CHAPTER 5

“ ROMANNESS” IN EARLY
MEDIEVAL CULTURE

Celia Chazelle

-
Analysis of an eighth century miniature reconceptualizing early medieval
romanitas as a local re- imagining of Roman culture, rather than as reception
of antique Mediterranean conventions .

A A ost historians of the early medieval West are aware of the significant
XV Aproblems posed by their sources: the scarcity of texts and objects
extant from the era, relative to later centuries; their frequently far from
perfect condition ; the isolated states in which they are often found , with
no indication of place or time of production and no comparanda . Partly
because of the difficulties, scholars of culture and thought in this era have
become adept at piecing together scattered fragments of evidence, squeez-
ing it for information through a range of analytical techniques, and
reconstructing lost writings and artifacts from limited surviving vestiges.
Such methods have made it possible to locate relationships and continu-
ities among seemingly disparate sources , and thus map the transmission
and evolution of artistic, literary, and other cultural conventions across
regions and considerable periods of time.1
A persistent interpretative paradigm indebted to these approaches
concerns the cultural legacy of Antiquity and the Mediterranean the —
heritage of “ Rome,” broadly defined. Perceived similarities between
ancient or Mediterranean and early medieval texts and objects , together
with hypothetical reconstructions of lost artifacts and writings, have long
supported theories about the continuous dissemination of ideas and
cultural forms from the ancient Roman Empire and postclassical
Mediterranean to other parts of Europe, and through the Middle Ages.2

l
 “ROMANNESS” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 83
82 CELIA CHAZELLE

have least implicitly identified with the quasi-linear, continuous transmission

The channels of cultural transmission are generally thought to
on the period and region ; some places of texts, objects, and ideas from Antiquity and the Mediterranean that
intensified or weakened depending
oth - intersected and clashed with currents from the “non-Roman ” world .
and times were more open to the influence of Roman culture than
a watershed , a century The key issue in evaluating the romanizing early medieval text or object
ers. The Carolingian epoch is commonly viewed as
more is thus seen as the degree of its adherence to versus deviation from such
or so of heightened romanness (romanitas) paving the way for a yet3
intense interest in this heritage in the eleventh and later centuries . older, “Roman” prototypes.6
Studies of early medieval culture from these angles have taught us a
Two additional factors may be noted that strengthen this paradigm
.
great deal , and there is no doubt that the flow of ideas and forms from
One is the tendency of many early medieval historians , still today in spite
Antiquity and the Mediterranean had a profound affect throughout the
of the “ linguistic turn ,” to take at face value the claims of early medieval
Mediterranean early medieval West . In the last two decades, however, scholars have
writers to have borrowed from particular antique or
imperial law codes , Roman liturgical texts , become increasingly sensitive to the difficulties for mapping the continu -
sources: the church fathers ,
artifice in these texts is underes - ous diffusion of romanizing traditions , in this period , caused by the scar-
and others . The potential for rhetorical
transparent windows on a past city of surviving writings and artifacts, particularly from the eighth and
timated ; too often , they are treated as
out- earlier centuries , and their enormous variety: the disparities among sup -
re a lity confirming the general picture of early medieval culture just
4 The second factor is the continued force of a periodization scheme , posedly romanizing artistic , architectural , and literary forms and styles;
lined.
the variants, interpolations, and marginalia in manuscript “copies” of
albeit rarely acknowledged , that goes back to the nineteenth century and
for some supposedly the same texts; divergent religious teachings and practices that
treats the fifth through tenth centuries as the cultural bridge, or
historians the barrier, between Antiquity and the so - called High Middle contemporaries asserted were Roman and orthodox; and so on . As aware -
with ness of these conditions has grown, long-standing assumptions about
Ages. Until about thirty years ago , this scheme typically coincided
or romanitas in the era have become harder to sustain .
a view that romanizing attributes in early medieval writings
—
objects derived from a culture of Antiquity and the Mediterranean — It is true that early medieval authors and craftsmen repeatedly claimed
inspiration from ancient and Mediterranean productions . Indeed , they
fundamentally more sophisticated than that of the early medieval
did so more often than modern historians at times appear aware. But
producers. Whether, therefore , the authors and craftsmen were of Roman
what is often lacking is sufficient respect for their works’ localized char-
or barbarian ancestry and lived within or outside regions formerly con-
acter. Antecedents and parallels are assumed to have existed where in
trolled by the empire, it was assumed that their aim was to follow their
exemplars as carefully as possible. Any divergences were held to be inad
condition
-
.
fact we have no concrete evidence of this , where disjunctions from
other early medieval productions and from any traceable Roman
—
vertent , testimony to their limited skills or sources ’ defective
Some historians argued that the resulting early medieval productions —
legacy actually appear to outweigh connections. Rather than trying so
hard to link early medieval cultural developments across regions and
were so inferior to their prototypes , and so distorted the legacy they were
. For over time , which often depends on problematic reconstructions of lost
meant to imitate , that they impeded its reception in later centuries
for having preserved sources, we should pay more attention to the diversity of what survives .
other scholars , despite the flaws, they were valuable
If there is any aspect of early medieval culture that might seem rightly
at least some elements of Roman culture , passing them on to later gen-
identified with continuities, it is romanitas. Yet it seems to me that we
erations better able to build on this inheritance.
should not think only in terms of encounters with actual sources and
Such interpretations that stress decline or the passive emulation of
ideas from Antiquity or the Mediterranean; as Jennifer O’ Reilly and
antique and Mediterranean culture in the early medieval West still occa-D
older scholarly literature. Mayke De Jong have recently suggested , romanness in this era was also
sion ally surface , especially in textbooks based on
historians have been more willing to recognize a mental or spiritual state.7 Individual producers and centers , in different
Since the 1970s , though ,
producers . Greater emphasis is placed on times and places , drew from diverse resources to conjure up new ideas of
the creativity of early medieval
the many signs that they made deliberate choices from varied source —
Roman culture new romanizing traditions.8 Their productions reflect
materials , amended those borrowings , and mingled them with ones from —
their disparate imaginings of Rome inspired partly, it is true, by
Antiquity and the Mediterranean , but also by local conditions ,
. Yet even with this shift in
other sources and their own inventions
for the most part , at non-Roman works, sources they decided were romanizing but have
scholarly outlook , early medieval romanitas remains ,
84 CELIA CHAZELLE “ROMANNESS” IN
EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 85
little actual connection with that heritage , and independent , creative CODICl &VS
thought .9
.
SACRIS H0S1IU Cl Mtt
fl & vstis
Km CH> p&VEW HOC WfAHAVir
OfVS
In the following pages , I present a single case study that I think illus-
trates well the continued importance of the scholarly tendencies described
at the beginning of this essay and the distorting influence they can still
exert on how we understand early medieval romanness. My focus is the
portrait of the prophet Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus (figure 5.1), a bibli -
cal pandect, that is Bible containing the Old and New Testaments in one
volume, produced at the Northumbrian monastery of Wearmouth-
Jarrow.10 According to two near-contemporary writings, the anonymous
Vita Ceolfridi and Bede’s Historia abbatum, three pandects were made at
Wearmouth-Jarrow sometime during the abbacy of Ceolfrid over both
houses (689-716) . Two pandects were placed in the churches ofWearmouth

— —
and Jarrow, and in June 716 the third Bible, Amiatinus the only one to
survive with apparently all its leaves was taken to St. Peter’s shrine in
Rome.11 I try to show that if we investigate , more closely than have most
earlier scholars , the disjunctions as well as continuities with antique
Mediterranean culture so apparent in the Ezra miniature , we can shed
clearer light on both its innovativeness and its ties to its own northern
European place of production.
— —
I have chosen a work of art rather than , say, of literature as a case
study for two reasons. One is the particular strength of the older approaches
that I noted above in art history, largely thanks to the scholarship of Kurt
Weitzmann. Weitzmann put a premium on searching for the archetypes
of early Christian and medieval art , and on plotting the paths along which
forms were transmitted. Whether extant or lost and reconstructed from
later evidence, the archetypes were valued as “ purer ” and hence more
interesting than their medieval descendants.12 Although much challenged
in the last two decades ,13 Weitzmann’s methods remain dominant in
research on certain early medieval monuments, in particular ones thought
to be romanizing. One painting almost exclusively examined through a
Weitzmannian prism is Amiatinus’s Ezra miniature.
Figure 5.1 Florence , Biblioteca Medicea
Additionally, I hope to underscore the problems still caused , for early Laurenziana, Cod . Amiatino 1, fol.
4/ V recto: Portrait of the Prophet Ezra . Photo
medieval cultural studies , by the boundaries between academic disciplines. : Florence, Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana, by permission.
Textual historians still too often fail to give sufficient thought to non-
written sources , whereas scholars whose expertise lies with nontextual
happens , conflict .14 In this regard , too , analysis of
— —
materials art historians , architectural historians , archaeologists show
the reverse tendency. In dealing with a period from which sources of all
trait offers a useful guide.
Amiatinus’s Ezra por

kinds are so scarce , we must be able to investigate adequately the full

range of evidence. This requires that we develop the skills to read both The Ezra Miniature
written and non-written works with equal care, for insights they may The paintings subject is identified in
in iits verse caption ,
independently provide and ways those insights may intersect or , as often which
Paul Meyvaert
demonstrated was probably composed by Bede: “When the sacred
codices
 “ROMANNESS” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 87
86 CELIA CHAZELLE

, Ezra , burning with God, renewed the parameters of this concept . The concern for the continuities with
were incinerated in the enemy devastation antique Mediterranean culture via Grandior, which the Historic! abbatum
vestments of a Jewish high priest as
this work” (figure 5.1). Wearing the
15
and nimbus , Ezra sits in a
16 seems to corroborate , overrides respect for the significant visual and
described in Exodus 28, with gold trappings textual evidence of disjunctures.21
with a gold pen. The text he
simply furnished room writing in a book First , so far as I can determine, no earlier image survives from the
be linked to any known writing
inscribes is visible, but the script cannot Mediterranean or western Europe representing any Jewish priest as a
holding scribal tools and nine vol-
system. Behind him stands an armarium seated , writing scribe.22 Second , although the poor survival rate of antique
umes labeled along their spines with the abbrevia
ted titles of sections of the
, and a book and early medieval artwork might explain this lacuna , no single
Old and New Testaments . An inkwell is on a table before him
Mediterranean or northern artwork or text from before the eighth cen-
and writing implements lie on the floor.
issue in discussions of this tury accounts for the combined presence of three other details in the
Since the nineteenth century, the dominant
source J 7 A few features of Amiatinus miniature: Ezra’s portrayal specifically as a high priest ( Vulgate
painting has been the nature of its antique pontifex ; the Vulgate I and II Esdras describe him as a scribe and priest ,
containing an Old Latin
Amiatinus can be tied to a lost biblical pandect sacerdos); his unusual script; and the caption alluding to his restoration of
under Cassiod orus at Vivarium ,
translation , the Codex Grandior, made certainly the Bible burned scriptures. Each of these details can be related to an Old Latin or
was almost
Calabria , in the sixth century. Grandior in Rome in noncanonical scripture or to patristic literature, but they are not fused in
to have acquired
that the Historia abbatum reports Ceolfrid prose style these sources , and it is unlikely they were joined in any biblical or patris-
in Cassiodorian ,

678. Amiatinus’s first quire has a prologue cle probabl y tic manuscript at Wearmouth-Jarrow.23
desert Taberna
likely copied from Grandior; a painting of the
codex briefly described by Cassiodorus; The earliest extant writing to link Ezra with the office of high priest,
inspired by a picture in the Italian ,
a new script , and the recopying of burned biblical books is Bede’s reply to
their lists of biblical books , cor-
and three diagrams of scripture that , in
of Cassiodorus’s treatise, the Question 7 in his Thirty Questions on the Book of Kings, completed ca . 715 .
respond to diagrams in some copies The passage explains why certain Old Testament scriptures have been
notes there , were inserted in
Institutions. The same lists, Cassiodorus
Amiatinus and Grandior, and lost:
Grandior. Because of these ties between
the influence of antique
because the Ezra portrait clearly shows For when the Chaldeans destroyed Judea and the enemy fire consumed the
contende d that it , too, must have
Mediterranean art, many scholars have library that , along with other treasures of the province , had been collected
manuscrip t , though in this
been inspired by a picture in the Vivarium some leaves in
in ancient times, a few books from [the library] now contained in holy
. That is , since
case there is no supporting written evidence , the burden
scripture were subsequently restored by the industry of Ezra, high p riest
pages in Grandior
Amiatinus seem to draw inspiration from sources
[ pontifex] and prophet . Whence it is written about him, ‘Ezra went up
would argue that other
of proof has fallen on those scholars who |h
Except where
from Babylon , and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses’ ( I Esdras 7:6] ,
or original artistic creation underlie any
of the folios . namely ready (nimble) since he discovered more speedily written forms of
there is strong evidence to the contrary,
Cassiodorus
outh
—
’s Bible an
-Jarrow — is presumed the
antique letters than those the Hebrews had at the time. 24
“Roman” source available at Wearm
opinions regarding the Ezra By the time Bede finished Thirty Questions, he had formulated a
model by default . The most widespread conception of Ezra not traceable to any single earlier writing, one
of Ezra in Grandior , or it was
portrait are that it was copied from a picture combining distinct ideas that previously circulated independently., Yes,
us.19
adapted from a representation there of Cassiodor the Amiatinus miniature has ties to older artistic and textual traditions;
can be said to have had a
To the extent that the Amiatinus miniature its artist , doubtless guided by Bede, found inspiration in diverse materials.
this was an antique
single pictorial model , there is no question Yet we are seriously in danger of losing sight of the forest for the trees if
, although I cannot discuss this
Mediterranean portrait . Furthermore we fail to stress that this is a Wearmouth-Jarrow invention . The critical
and depicted Cassiodorus
here, the theory that the model was in Grandior 20
is plausible , despite the lack of written
evidence Yet a major problem
. ideas almost certainly came from Bede, not an earlier image or text, and
underlying assumption that it the picture’s creativity should be our chief concern .
with such discussions of the painting is the
—
is, in essence, a copy whether of an
image of Cassiodorus or another
. Analysis rarely moves outside
The thoughts I offer here as to why this image was invented not
copied from a Mediterranean exemplar—for one of the Wearmouth-Ja rrow
—
subject , in Grandior or another manuscript
 “ROMANNESS” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 89
88 CELIA CHAZELLE

in my 2003 article on the Temple was the type of the Christian Bible as well as the Church of
Bibles build on and revise the argument
picture’s signification and pur- Rome and the heavenly Jerusalem . 28 Ezra’s writing of scripture is indi-
miniature . Careful consideration of the
25
understanding of the role that indepen- rectly the means by which he helps restore Christ’s Temple. And yet , the
pose can set the stage for a clearer
the distinctive romanitas of this artist has portrayed him in an interior that might have been familiar to
dent thought played , more generally, in
article , another destination the monks , not surrounded by the Temple’s rich decor. The Amiatinus
Northumbrian center. As I noted in my earlier ’
d for Wearmouth-Jarrow s Ezra is a pontifex, but the picture confirms that his primary tasks are
than Rome may have been initially envisage
third pandect . But once the decision was made
to send it to Rome, this scribal work and biblical study. His restoration of the Temple the —
objective must have influenced the monks
’ perception of its contents. As
refers to Old Testament high
—
Bible occurs through these activities.
Interpreted in this mann er, the painting recalls Bede’s teachings on the
in the passage just quoted , Bede regularly
priests with the Latin pontifex or the adjectiv
e pontificalis, terms he also virtues of bishops and other clerical leaders of the Church of Rome ,
.26 Placed opposite the including the pope. As Alan Thacker has shown , Bede’s thinking about
employs for the archiepiscopal and papal offices after
, the first Christian pontifex episcopal virtue was shaped by the thought of Pope Gregory I . 29 For Bede
poem dedicating Amiatinus to St . Peter expressi on of
is a powerful as for Gregory, bishops should combine pastoral activity with an ascetic
Christ , the image of the Jewish pontifex Ezra volume given monastic way of life, allotting sufficient time to scripture study to assure
this picture in a
pontifical prestige . The appropriateness of
to Rome cannot have gone unnotice d at Wearm outh-Jarrow. T he monks the quality of their preaching and teaching. The life of Gregory in Bede’s
be understood , at least in part, Ecclesiastical History reflects this line of thought. Like the anonymous life
surely anticipated that the painting would
as a mirror of the papal office.
—
written at Whitby (704 714), which Bede may have known, it recalls
office they might have hoped Gregory’s deep knowledge of scripture . 30 Bede stresses the connection
In order to assess the ideas about that
be mindful of its caption’s between Gregory’s biblical studies and his monastic life even as pope, and
the miniature would convey, we need to
and the place where this he contrasts Gregory’s scholarship, asceticism , and charity with the
ambiguity: the enemy who burned the books
a certain disconnect exists behavior of those Roman pontiffs who “strove to build churches and
happened are unnamed , and , it seems to me
,
(singular ) renewed by Ezra . 1 decorate them with gold and silver.” 31
between the burned codices and the opus
, reflecting a multiva lent interpreta - It is possible that the election of new Pope Gregory ( II ) in 715 had
suspect the ambiguity was deliberate The painting and
al exegesis some bearing on the decision to send a Bible to Rome . The Wearmouth-
tion along the lines of the levels of scriptur
.
of lost scriptures , but educated Jarrow scriptorium may not have been able to produce an entire pandect
caption commemorate Ezra s rewriting
’
, too, the different tasks attribut ed to only a year before Amiatinus left the monastery; but the volume’s first
viewers would have remembered
copying of burned books is not quire containing the Ezra miniature could have been finished in this
him in the Vulgate I Esdras , where the We
the Temple in Jerusalem . time , perhaps with some pages designed earlier. So precise a date cannot
mentioned: in particular, his role restoring
dressed as a Jewish high priest, be proven , yet it is worth investigating one tentative clue that the por-
see Ezra , scribe and biblical scholar
,
and New Testaments, recopying trait, at least, postdates 709, since this may help clarify further how it
before an armarium containing the Old
—
Christian scripture the books behind —
him indicate in new letters
, than the older Hebrew script .
should be read .
Another text by Bede is of interest here: his dedication letter to Bishop
that Bede believed better , for this purpose
later commentary on Ezra, the Acca of Hexham for the first part of his Genesis commentary, in which
On one level , as Bede teaches in his
Bible s source , who joined the old Bede comments on why he must interrupt work on that treatise:
prophet thus foreshadows Christ , the
law to the new. Ezra can perhaps be
27 seen , as well, as the forerunner of
’s model: among them Jerome,
scholars of scripture who follow Christ And I have carried through the work up to the point where Adam, having
the Vulgate that surpassed the
the author of the improved translation of been ejected from the paradise of pleasure , entered the exile of the temporal
earlier Old Latin versions; and the Wearmo
uth-Jarrow monks, who life. I intend to write [ scripturus] some things also about subsequent events
create the revised ( hence of the sacred narrative, God willing, with the accompanying help of your
drew from different biblical codices to
beyond this , Ezra’s rewrit-
improved) Vulgate copied in Amiatinus. But
intercession , after I have first examined [ perscrutatus fuero] for a while the
a figure , in Christian terms , of the book of the holy prophet and priest [sacerdos ] Ezra in which, as both prophet
ing of scripture may be understood as
exegetes , the ancient and historian, he wrote about [conscripsit ] the sacred meanings of Christ
Temple’s restoration , since for Bede and other
 “ROMANNESS ” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 91
90 CELIA CHAZELLE
IV Ezra or a few church fathers. But the letter does not mention two
and the Church under the allegorical
figure of the release from the long
captivity, the restoration of the Temple
, the rebuilding of the city
, the -
other non Vulgate details alluded to in the painting and Thirty Questions:
had been taken away , the rewriting Ezra’s new script and office ofpontifex . The former detail was likely found
return to Jerusalem of the vessels which
which had been burned , the purification of the people at the time only in IV Ezra; the latter came from the Old Latin Ezra A’.36
of the law of God and
’s conversion with one heart Arguments from silence are problematic, and Bede doubtless thought
from their foreign wives, and the people
God ’s help, I have rendered red -
[ some things about Ezra well before writing them down . Nonetheless , the
soul to the service of God ; and after, with
didero] some of these sacred meanings which I have mentioned clearer to lack of reference in the letter may be a clue that at the time he had yet to
those desirous of learning [ studios!] .
32
put all these ideas together. He did not yet envisage Ezra as zpontifex and
inventor of a new script. The picture, then , would have been prepared
written soon after Acca became after the letter and closer to completion of 'Thirty Questions, ca . 715.
Meyvaert has suggested the letter was
Bede wrote his commen- If the Ezra painting can be dated to approximately 710-716 , what do
bishop in 709 and that this passage is evidence We should give thought -
we know about Wearmouth Jarrow in those years that might cast addi-
tary on Ezra and Nehemiah between
711 and 715 .
to these dates, since they may have a bearing on how we interpret the tional light on its design? Let me note here just one possibly relevant cir-

miniature’s relation to the letter and

consequently the conception of cumstance, since it points to the differences in romanizing values that
. Although Meyvaert s dating
' could exist even within so circumscribed a time and place as early eighth-
romanness the picture was meant to convey remain ed century Northumbria. This is the promotion of the cult of Wilfrid , Acca ’s
be proven (Acca
of the letter itself is plausible, though it cannot the Ezra predecessor, following Wilfrid ’s death in 709. The Historia ecclesiastica and
ts for assigning
bishop until 732) , Scott DeGregorio s argumen
’
commentary to the 720 s strike me as
persuas ive . One consideration , as the Vita Wilfridi by Stephen of Rip on probably written in the decade after
does not clearly state that 709, depict the late bishop as an energetic proponent of Roman traditions ,
DeGregorio has remarked , is that the letter 33 and the vita makes clear Wilfrid ’s taste for material wealth.37 Stephen
Bede planned to write a commentary
on Ezra . Although he employs
verbs of writing ( scripturns, conscripsit ) to
describe his work on Genesis and relates how Wilfrid worked hard to provide for the cathedral of York, his
them for his study of the prophet . first see, and his monasteries at Ripon and Hexham. New lands were
Ezra’s work as scribe , he does not use acquired , churches renovated , and new constructions built with roman-
and reddidero, which do not nec-
Here the main verbs are perscrutatus fuero
refer to the preparation of izing architecture and furnishings in gold , silver, and purple cloth.38 One
essarily indicate a plan for a treatise; they could of Wilfrid ’s most magnificent commissions , according to Stephen , was a
, in conjunction , the laying
sermons or lectures for students and perhaps
r, it may be significant that gospel book kept in the church at Ripon , written in gold on purple pages ,
of the groundwork for the painting . Moreove stored in a gold and gemmed case. 39 In 708 as bishop of Hexham , Stephen
Esdras 6:5 , where Cyrus commands
one of these verbs , reddere, occurs in I 34
’s vessels, which Ezra oversaw; reports, Wilfrid divided the Ripon treasure of gold , silver, and jewels into
the restoration ( reddantur) of the Temple gold four parts. One portion was sent to Rome. The others were distributed
and that in I Esdras 7:17 Ezra is told to act studiose in spending the
, Bede had these verses in mind among the poor, his followers, and the abbots of Ripon and Hexham, to
and silver for the sacrifices. Conceivably
35

when he wrote to Acca: in the new task of studying Ezra , the letter may
, emu-
—
provide — it is said for gifts to kings and bishops.40
For Stephen , such actions were compatible with Roman episcopal
iniply, Bede and the studiosi
, a group that obviously included Acca
to send Amiatinus to Rome , Bede virtue . There are similarities between the accounts of Wilfrid and his
late the prophet. Once it was decided
of Ezra , who restores the foundations, by Bede as well as Stephen , and those of Wearmouth-
and his brothers may have hoped the picture
y suggest to Gregory II that Jarrow. The Ecclesiastical History notes the embellishment of churches
Temple by restoring scripture, would similarl
Bible he , too , imitates the undertaken by both Acca and Wilfrid . Wearmouth-Jarrow, too, was
through his humility and devotion to the enormously wealthy: the Vita Ceolfridi and Historia ahhatum recall its sub -
the Church of Rome .
prophet, thus renewing Christ s Temple of
’
letter support the view that stantial acquisitions of lands and goods.41 There are also analogies
These analogies between the painting and between the purple-leaved gospel book made under Wilfrid for the
Bede’s initial study ofEzra was partly motiva
ted by plans for the miniature .
ize with this view. The text Ripon church and the Wearmouth -Jarrow Bibles: Amiatinus with its
Another feature of the letter may harmon
s linking Ezra to the rewrit- one purple page (fol. 3/ IV ) , and the two volumes placed in the churches
indicates familiarity with one of the tradition
ing of burned scriptures , which Bede
could have found in the noncanonical of Wearmouth and Jarrow. A possible parallel exists , too , between
 “R O M A N N E S S” I N EARLY MEDIEVAL C U L T U R E 93
92 CELIA CHAZELLE

, and jewels and the gifts that the understanding of romanness, in general , in this era a greater appreciation
Wilfrid’s gift to Rome of gold , silver for the contribution of not only a distant heritage but local circumstances
Amiatinus. It is not stated what
Vita Ceolfridi indicates were sent with materials.42 and thought. Amiatinus s Ezra portrait , a classicizing, northern early medi-
objects in precious
these were, but they may have included eval painting, is obviously informed by antique and Mediterranean sources,
in the Vita Ceolfridi and Historia
The only offering to Rome identified including perhaps a picture in the sixth-century Codex Grandior. Yet
the specificity of those references
abbatum , however , is the Bible. Both much as the ancient Jews restored their Temple and Ezra rewrote some of
deserves thought in view of the
and Bede’s ideals for the episcopacy the burned scriptures in a new script, Bede and the Wearmouth-Jarrow
Wilfridi . Although Bede refers to
emphasis on material finery in the Vita
the acquisitions for Hexham , Ripon and
, especially Wearmouth-Jarrow — —
artist who must have recognized the analogy drew on a range of ancient
texts and imagery to create a fundamentally new picture, one they surely
his conviction that bishops , like
in positive terms , his writings reveal believed better for their purposes than any prototype. The forms and style
monks , should live according to ascetic
principles, attending not to luxury
were meant to look Roman , but they were chosen to express romanizing
earthly wealth , should be the mam
but to biblical studies. The Bible , not ideals particular to the Wearmouth-Jarrow monks, ideals that seem to have
attributed these virtues to43 Acca,
concern of their devotional lives. Bede diverged with those of some Northumbrian contemporaries. Attention to
to whom he dedicated several commen
taries besides On Genesis, but it
the visual evidence of the Ezra miniature, together with its caption and
is unclear he associated them with
Wilfrid. While Acca commissioned
other contemporary texts , offers new insights into the distinctive values of
Wilfrid and his cult seems to
the Vita Wilfridi , Bede’s attitude toward this one center of production.
his Historia abbatum was informed
have been cool; it has been argued that 44 Early medieval romanness was a mental and spiritual construct as well
. In this light , it is interesting
by a desire to respond to Stephen’s work as the outgrowth of imported antique and Mediterranean conventions.
by Stephen appears, in some ways ,
how the memory of Wilfrid promoted Classical and postclassical writings and objects shaped how different
at odds with Bede’s episcopal (and
papal) ideology, and accordingly at
odds with the conception of the ideal pontiff — —
and romanness suggested authors and craftsmen thought about Rome, but their individual imagin-
ings were equally if not more important. In the words of Mayke De Jong,
wondering whether Bede and his
by the Ezra miniature . One cannot help what often emerges from our evidence is a “ Rome in the mind ,” despite
to express to the holy see an under-
fellow monks intended the painting links to “ real ” Mediterranean forms , customs , ideas.45 Throughout the
as different from that of Wilfrid
standing of romanizing virtue they saw early medieval West, Roman culture was continually invented and rein-
and his allies. Conceivably, Bede felt
compelled to clarify his thinking on
and his memory. To raise this vented; the copying and imitation of sources, the deliberate, at times
this issue because of concerns about Wilfrid radical reworking of that material , and personal reflection on what Rome
, although we should not ignore
possibility, though , is again to insist that and its culture should be like all played a part. Even the drive for roman-
anean art , we must be sensi-
the Ezra portrait’s continuities with Mediterr of this ness, like so many other facets of the era’s cultural history, reveals diver-
tive to its disjunctions. The
key to understanding the romanitas
than in early- eighth - century sity and disjuncture with the past.
painting lies less in the antique Mediterranean
Northumbria .
Notes
Early Medieval Romanness My thanks to Felice Lifshitz, Mildred Budny, Scott DeGregorio, and
offer irrefutable evidence of the Lawrence Nees for helpful comments and criticisms of earlier drafts of this
Early medieval artifacts and writings essay.
Antiquity and the Mediterranean
diffusion of cultural traditions from , art, and
regions . Despite , though
, the influence evident in the literature 1. See Eviatar Zerubavel , Time Maps : Collective Memory and the Social Shape of
Roman sources are also fre- the Past (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), esp. pp. 11-36.
architecture, discontinuities with presumed
to the ways even the most 2. The classic study of this “ renaissance” paradigm is by Erwin Panofsky,
quently apparent. By being more sensitive
romanizing characteristics of early medieva
l sources are sometimes not Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art , 2 vols., The Gottesman Lectures ,
, we can throw a sharper Uppsala University 7 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1960), esp. Text
traceable to antique or Mediterranean productions contexts in which they vol., pp . 42-113. Cf. my article , “Amalarius’s Liber Officials: Spirit and
the specific
light on their innovativeness and ties to Vision in Carolingian Liturgical Thought ,” in Seeing the Invisible in Late
used. Such an approach should facilitate a more nuanced
were made and
 “ROMANNESS” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 95
CELIA CHAZELLE
10. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Cod . Amiatino 1, fol. 4/ Vr;
. Giselle de Nie , Karl F. Morriso
n,
Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages , ed - 37 [ 327-571 . I La Bibhia Amiatina / The Codex Amiatinus, Complete Reproduction on
, 2005) , pp . 327
and Marco Mostert (Turnhout: Brepols of the ‘ Dark Ages CD - ROM of the Manuscript Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana , Amiatino
: The End ,

deal with related issues in my, Introduction

“
i , ed . Luigi G .G. Ricci et al. ( Florence: SISMEL: Edizioni del Galluzzo ,
, Politics , and Artistic Innovatio n in the Early Medieval West , cd.
in Literacy 2000) .
ty Press of America Press , 1992 ,
)
Celia M. Chazelle (Lanham, MD: Universi 11. Bede , Historia abbatum ( henceforth HA ) 15, Vita Ceolfridi ( henceforth VC )
—
pp. 1 18.
Age: Reflections on Its Place in
20, 37, in Venerabilis Baedae Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anglorum ,
3. Cf. Richard Sullivan , “ The Carolingian — Historiant abbatum, Epistolam ad Ecgberctum, una cum Historia abbatum auctore
64 (1989): esp. 272 78
the History of the Middle Ages ,” Speculum anonymo , ed . Charles Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford : Clarendon , 1896),
-
[267 306].
atic tendencies , Geoffrey Koziol ,
1: 379-80 , 394-95 , 402.
4. For analysis of these and other problem 12. Kurt Weitzmann, Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of the Origin and
an Interesting Topic of Historical
“The Dangers of Polemic: Is Ritual Still Method of Text Illustration ( Princeton: Princeton University Press , 1947) .
Study? ” Early Medieval Europe 11 (2002
—
): 367 88; Philippe Hue , The
13. Esp. John Lowden , “ The Beginnings of Biblical Illustration , ” in Imaging
Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieva
l Texts and Social Scientific Theory
the Early Medieval Bible , ed . John Williams ( University Park , PA:
, 2001 ) . Also sec Sarah Foot
,
( Princeton: Princeton University Press and Chronic les , ”
in Pennsylvania State University Press , 1999), pp. 9-59. Also see John
in Annals
“ Finding the Meaning of Form: Narrative ( London: Hodder Arnold , -
Williams, “ Introduction ,” in Williams, Imaging , pp. 1 8; Eva Frojmovic,
Medieva l History, ed . Nancy Partner
Writing “ Messianic Politics in Re- Christianized Spain : Images of the Sanctuary
Content of the Form : Narrative
2005) , pp . 88-108; Hayden White, The in Hebrew Bible Manuscripts ,” in Imagining the Self, Imagining the Other,
Discourse and Historical Representation (
Baltimore: John Hopkins University
ed . Eva Frojmovic (Leiden : Brill , 2002) , pp . 91-128. My thanks to Susan
Press, 1987), pp. 1-57. Einbinder for bringing Frojmovic’s article to my attention .
5. For instance , the discussion of Caroling
ian culture in the latest edition of
14. See John Moreland, Archaeology and Text (London , 2001), esp. pp. 94—97.
History of Art: The Western Tradition
H .W. Janson (with Anthony F. Janson), 15. Fol . 4 / Vr : “ Codicibus sacris hostili clade perustis / Esdra Deo feruens hoc
- Hall , 2004) , p. 276: “ The fact
( Upper Saddle River. NJ: Pearson/ Prcntice reparauit opus. ”
known today as Roman rather
that these letters [Caroline minuscule] are 16. Correcting my interpretation in, “ Ceolfrid ’s Gift to St. Peter: The First
the cultural reforms sponsored
than Carolingian recalls another aspect of Quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the Evidence of Its Roman
of ancient Roman literature . . .”
by Charlemagne: the collecting and copying -
Destination ,” Early Medieval Europe 12 (2003): 155 [129 57]. Compare the
for this reference.
(and so on). My thanks to Lawrence Nees high priest (Aaron) in Leon, Real Colegiata de San Isidoro , Cod . 2 , Bible
for example , the discussion of
6 . This approach seems to me to inform
,
of 960, fol. 50r: Williams, Imaging , Color PL 15.
in the otherwise fine book by
reform under Pippin III and Charlemagne 17. See , for example , R . L. S. Bruce-Mitford , The Art of the Codex Amiatinus
Frankish Gaul : 7 b the Death
Yitzhak Hen , The Royal Patronage of Liturgy in (Jarrow: The Rectory, 1966 ) , pp. 13-14; George Henderson , Vision and
of Charles the Bald ( 877 ), Henry Bradsh
aw Society ( London: Boydell ,
type of subheading under Image in Early Christian England (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
2001 ), pp . 42-95. In textbooks , a common Press , 1999) , pp. 81-87; Mark Vessey, “ Introduction ,” Cassiodorus:
is “ The Transmission of
which such lines of thought are articulated Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning and on the Soul , trans. James W.
, The History of the Church in the
Learning”: for example, F. Donald Logan
Halporn , intro. Mark Vessey, Translated Texts for Historians
. 59-63.
Middle Ages ( London : Routledge , 2002) , pp (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004), pp. 7-10 [3-101].
Art of Authorit y ,” in After Rome , ed . Thomas
7. Jennifer O’Reilly, “ The 18. See Lawrence Nees , “The Originality of Early Medieval Artists,” in
y Press, 2003), pp. 141-89;
Charles-Edwards (Oxford: Oxford Universit -
Chazelle , Literacy, Politics, and Artistic Innovation , pp. 77 109.
Middle Ages : Europe 400-1000,
Mayke de Jong, “ Religion,” in The Early 19. For example, Paul Meyvaert , “The Date of Bede’s In Ezram and His
University Press , 2001 ) , pp .
ed . Rosamond McKitterick (Oxford : Oxford Image of Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus ,” Speculum 80 (2005): 1107-27
132-42 [131-64].
8. Lawrence Nees, Early Medieval
Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press
, —
[1087 33]; Jennifer O’Reilly, “The Library of Scripture: Views from
Vivarium and Wearmouth -Jarrow,” in New Offerings , Ancient Treasures:
2002), pp. 9-15. Studies in Medieval Art for George Henderson , ed . Paul Binski and William
; Michel Sot , “Le My the des origines
9. Nees, Early Medieval Art , p . 15 Noel (Stroud: Sutton, 2001), pp. 3 39.-
et les eglises nationales Vlle-
romames de Reims au Xeme siecle ,” in Rome 20. Celia Chazelle, “ The Three Chapters Controversy and the Biblical
Philippe George (Aix-en- Provence:
XHIe siecles , ed . Claude Carozzi and Diagrams of Cassiodorus’s Codex Grandior and Institutionsin The Crisis
, 1991), pp . 55-74 .
Publications de l ’Universite de Provence
 “ ROMANNESS” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE 97
CELIA CHAZELLE
25. “Ceolfrid’s Gift,” 152—57 (see above, nl6).
the Failed Quest for Unity in the
of the Oikoumene: The Three Chapters and 26. Scott DeGregorio, “ Bede’s In Ezram et Neemiam and the Reform of the
Chazelle and Catherine Cubitt
Sixth Century Mediterranean, ed . Celia
- Northumbrian Church , ” Speculum 79 (2004): esp. 18 and n 80 [1 25]. Cf. —
(Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming). Epistola ad Ecgbertum, 3, 7, Vetierabilis Baedae 1: 406 , 411; Historia ecclesiastica
and Function in Early Medieval
21. Cf. Lawrence Nees, “ Problems of Form 2.1 (henceforth HE ) , Venerabilis Baedae 1: 74, 77.
Europe ,” in Williams , Imaging ,
Illustrated Bibles From Northwest 27. Meyvaert , “Bede, Cassiodorus, ” pp. 881-82.
pp. 151-58 [121 77]. - standing are Paris, BnF syr. 341, fol . 212
r 28. See Bede, De Templo , CCSL 119 A, ed. David Hurst (Turnhout: Brepols,
22 Two earlier depictions of Ezra
. , Index of Christian 1969), pp . 143-234; O’Reilly, “ Library of Scripture ,” esp. pp. 22-30;
e (photo
and a fresco in the Dura-Europos synagogu Bianca Kiihnel , “Jewish Symbolism of the Tabernacle and Christian
Dr. Adelaide Bennett for her assistance. No image of
Art). My thanks to Symbolism of the Holy Sepulchre and the Heavenly Tabernacle ,” Jewish
in the Index archive shows him
a scribe predating the Amiatinus portrait Art 12-13 (1986-1987): 147 68. -
as a Jewish priest or high priest . 29. Alan Thacker, “ Bede’s Ideal of Reform,” in Ideal and Reality in Frankish
8:1, 4, 9, 13; 12.26 , 35. Ezra’s high
23. See I Esdras 7:6 , 11, 12 , 21; II Esdras and Anglo - Saxon Society, ed . Patrick Wormald et al . (Oxford : Basil
writings and the Old Latin Ezra
priestly office is mentioned in rabbinic Blackwell , 1983) , pp. 130-53; see Scott DeGregorio, “‘Nostrorum socor-
not Amiatinus’s Vulgate: III Ezra
A’ ( III Ezra) , a book in Grandior but diam temporum >: The Reforming Impulse of Bede’s Later Exegesis,” Early
versionem, ed. Robert Weber , 2
—
9: 39 40, 50, Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatant
talt , 1969), 1: 1930; see
Medieval Europe 11 (2002): 107-22.
vols. (Stuttgart: Wiirttembergische Bibelans 30. The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great, By an Anonymous Monk of Whitby, ed.
A . B . Mynors , corrected repr.
Cassiodorus , Institutiones 1.14.1, ed . R .
Bertram Colgrave (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1968); HE 2.1:
39 . My thanks to Dr. Susan Einbinder
(Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1961) , p . -
73 81; Alan Thacker, “ Memorializing Gregory the Great : The Origin
14: 24 — 48 , a text in neither
concerning the rabbinic texts . IV Esdras and Transmission of a Papal Cult in the Seventh and Early Eighth
in early medieval England ,
Grandior nor Amiatinus that circulated Centuries,” Early Medieval Europe 1 (1998): 59-84.
the Jerusalem library (IV Kings
records that after the Chaldeans burned 31 . “ Nam alii quidam pontifices construendis ornandisque auro uel argento
the lost scriptures to five scribes
25) , Ezra miraculously dictated some of ecclesiis operam dabant , hie autem totus erga animarum lucra uacabat ”:
. Several church fathers mention that
who wrote in newly devised letters HE 2.1: 77.
without attributing to him the
Ezra himself rewrote the burned books 32 . “ Perduxique opus usque dum eiectus Adam de paradiso uoluptatis exil-
The Fourth Book of Ezra, ed . R . L .
high priesthood or a new script . See ium uitae temporalis intrauit . Aliqua etiam de sequentibus sacrae histo-
to Biblical and Patristic Literature,
Bensly, in Texts and Studies: Contributions riae, si Deus uoluerit auxilio uestrae intercessionis comitante , scripturus ,
ge , UK: Cambridge University
Vol. 3.2 , cd . J . A . Robinson (Cambrid dum primo librum sancti Esrae prophetae ac sacerdotis in quo Christi et
Meyvaer t , “ Bede , Cassiodorus,
Press, 1895), pp. xxxv-xxxviii, 70- 72 ; Paul
ecclesiae sacramenta sub figura , solutae longae captiuitatis , restaurati
71 (1996): 874 —76 [827— 83].
and the Codex Amiatinus, ” Speculum templi, reaedificatae ciuitatis, reductorum in Hierosolimam uasorum
. W. Trent Foley and Arthur Holder
,
24. Bede: A Biblical Miscellany, trans l University Press , quae abducta , rescriptae legis Dei quae incensa fuerat , castigati ab uxoribus
l: Liverpoo
Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpoo Regent librum XXX alienigenis populi, et uno corde atque anima in dei seruitium conuersi, ut
); Bede In
1999) , p. 102 (with my emendations
,
propheta simul et historicus conscnpsit , parum perscrutatus fuero, et
es 7 CCSL 119, ed . David Hurst (Turnhout: Brepols , 1962) , pp .
Quaestion , aliqua ex his quae commemoraui sacramentis apertiora studiosis, Deo
Iudaea et bibliotheca antiquitus
301-02: “ Vastata namque a Chaldaeis fauente, reddidero”: Bede, In Genesim , CCSL 118A, ed. C.W. Jones
hostili igne consumpta ex qua
congregata inter alias prouinciae opes (Turnhout: Brepols , 1967) , p. 2 . My thanks to Scott DeGregorio for the
r libri postmodum Ezrae
pauci qui nunc in sancta scriptura continentu translation .
i Unde scriptum est de co ,
pontificis et prophetae sunt industria restaurat
.
in lege Moysi ’, uclox
33. “ Introduction ,” in Bede : On Ezra and Nehemiah , trans . Scott DeGregorio,
uelox
‘Ascendit Ezras de Babilone et ipse scribu Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press,
quain eatenus Hebraci habc -
uidelicet quia promptiores litterarum figuras 2006) , p. xl .
’s date , Paul Meyvaer t , “ Tn the Footsteps
bant repperit . . ..” On the treatise ’ 34. “ Sed et vasa templi Dei aurea et argentea , quae Nabuchodonosor tulerat
Questions on the Book of Kings to
of the Fathers’: The Date of Bede s Thirty de templo Ierusalem , et attulerat ea in Babylonem , reddantur, et referan-
Christianity: Essays on Late Antique
Nothelm,” in The Limits of Ancient tur in templum in Ierusalem in locum suum . . .. ”
, cd . W. E . Klingshirn and
Thought and Culture in Honour of R .A . Markus 35 . “.. . libere accipe , et sutiose erne de hac pecunia vitulos, arietes, agnos et
of Michigan Press, 1997) ,
Mark Vessey (Ann Arbor: University sacrificia et libamina eorum.. . . ”
—
pp . 267 86.
 CELIA CHAZELLE

36 . See above, n 23.

37. The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, ed . Bertram Colgrave
(Cambridge, UK.: Cambridge University Press , 1927); henceforth VW ;
HE 5.19: 322-30.
38 . VW 16-17, 22 , pp. 32-36 , 44-46 .
39. VW 17, p . 26; see HE 5.19: 330.
40. VW 63, p. 136. PART II
41. HE 5.19, 20: 528 , 530; FC 7, 9, 20; EL4 5, 6 , 9, 15, pp. 390-91, 394-95 ,
368-70, 373, 379-80.
42. VC 22 , p . 395 . METHODS: TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS
43. Plummer, “ Introduction , ” Venerabilis Baedae 1: xlix n 2.
. —
44. Walter Goffart , The Narrators of Barbarian History ( A D. 550 800):Jordanes , FROM CAROLINGIAN FRANCIA
Gregory of Tours , Bede, and Paul the Deacon ( Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1988) , pp. 285-95; Ian Wood , The Most Holy Abbot Ceolfrid
(Jarrow: The Rectory, 1995) , p . 8.
45. De Jong, “ Religion, ” p. 138 .