne mutabile quod occurrerit non putetur deus. Non enim paruae notitiae pars est cum de profundo isto in illam summitatem respiramus si antequam scire possimus quid sit deus, possumus iam scire quid non sit. Non est enim certe nec terra nec caelum nec quasi terra et caelum, nec tale aliquid quale uidemus in caelo, nec quidquid tale non uidemus et est fortassis in caelo. Nec si augeas imaginatione cogitationis lucem solis quantum potes, siue quo sit maior siue quo sit clarior, millies tantum aut innumerabiliter, neque hoc est deus. (Aug. De Trin . VIII.2) | For when we aspire from this depth to that height, it is a step towards no small knowledge, if, before we can know what God is, we can already know what He is not. For certainly He is neither earth nor heaven; nor, as it were, earth and heaven; nor any such thing as we see in the heaven; nor any such thing as we do not see, but which perhaps is in heaven. Neither if you were to magnify in the imagination of your thought the light of the sun as much as you are able, either that it may be greater, or that it may be brighter, a thousand times as much, or times without number; neither is this God. |
ANOTHER 89v p. 187; & 90 r 188; Two persons holding Dove
BENEDICTa SIT SANCTA TRINITAS PATER ET FILIUS ET SPIRITUS SANCTUS
[then]
| in summa trinitate tantum est | but in that highest Trinity |
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una quantum tres simul, nec
plus aliquid sunt duae quam una {res}, et in se infinita sunt.}
Ita et singula sunt in singulis et omnia in singulis et singula in
omnibus et omnia in omnibus et unum omnia. Qui uidet hoc uel ex parte
uel per speculum in aenigmate gaudeat cognoscens deum et sicut deum
honoret et gratias agat; qui autem non uidet tendat per pietatem ad
uidendum, non per caecitatem ad calumniandum, quoniam unus est deus sed
tamen trinitas. (Aug De Trin. VI.10.12) |
one is as much as the three together, nor are two anything more than one. And They are infinite in themselves. So both each are in each, and all in each, and each in all, and all in all, and all are one. Let him who sees this, whether in part, or through a glass and in an enigma, rejoice in knowing God; and let him honor Him as God, and give thanks; but let him who does not see it, strive to see it through piety, not to cavil at it through blindness. Since God is one, but yet is a Trinity. |
AND ANOTHER:
De Trinit Book 8 4 7 39v-40r; pp. 87-88
| Dominus in orisunte eternitatis et supra tempus (Alan of Lille, cites Pseudo-Arist, Liber de Causis) | Lord is on the horizon of eternity and beyond time |
| quae scriptura illa testatur. Hoc utile est credere et non desperandum et appetendum. Nam et ipsius facies dominicae carnis innumerabilium cogitationum diuersitate uariatur et fingitur, quae tamen una erat quaecumque erat. Neque in fide nostra quam de domino Iesu Christo habemus illud salubre est quod sibi animus fingit longe fortasse aliter quam res habet, sed illud quod secundum speciem de homine cogitamus; habemus enim quasi regulariter infixam naturae humanae notitiam secundum quam quidquid tale aspicimus statim hominem esse cognoscimus uel hominis formam. (Aug. De Trin., VIII.4.7) | as that Scripture witnesses: this it is which it is both useful to believe, and which must not be despaired of, and must be sought. For even the countenance of our Lord Himself in the flesh is variously fancied by the diversity of countless imaginations, which yet was one, whatever it was. Nor in our faith which we have of our Lord Jesus Christ, is that wholesome which the mind imagines for itself, perhaps far other than the reality, but that which we think of man according to his kind: for we have a notion of human nature implanted in us, as it were by rule, according to which we know immediately, that whatever such thing we see is a man or the form of a man. |
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Centrum meum ubique locorum, circumferentia
autem nusquam
GLORIOSUM et terribile nomen tuum domine
aedificanti domum in universa terra magnus dominus noster quia exaltatum
est nomen ejus solius beati qui habitant in domo tua domine in saeculum
saeculi laudabunt te (Antiphon for the Feast of the Dedication of a
Church; or Sunday of Lent? (Pss. 83.5; 146.5; Deut 28.58 Quam
Quod Deus est, scimus. Quid sit, si scire
velimus, / Ultimus et primus. Quod scit, summus et ymus
Quam D
"Quod Deus est, scimus. Quid sit, si
scire velimus, / Ultimus et primus. Quod scit, summus et ymus 103v - 231 [goes with 104r-232 |
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Quod Deus est, scimus. Quid sit, si scire velimus,
/ Ultimus et primus. Quod scit, summus et ymus
Quod Deus est, scimus. Quid sit, si scire velimus,
[[Contra nos imus.]] Qui cum sit summus et imus,
Ultimus et primus, satis est; plus scire nequimus.
[We know that God is; if we wish to know what he is,
We go against ourselves. !at he is the highest and the
lowest, the last and the first
Deus fuit semper et erit sine fine; ubi semper fuit, ibi
nunc est.Et ubi nunc est ibi fuit tunc. (fol. 103v)
[God always was and shall be without end; where he always was, there he is now.
And where he is now, there
he was then.]
“De esse et essencia divina” (“On the Divine
Being and Essence”), which found its way into the Carmina of Petrus Pictor, a
canon of Saint-Omer
Quam
How (Song 7:1)
D
"Quod Deus est, scimus. Quid sit, si scire
velimus, / Ultimus et primus. Quod scit, summus et ymus
Dominus fuit * et erit sine fine ibi semper fuit ibi nunc est
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; GLORIOSUM e Quam
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SALVABO gregem meam et amplius non erit in rapina
SEDEBIT populus meus in tranquilitate pacis (cf. Is 32.18)
FILII sapientie congregatos vistoru et nationes eos obedientia
SICUT mater consolatur filios suos, et ego consolabor vos
/EGO diligentes me diligo (Prov. 8.17) Ecce ego ponam Jerusalem superliminare crapulæ
omnibus populis in circuitu (Zech 12.2)
ABSTERGET Deus omnes lacrimas ab oculis eorum et |
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SALVABO greges meas et ampuli nos erit in vapina (Ex 34.22)
salvabo gregem meum et non erit ultra in rapinam et iudicabo inter pecus
et pecus
SEDEBIT ipsis meus in tranquilitate pacis FILII sapientiae eos gregatos vistoru et nationes eos obedientia SICUT mat- consolatur filios suos sic et ego consolabor vos ?? diligentes me diligo EGO ponan verbbum super liminare crapule olis polis in tur>>tur ABTERGERET vos omnes lacrimas ab oculis
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CONNUBIUM SPIRITUALE |
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DEUS a lybano uenit et sanctus de monte umbroso et condenso. (Vers. Sun.Adv II) / VENIT tempus tuum, tempus amantium. / ubi pascis, ubi cupes nisi in meridie. (SOS 1.6) / INUOCO te deus meus in animam meam, quam preparas ad capiendum te ex desiderio que ei inspiras. (Aug Conf. XIII.1)/ FUGE, dilecte mi (SOS 8.14) / ex quo locutus es impeditoris lingue factus sum. FUGE, dilecte mi dominis quot memoria te nere non possimus. (cf Is.18.4) / EGO considerabo et quiescam in luce meridiano et in nube roris messis. / ANIMA satiata calcabit famen. (cf Prov 27.7)
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This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990
