K. M. Openshaw - The Battle Between Christ and Satan in the Tiberius Psalter

The Battle between Christ and Satan in the Tiberius PsalterAuthor(s): K. M. OpenshawSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 52 (1989), pp. 14-33Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/751536 .Accessed: 19/03/2014 13:04

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THE BATTLE BETWEEN CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER*

K. M. Openshaw

Cotton Tiberius C.VI, is well-known to medievalists as the first of a distinguished series of Western psalters illustrated with prefatory cycles of

full-page Old and New Testament miniatures.' Francis Wormald described and catalogued the Tiberius pictures, which are usually dated to about 1050,2 observing that they were 'probably the best examples of English drawing of the second half of the eleventh century',3 while as a consequence of their iconographic rarity, some of them have been discussed at length by other scholars.4 In addition, there have been several allusions to some of the important broader questions raised by the manuscript's new type of picture cycle. Thus Elizabeth Parker McLachlan wondered whether a common context of usage and production led to the migration of Christological cycles into psalters such as the so-called Athelstan Psalter, and the Tiberius Psalter,5 while Wormald suggested that a sacramentary cycle had been adapted to provide the Christological scenes.6 Christine Haney noted features in the Insular Weltanschauung which predisposed its scribes and patrons to the inclusion of Christological images in their psalters.7 Otto Picht, on the other hand, was struck by points in common with the Davidic cycles in the Aristocratic Psalters of Byzantium, and suggested a Byzantine antecedent for the Tiberius manuscript.8 Such questions cannot be resolved here, but serve to alert us to the complexity of the manuscript and the issues surrounding it.9

* I am grateful for advice and encouragement from Robert Deshman in the preparation of this study. The research was undertaken with the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. An early version of the paper was read in May 1988 at the 23rd International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. 1 F. Wormald, 'An English Eleventh-Century Psalter

with Pictures', Walpole Society, xxxviii, 1960-62, pp. 1-14, repr. in idem, Collected Writings, ed. J. J. G. Alexander, T. J. Brown, J. Gibbs, Oxford 1984, pp. 123-37. For full bibliography see E. Temple, Anglo- Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, ii, London 1978, p. 117. 2 See O. Homburger, Die Anfiinge der Malschule von

Winchester im X. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1912, pp. 68-69; and T. A. M. Bishop, English Caroline Minuscule, Oxford 1971, p. 23, for palaeographic basis of dating. See K. and C. Sisam, The Salisbury Psalter, Early English Text Society, ccxlii, London, New York, Toronto 1959, pp. 5, 58-65, for various textual associations with Winchester manuscripts. See Wormald (as in n. 1), p. 128, and idem, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, London 1952, pp. 50-52, for discussion of style. 3 Wormald (as in n. 1), p. 123.

4 See the bibliography in Temple (as in n. 1), p. 117. 5 E. Parker McLachlan, 'The Athelstan Psalter and

the Gallican Connection', Proceedings of the Third Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians 1982, pp. 21-27. London, B.L., MS Cotton Galba A.XVIII has been shown by S. Keynes to have tenuous connections with King Athelstan, 'King Athelstan's Books', in M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss, eds, Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes, Cambridge 1985, pp. 193-96. 6 Wormald (as in n. 1), p. 128. 7 The Winchester Psalter: an Iconographic Study,

Leicester 1986, pp. 46-49. The present author reached similar conclusions, independently of Haney, in 1985-86, delivering them in a seminar at the University of Toronto and in abbreviated form to the Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians early in 1987. An expanded discussion of this topic will be part of my article in preparation, 'The Symbolic Illustration of the Psalter: an Insular Tradition'. 8 0. Picht, F. Wormald, C. R. Dodwell, The St Albans

Psalter, Studies of the Warburg Institute, xxv, London 1960, pp. 52-53, n. 1. 9 These and other issues are explored in detail in my

dissertation in progress, Images, Texts and Contexts: the

14 Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 52, 1989


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 15

Subjects which have not received any scholarly attention are the questions of the internal coherence of the lengthy picture cycle and the principles of organization of the decoration. Numerous factors govern the selection and arrangement of the twenty-four full-page drawings and two painted miniatures which decorate this psalter, as a result of the fusion of diverse traditions. The present discussion will address some of the reasons for inclusion of just nine of the pictures in the cycle. There are varying degrees of visual relationship between the nine, and I shall show that they are closely related thematically, functioning as illustrations of the battle between Christ and Satan. The pictures will be considered in terms of their relationship to each other, to the texts of the psalter and to the broader artistic and cultural traditions which generated both pictures and texts.

The prefatory gatherings of the Tiberius Psalter contain two discrete sections comprising pictures and texts. The core of the prefatory picture series is a five-page cycle of scenes from the life of the psalmist David, followed immediately by eleven drawings of events from the life of Christ. In the Christological cycle a drawing of the Temptation precedes a generous Passion series, and this in turn is followed by drawings of the Ascension and the Pentecost. Immediately after the Pentecost is an image of St Michael slaying a dragon, and then a series of four pages of drawings illustrating a pseudo-Hieronymian letter.10 At the beginning of the manuscript, preceding the Davidic pictures, are three illustrations associated with computistic tables, including a drawing of Vita and Mors. This long picture series is separated from the text folios by a painted miniature of Christ in Majesty, and a second painted miniature, of King David, separates the prefatory texts from the psalter proper.

In addition to the lengthy prefatory cycle of consecutive drawings, the psalter contains figural images at four foci of the ten-fold division of the psalter, facing Psalms i, li, ci and cix, only one of which (at Psalm cix) relates directly to the psalm it faces." Of these images the drawing facing Psalm ci, of Christ trampling the beasts, will concern us here in this examination of the theme of the battle between Christ and Satan.

THE DAVIDIC SCENES The psalter's cycle of five scenes from the early life of the psalmist David contains drawings of two important conflicts. The first shows the youthful shepherd struggling to rescue a lamb from the mouth of a lion while tending his father's flocks (P1. 6a). The second, spread over two pages, represents David's victorious battle with Goliath (P1. 6b, c), while in the lower register of the first page David despatches the Philistine giant (P1. 61). In patristic and medieval biblical exegesis these Davidic combats with the lion and Goliath were seen as Old Testament types of Christ's fight with the Devil, although for various reasons the fight with Goliath

Iconography of the Tiberius Psalte, London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C.VI. 10 All items are listed in Wormald (as in n. 1), pp.

130-37. 11 For the divisions of the psalter and their decoration

see R. Kahsnitz, Der Werdener Psalter in Berlin, MS theol.

lat. fol. 358, Dilsseldorf 1979, pp. 115-41, and V. Leroquais, Les psautiers manuscrits latins des bibliotheques de France, i, Macon 1940, pp. xc-xcviii.


16 K. M. OPENSHAW receives by far the greater amount of attention of the two.12 Representative is the statement of Augustine that as David brought down Goliath, so Christ killed the Devil." 1Augustine also emphasized the lack of armour, the use of one of five river stones as a weapon, and the moral lesson to be derived from the conquest of the proud Goliath by the humble David, all of which provided firm foundations for the later, medieval views of the event.14 Cassiodorus, drawing on this patristic tradition, stated that just as Goliath was brought down by the blow of a stone weapon, so, through the stone who is Christ, diabolical strength was overcome.15 In the Carolingian period Hrabanus Maurus was quite direct: David 'took one stone and killed the devil'.16 The comments about the lion fight are in a similar vein.'7 In Anglo-Saxon England vernacular homilies reflected this typological exegesis of the Davidic combats. The tenth-century Blickling homilist, for example, wrote in a homily for the first Sunday in Lent that David: took five stones in his shepherd's bag, and yet with one he struck down the giant. So Christ overcame the Devil.18

The familiarity of Insular artists with these typological associations is demon- strated by the decoration of the Irish Southampton Psalter in Cambridge, dated c. 1000.19 Here there are just three miniatures, placed at the three-fold division of the psalter: David's struggle with the lion, his battle with Goliath, who is seen upside down to symbolize his defeat, and Christ's Crucifixion. We have already discussed the first two events as prefigurations of Christ's battle with Satan, and exegesis often interpreted the Crucifixion itself as another example of this combat. Cassiodorus expressed this view well when writing of David: We have said that David signifies the strong hand. And when should such a name be used except in reference to the glorious battle of the Passion of our Lord? Strong hand, who through his own endurance laid low the Prince of Darkness, who by dying overcame death, who freed the captive human race by the dispensation of his Crucifixion.20

12 The struggles with the lion and bear only receive brief retrospective mention in the narrative of the Book of Kings, 1 Sam. xvii, 34-36, compared with nearly a chapter devoted to the Goliath episode; this imbalance is reflected in the exegesis of the Book of Kings. In addition, the battle with Goliath is discussed in psalm exegesis, primarily that of the Vulgate titulus of Psalm cxliii, Psalmus David, adversus Goliath. 13 Sancti Aurelii Augustini Enarrationes in psalmos, eds E. Dekkers, I. Fraipont, Corpus christianorum scriptorum Latinorum (hereafter CCSL), xxxviii, Turnhoult 1956, p. 276, '... et quod David prostravit Goliam, Christus est qui occidit diabolum'. In the fourth century Hilary of Poitiers had written: '... ut in David et Golia bellum praefiguratum esse satanae Dominique sciremus', Expo- sitio psalmorum, J. P. Migne, Patrologia latina (hereafter PL) ix, 844B. 14 See also the exegesis of Psalm cxliii, CCSL, xl, pp.

2072-75. 15 Magni Aurelii Cassiodori Expositio Psalmorum, ed. M.

Adriaen, CCSL, xcvii-xcviii, Turnhoult 1958, pp. 98, 1281, Expositio in psalmum cxliii, '... ut sicut iste (Christus) Goliam saxei teli dimicatione prostravit, ita

per petram, qui est Dominus Christus, fortitudo dia- bolica vinceretur'. 16 Commentarius in Libros IV Regum, PL cix, 53A, '

tulit unum lapidem et dejecit diabolum'. 17 See also Isidore of Seville, Appendix ad Libros Regum, PL lxxxiii, 399, Gregory the Great, In septem psalmos poenitentiales expositio, PL lxxix, 550, and Hrabanus Maurus, Commentarius (as in n. 16), PL cix, 52C. 18 R. Morris, ed., The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century, Early English Text Society, Iviii, lxiii, lxxiii, London 1874-80, repr. London, n.d., p. 31. The homilist may also have been drawing on an Irish exegetical tradition, see C. Wright, 'Blickling Homily III on the Temptations in the Desert', Anglia, forthcoming. 19 Cambridge, St John's College, MS C.9; M. R.

James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College, Cambridge 1912, pp. 76-78; F. Henry, 'Remarks on the Decoration of Three Irish Psalters', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, lxi, 1960, pp. 23-40, pls iii, xii, xiii. 20 Expositio psalmorum, CCSL, xcvii, p. 242. 'Diximus David significans manu fortis. Et quando tale nomen debuit poni nisi cum passionis dominicae gloriosa


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 17 In this statement David and Christ are inextricably entwined in their conquest

of Satan. In the Southampton Psalter the images of the three Satanic battles are just as closely related to each other, but by visual means. There is a pronounced decorative unity to the three, with their highly ornamental frames and striking, non- naturalistic palette, and this unity is enhanced by the treatment of the facing initial pages with matching ornamented frames. The strong decorative treatment makes the intended relationship of the three images to each other very clear. In addition the symmetrical placement of these two-page ensembles at the three-fold divisions of the psalter text helps to emphasize the fact that their relationship is to each other, for there is no logical explanation for their location at Psalms i, li and ci, in terms of relationship to the adjacent texts. The pictures do not illustrate the psalms they face, and there is no demonstrable tradition for the use of these particular images at these locations.21 In view of this and the clear visual relationship between the three, it seems most likely that the pictures were selected to illustrate the typological theme which links the events in the exegesis. The two Old Testament pictures prefigure the New Testament one, and the three constitute a symbolic programme of the conquest of the Devil.22

The Southampton Psalter thus provides a precedent for the use of the imagery in the later Tiberius Psalter, for, as noted, the Anglo-Saxon manuscript also contains images of David and the lion, David and Goliath, and the Crucifixion. Yet the placement of the three scenes in Tiberius is significantly different. In the Irish psalter the scenes are clearly used in a non-narrative, symbolic way, while in the Anglo-Saxon psalter they are embedded in narrative Davidic and Christological cycles. This leads one to ask whether the symbolic connotations which we can impute to the Irish images were carried over into the Anglo-Saxon manuscript? The question cannot be answered definitively until we have discussed the other five Tiberius images that are the subject of this paper. For the present the Southampton Psalter stands as an earlier Insular manuscript in which there is a demonstrable typological decorative programme focused on the conquest of the Devil by David and Christ. Considered together with the Latin exegesis, and the vernacular homily from which we have quoted, it reminds us of the pervasiveness in the early medieval world of the typological perception of the two Davidic combats.

THE NARRATIVE CHRISTOLOGICAL SCENES

Just as David's fight with the Philistine Goliath had been preceded by his combat with the lion, so Christ's battle at the Crucifixion was preceded by an earlier confrontation with Satan, namely the Temptation. It is thus appropriate that the Christological cycle of the Tiberius Psalter begins with a scene of the third Temptation of Christ (P1. 7a). For the patristic and the Carolingian commentators the 'small persecution of the Temptation' foreshadowed the larger one of the Crucifixion; in overcoming the Devil as a man Christ reversed the Fall of Man at certamina referuntur? Fortis utique manu qui per tolerantiam suam prostravit principem tenebrarum, qui mortem moriendo superavit, qui humanum genus captivum crucifixionis suae dispensatione liberavit'.

21 Henry (as in n. 19), pp. 35-36. 22 Symbolic programmes will be discussed at length in my article in preparation, see n. 7 above.


18 K. M. OPENSHAW the Devil's instigation.23 Christ's conquest of the Devil in the desert was seen as a pivotal event in his ongoing battle against the forces of evil, a battle which would culminate in the Crucifixion.24 The Old English homily from which we have already quoted a reference to the battle between David and Goliath was in fact a homily on the Temptation, and its author took a typological view of the event:

... he (Christ) went into the wilderness, where Adam was previously undone ... because he would invite the Devil to fight with him and deliver Adam from his long banishment.25

The homilist also addressed the long-term significance of the event: Of all the gifts that he has given to this world through his advent, there is no power greater or more useful to the frailty of mankind than his overcoming the accursed spirit and cruel enemy of mankind ... Through Christ's victory all holy men who serve him ... were set free.26

In the Tiberius drawing of the Temptation Christ is equipped for this combat with a cross-staff, an exceptionally rare attribute for this event, apparently only found in one other medieval Temptation scene.27 If we look carefully at the Tiberius drawing, we can see that the staff is not well integrated; it is ostensibly held in Christ's right hand, yet the hand is also raised in a gesture of speech. The artist has clearly grafted the staff onto the basic Temptation iconography to enhance the meaning of the image. The cross-staff is a triumphal attribute, the symbol of Christ's victory over death at the Crucifixion.28 Here it serves to underline the meaning of the Temptation as a prefiguration of the Crucifixion. Since Christ stabs Satan with the staff, the motif clearly makes the point that the Temptation and the event it prefigures, the Crucifixion, are associated triumphs over Satan.

The Crucifixion (P1. 7b) is naturally an element of the Tiberius Psalter's Passion cycle, and we have observed that for the exegetes it stood as the major battle against the Devil. Despite this fact, and despite the existence of a widely-diffused pictorial tradition for the representation of the defeat of the forces of evil at the Crucifixion, as a serpent crushed beneath the feet of Christ, the Tiberius artist has made no direct reference to the conquest of the Devil in this picture. 29 It would seem that he 23 The words are those of Haymo of Auxerre, Homilia XXVIII, Dominica prima in Quadragesima, PL cxviii, 191-92. For a similar expression from a Greek father see Eusebius of Caesarea's commentary on Psalm xc, Patrologia graeca, xxiii, 1166. See also Hrabanus Maurus, Commentaria in Mattheum, PL cvii, 784-85; Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Mattheum, PL cxx, 187. For the early patristic exegesis see M. Steiner, La tentation de Jesus dans l'interpritation patristique de St Justin d Origine, Paris 1962, passim, and pp. 200-04 for reversal of the Fall. 24 ibid., pp. 195-200. 25 Morris (as in n. 18), pp. 28-29. The italics in this and the subsequent quotation are mine. 26 ibid., pp. 30-31. 27 Odbert Psalter, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibl. municipale, MS 20, fol. 102v, see below p. 19 and n. 32. 28 See G. Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, Giitersloh 1971, 5 vols, iii, 'Christus Victor', pp. 32-41. 29 If one accepts the inclusion of the serpent in Cru- cifixion scenes as a visualization of the forces of evil,

following most scholars, e.g. J. Reil, Christus am Kreuz in der Bildkunst der Karolingerzeit, Leipzig 1930 (but rejecting E. Kirby, 'The Serpent at the foot of the Cross 850-1050', in A. Schmid, ed., Riforma religiosa e arti nell'epoca Carolingia, Bologna 1979, pp. 129-34), then one might wonder why it does not appear here. The answer must be that although common in Continental Crucifixions from the later Carolingian period, for which, see Schiller (as in n. 28), ii, figs 354, 362, 365, 371, 381, etc., the motif never achieved popularity in Anglo-Saxon England. It is only found on an isolated leaf bound with homilies, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 421, fol. 1, Temple (as in n. 1), no. 82, fig. 254; and in the Bury St Edmunds Psalter, Bibl. Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 12, fol. 35, Temple (as above), no. 84, both of the eleventh century. For a Byzantine depiction of the Crucifixion as a conquest of evil see M. E. Frazer, 'Hades Stabbed by the Cross of Christ', Metropolitan Museum Journal, ix, 1974, pp. 153-61.


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 19 was reserving his creativity for the following image, his justly famous drawing of the Harrowing of Hell, a theme dear to the heart of the Anglo-Saxons (P1. 8a).30 The drawing of the Harrowing not only explicitly portrays the battle between Christ and Satan, it also is the visual key to the whole group of images with which we are concerned. The powerful but compassionate figure of Christ bends deeply to rescue the first parents, Adam and Eve, from the mouth of Hell. The basic type of Christ here is derived from the Utrecht Psalter, which was in England by the millennium.31 In one of the psalter's scenes Christ tramples a sketchy, naked figure underfoot, and in both he stoops to pull Adam and Eve from a pit in the ground (P1. 9a).32

The Tiberius artist has modified this basic imagery of the Harrowing with several unique Anglo-Saxon additions. The first is his rendition of Satan. Folio 8r of the Utrecht manuscript shows Christ trampling a single prostrate figure who represents a conflation of Satan, Hades and death (P1. 9a), an iconography which was widespread from the eighth century forward.33 However, in Tiberius the figure lying shackled and contorted beneath Christ's feet is clearly identified as the Tempter of the earlier Temptation drawing (P1. 7a). He has the same curious physiognomy with long, animal-like snout, the same spiky hair, clawed hands and feet, and similar horned knees.34 By repeating these anatomical motifs the Tiberius artist underlined visually the typological relationship between the conquest of Satan at the Temptation and his complete defeat at the Harrowing of Hell.

An attempt to emphasize this typology between the Temptation and the Harrowing may also be one reason why Christ of the Temptation stabs Satan with his cross-staff, for there is a certain tradition in the early medieval West of Christ using the staff as a weapon at the Harrowing of Hell. In the ninth-century Carolingian Stuttgart Psalter the dynamic and forceful Christ strikes the gates of Hell with his cross-staff while the inhabitants cower within.35 The Italian Exultet 30 For the numerous Latin and vernacular versions of the theme in Anglo-Saxon England see J. Campbell, 'To Hell and Back: Latin Tradition and Literary Use of the "Descensus ad Inferos" in Old English', Viator, xiii, 1982, pp. 107-58. 31 Utrecht, Rijksuniversiteit Bibl., MS 32, fols 8, 90, E. T. De Wald, The Utrecht Psalter, Princeton 1932. See also Temple (as in n. 1), p. 116. For early Western use of this type of figure see A. D. Kartsonis, Anastasis: the Making of an Image, Princeton 1986, pp. 82 ff. 32 A Christ figure of similar type also flanks the Crucifixion on fol. 109 of the Odbert Psalter (as in n. 27), a manuscript produced at St Bertin around the year 1000 under strong English influence, see fig. 167 in Kahsnitz 1979 (as in n. 11). See Leroquais (as in n. 11) , pp. 94-102; Rainer Kahsnitz, 'Der christologische Zyklus im Odbert-Psalter', Zeitschrift fir Kunstgeschichte, li, 1988, pp. 33-125; and C. Kelleher, 'Illumination at St Bertin and at St Omer under the Abbacy of Odbert', Ph.D. Diss., London 1968, passim. In the Odbert image there is nothing underfoot, and the protoplasts are raised from sarcophagi, for which see Kartsonis (as in n. 31), pp. 70-75. The miniature suggests that the deeply- stooping figure type for Christ may well have been current in Anglo-Saxon England by the end of the tenth century.

33 ibid., p. 74. See, for example, the Fieschi-Morgan reliquary, redated here to the ninth century, pp. 99-123, also fols 63 and 63v of the ninth-century Byzantine Chludov Psalter, Moscow, Historical Museum, MS 129, in M. Shchepkina, Miniatiury Khludovskoi psaltyri, Moscow 1977. The single figure should be distinguished from the iconography of the Western cycle illustrating the Gospel of Nicodemus, in which both Satan and Hades are represented, C. Davis- Weyer, 'Die iltesten Darstellungen der Hadesfahrt Christi, des Evangelium Nikodemi und ein Mosaik der Zeno-Kapelle', Roma e l'etta Carolingia, Rome 1976, pp. 185-86. 34 To be entirely precise the horns of the Tempter are at the back of the knees, while those of the trampled Satan are on the front. For the specificity of these features to the Insular world, and their development, see L. Jordan in 'Demonic Elements in Anglo-Saxon Iconography', Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, eds P. Szarmach, V. D. Oggins, Studies in Medieval Culture xx, Kalamazoo 1986, pp. 283-317. 35 Stuttgart, Wfirttembergische Landesbibl., Bibl. fol. 23, fol. 29v. See E. T. De Wald, The Stuttgart Psalter, Princeton 1930, and Der Stuttgarter Bilderpsalter, Bibl. fol. 23, Wiirttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, eds F. Miutherich, B. Fischer et al., 2 vols, Stuttgart 1965-68.


20 K. M. OPENSHAW Rolls also show Christ stabbing Satan and Hades in Hell. 36 Unquestionably, it would be easier to argue that the Tiberius artist, when drawing his Temptation picture, had in his mind this active role of the cross as a weapon at the Harrowing of Hell, had he emphatically included the cross-staff as a weapon in his own depiction of the Harrowing. But here we are faced with one of the more frustrating anomalies of the Tiberius Psalter drawings. The cross-staff is indeed present at the Harrowing, but it is not complete, nor is it used as a weapon. It extends upwards from Christ's cross- nimbus, breaking the frame of the drawing with its banner, which is also decorated with a cross, but there is no extension of the staff below Christ's head to his hands. Indeed, holding a staff would be quite incompatible with the deeply-stooped posture adopted for the Christ figure. How is this anomalous situation to be explained and what is its significance for the images we are examining?

Part of the explanation lies in the conflicting representations of the Harrowing circulating in the West by 1050. There are early versions of the scene, from which the deeply-stooped pose was derived,37 which show Christ in a less exaggerated posture and which do include the cross-staff. A late ninth-century fresco from the lower church of San Clemente in Rome is one, and the late tenth-century Basilewsky Situla, produced in northern Italy, is another.38 We can surmise the existence of an image of the more upright Christ at Winchester, for it was used by the artist of the tenth-century Benedictional of Aethelwold as a source for his miniature of the Second Coming of Christ.39 Furthermore, this iconography for the Harrowing of Hell, in which Christ bears a cross-staff and leans gently forwGard to the first parents, surfaces intact in England in the decades following the execution of the Tiberius drawing. The best examples are from the early twelfth century,40 but probably closest in date to our drawing is a monumental relief sculpture in Bristol Cathedral (P1. 9b).41 Because of the constraints of the vertical form of the slab,

See also Davis-Weyer (as in n. 33), p. 188, and Kartsonis (as in n. 31), p. 85. 36 The weapon is usually a lance rather than a cross-

staff, with the latter reserved for the triumphal rescue of the saved. Kartsonis (as in n. 31), pp. 86-87, notes that the two images are combined in roll no. 2 of the John Rylands Lib., Manchester, and in the eleventh-century Velletri Roll, M. Avery, The Exultet Rolls of South Italy, Princeton 1934, pls 54.4, 188.3. 37 See Kartsonis (as in n. 31), pp. 82 ff. 38 J. Beckwith, The Basilewsky Situla, London 1963; Kartsonis (as in n. 31), pp. 83-84, fig. 17b; Schiller (as in n. 28), iii, fig. 141. The Morgan Gospels from St Bertin, New York, Pierpont Morgan Lib., MS 333, like the Odbert Psalter a reflection of iconography current in England around 1000, contains a Harrowing, on fol. 85, in which the pose of Christ is very similar to these two examples, though there is no cross-staff; St Bertin therefore knew both Christ types. See Schiller (as above), iii, fig. 491. The figure is labelled 'Psalter from St Bertin', and is referred to as such in the text, but the imagery decorates the opening words of the Gospel of John; the psalter is in Boulogne-sur-Mer (as in n. 27). Kelleher (as in n. 32), passim, for the relationship. 39 London, B.L., MS Add. 49598, fol. 9V, Temple (as in n. 1), no. 23. See G. F. Warner and H. A. Wilson, The Benedictional of St Aethelwold, Oxford: Roxburghe Club,

1910, for facsimile; and R. Deshman, 'The Iconography of the Full-Page Miniatures in the Benedictional of Aethelwold', Ph.D. diss., Princeton 1970, pp. 48-52. 40 See the St Albans Psalter, p. 49; Picht et al. (as in n.

8), pl. 30b; the tympanum of the Romanesque Cotswold church at Quenington, D. Verey, Gloucestershire: The Cots- wolds (The Buildings of England), London 1970, p. 20 and fig. 14; and a Romanesque capital from Hereford Cathedral, G. Zarnecki, English Romanesque Sculpture, 1066-1200, London 1951, p. 29 and fig. 27, where the sculpture is related in terms of style and iconography to pre-Conquest art, especially the Bristol relief discussed below. 41 The date of this seven-foot high relief is contro-

versial. See L. Stone, Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages, London 1955, p. 38 and fig. 24; M. Q. Smith, 'The Har- rowing of Hell Relief in Bristol Cathedral', Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, xciv, 1976, pp. 101-06, both with attribution to the mid- eleventh century. H. Swarzenski, in an editorial footnote to F. Saxl's English Sculptures of the Twelfth Century, London 1952, p. 71, n. 20, suggested the late tenth century by comparison with the style of the Cuthbert Stole and the figure of Christ in Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS Auct. F IV, p. 32. In the same note Swarzenski cited datings to 1100 by T. D. Kendrick, Late Saxon and Viking Art, London 1949, p. 43, and D.


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 21 Christ's posture is more upright, but the depiction of the child-like forms of Adam and Eve, standing in a hell-mouth as they reach up to the Christ who towers over them, is most evocative of Tiberius, as is the trampling of a contorted Satan. From the existence of these numerous monuments, demonstrating a well-diffused artistic tradition, we may assume that the Tiberius artist was as intimately acquainted with the imagery of Christ bearing a cross-staff at the Harrowing of Hell as he was with the Utrecht version of the scene. And of course his own inclusion of a decorated and bannered cross shows that this was indeed so.

Yet the Tiberius cross-staff is so poorly integrated into the composition of the Harrowing of Hell drawing. Why? Subtly different messages were projected by the two variants of the scene. The message proclaimed by the bannered cross-staff at the Harrowing was the triumphal salvation offered by the Crucifixion. The stooped posture of the Utrecht Psalter, together with the greatly exaggerated scale difference between the main protagonists, emphasized the power of Christ to save the first parents, and the humanity surrounding them, from the forces of evil so vividly shown beneath his feet. Both of these ideas were important to the creator of this cycle; the successful visual integration of the two was, it seems, beyond him.

Another specific change from a conventional iconography of the Harrowing is found in the Tiberius hell-mouth. The animal jaws of Hell, from which Adam and Eve are rescued in the Tiberius Psalter, are one version of a celebrated English adaptation of the anthropomorphic Hades, once again familiar to English artists from the Utrecht Psalter.42 Yet the Tiberius hell-mouth stands apart from its Anglo- Saxon predecessors in one very significant respect; the others are viewed laterally, as one sees, for instance, in the drawings of the fall of the angels from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 11 of about A.D. 1000,43 or in the drawing of the Last Judgement from the Winchester Liber Vitae of about 1030.44 St Bertin, whose manuscripts provide good reflections of English iconography around the year 1000, also utilized the laterally-viewed hell-mouth in the Harrowing of the Morgan 333 gospel book.45 The type persisted at Winchester into the Romanesque period, and is found in the miniature of the Harrowing of Hell in the Nero Psalter as well as in the Winchester Bible (P1. 9c, d).46 Of all these images only the Tiberius Psalter depicts the animal mouth of Hell viewed from a pronounced three-quarter angle, and only in Tiberius does it have a frankly leonine quality.47 The eleventh-century Bristol relief (P1. 9b), which must be related to Tiberius, though clearly not directly, shows a hell-mouth which is fleshier than some and thus a little ambiguous, but it must still be interpreted as laterally-viewed because of the projecting fang.

Talbot-Rice (no title). Saxl, in the text, p. 37, labelled the Bristol relief as 'eleventh-century', but was- struck by comparisons between it and twelfth-century sculptured reliefs in Chichester. 42 For the examples in the Utrecht Psalter see S. Dufrenne, Les Illustrations du psautier d'Utrecht; sources et apport carolingien, Paris 1966, pl. 75. See also J. Galpern, 'The Shape of Hell in Anglo-Saxon England', Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley 1977, ch. 3. 43 pp. 3 and 16. See Temple (as in n. 1), no. 58. Both are reproduced by Jordan (as in n. 34), pls 15, 16. 44 London, B.L., MS Stowe 944, fol. 7, Temple (as in n. 1), no. 78, fig. 248.

45 Schiller (as in n. 28), iii, fig. 491, see n. 38 above. 46 London, B.L., MS Cotton Nero C.IV, fol. 24, see Haney (as in n. 7), pp. 118-19; Winchester Cathedral Lib., Bible, see G. Zarnecki, J. Holt, T. Holland, eds, English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, London 1984, no. 64. 47 Galpern (as in n. 42), pp. 145-46, commented on the unrecognizability of the animal whose jaws form the Anglo-Saxon hell-mouths. We must exclude the leonine Tiberius hell-mouth from this statement, which does, however, underline its unique form compared with the other examples.


22 K. M. OPENSHAW

The three-quarter view and pronounced leonine characteristics of the Tiberius hell-mouth are features designed to give visual emphasis to the typological connection between Christ's rescue of Adam and Eve, and David's earlier rescue of the lamb from the lion's mouth (P1. 6a). In each miniature the lion's head is viewed from the same angle, and both David and Christ bend deeply over the lion's mouth. Were there any doubt about the intention to parallel visually these Old and New Testament scenes, a quick glance at the dual scenes illustrating Psalm i in the Winchester Bible would dispel it (P1. 9d). The same typology is underlined by similar visual means. The two episodes of combat are paralleled-the fight with the lion and the Harrowing of Hell-and in this case the poses of the two principal actors mirror the intention even more closely than in Tiberius. Since Tiberius is a Winchester manuscript, and since it seems that it was known in Winchester in the twelfth century,48 we may assume that it was the source of the Romanesque Bible's explicit typology.

Beside the chained Satan in the Tiberius Harrowing is a dragon who does not feature in the widely diffused account of the Descent into Hell contained in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.49 However, the dragon is mentioned, with the lion, as one of two alternative guardians of Hell, in an old penitential prayer current at Winchester in the eleventh century, as well as in other Insular sources. In the prayer the supplicant prays to St Michael as follows: I therefore beseech and entreat, archangel St Michael, that you ... deign to take up my soul when it leaves my body and free it from the power of the enemy, so that it may bypass the gates of Hell and the ways of darkness, so that the lion or dragon who is accustomed to receive souls into Hell and lead them to eternal torments may not obstruct it.50

The Tiberius drawing of the Harrowing places Christ before the gates of Hell in combat with both of these guardians for good measure, the lion-like hell-mouth and the dragon.

THE ST MICHAEL DRAWING St Michael, invoked in many such prayers as a guardian and warrior against the forces of evil, is also present in the Tiberius Psalter in the drawing which immediately follows the Christological cycle (P1. 8b). The creature he slays is a curious hybrid, for it has a lion's head and a dragon's body. From the lion's mouth

48 Haney (as in n. 7), pp. 109, 119. 49 H. C. Kim, ed., The Gospel of Nicodemus, Toronto Medieval Latin Texts ii, Toronto 1973, pp. 40-46. But see Campbell (as in n. 30), pp. 107-58, where it is pointed out that the Gospel of Nicodemus was only one of many Descent sources available in Anglo-Saxon England. 50 The prayer is found in the early ninth-century Anglo-Saxon Book of Cerne, Cambridge Univ. Lib., MS L1.I.10, on fols 56-57v, A. B. Kuypers, ed., The Prayer Book of Aedelvald the Bishop, Commonly called the Book of Cerne, Cambridge 1902, pp. 111-14. The Book of Cerne was probably at Winchester in the eleventh century, see p. 31 below. The prayer is also contained in the eleventh-century Crowland Psalter, Oxford, Bodleian

Lib., MS Douce 296, fol. 122v, Temple (as in n. 1), no. 79; and the eleventh-century Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 391, pp. 584-88, A. Hughes, ed., The Portiforium of Saint Wulstan, Henry Bradshaw Society (hereafter HBS), xc, London 1960, pp. 3-5. It is quoted here from Douce 296: 'Te ergo supplico et deprecor sancte michael archangele qui ad animas accipiendas accepisti potestatem ut animam meam suscipere digneris quando de corpore meo erit egressa et libera eam de potestate inimici ut pertransire possit portas infernorum et vias tenebrarum ut non se deponat leo vel draco qui consuetus est animas in inferno recipere et ad aeterna tormenta perducere'. The Portiforium was probably written at Winchester; Douce 296 was written at Winchester or Crowland.



projects the head of the dragon. In fact St Michael, like Christ of the Harrowing of Hell, is shown conquering the two guardians of Hell. Besides being closely comparable in form to the Tiberius hell-mouth (P1. 8a) the dragon's lion head is also remarkably similar both in angle and anatomical detail to the head of the lion fought by the psalmist David (P1. 6a). St Michael overcomes this lion-headed dragon with a cross-staff (difficult to see in photographs), and not coincidentally the staff is held at a similar angle to the cross-staff with which Christ pierced Satan at the Temptation (P1. 7a). Furthermore, the archangel's position with respect to the dragon mimics that of Christ with Satan at the Temptation. The details of animal anatomy, and in the case of the Temptation comparison, positions of protagonists, and position and nature of the weapon, are further examples of the deliberate repetition of motifs from picture to picture which this artist uses to underline the symbolic and typological connections between his pictures. In fact St Michael's antagonist loses a good deal of his threatening aspect in the process of transformation into an upright equivalent of Satan at the Temptation, as we can see if we compare him with the beasts of two earlier Anglo-Saxon representations of the topic. The sculptured reliefs of Southwell Minster (P1. 10a),51 and St Nicholas's church, Ipswich,52 both dated around 1000, include fantastic and ferocious dragons.

We have noted visual links between the St Michael drawing and three others, namely David fighting the lion, the Temptation of Christ, and the Harrowing of Hell. Are there precedents for these associations? For individual parallels yes, because St Michael was widely recognized as a major combatant against evil on behalf of mankind, but for the whole series, no. Nevertheless the individual parallels give us a sense of the traditions upon which the Tiberius artist drew for his concatenation of motifs and ideas. Thus Michael's fight with the dragon is juxtaposed to David's combat with the lion on one of the Anglo-Saxon sculptured reliefs already mentioned, that of Southwell Minster (P1. 10a). Neither episode is related iconographically to the Tiberius drawings, which shows that in making this analogy between the Davidic and the angelic battle our artist drew upon an accepted tradition. It is obvious anyway that his visual parallel was his own creation, so specific are the physical features of the lion-headed dragon.

The dragon fought by Michael was clearly understood as the Devil from the biblical sources of the scene, Revelation xii, 7-9, where we read of 'Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon ... who is called the Devil and Satan', and Jude ix where the writer talks of 'the archangel Michael, contending with the Devil'. Despite this there are few other examples of specific artistic allusions to the diabolic identity of the dragon, beyond that of Tiberius. A Norman miniature shows a static Michael whose lance pierces the mouth of a rather human Devil; the quite different iconographic types make it clear that common perceptions rather than related artistic traditions were responsible for the image.53 There is also a twelfth-century ivory diptych wing on which Michael pierces a most explicitly demonic Devil.54 The facing wing is devoted to the triumphal image of Christ trampling the beasts, a 51 Stone (as in n. 41), p. 48; A. Gardner, A Handbook of

English Medieval Sculpture, Cambridge 1935, p. 39. 52 Gardner (as in n. 51), p. 52 and fig. 49. 53 Avranches, Bibl. municipale, MS 50. See J. J. G.

Alexander, Norman Illumination at Mont St Michel 966-1100, pp. 85-98, 215, pl. 17b. 54 A. Goldschmidt, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen, Berlin 1914-26, iii, no. 25, pl. vii, with attribution to Belgium;


24 K M. OPENSHAW

juxtaposition which is paralleled in Tiberius, where we shall see that there are visual connections between the St Michael drawing and that of Christ trampling the beasts.55 However, there seems to be no parallel for the precise situation we find in Tiberius, where the Devil of the Temptation of Christ is paired with St Michael's antagonist.

When we consider the visual references to the Harrowing of Hell miniature (P1. 8a) the situation is different. We have noted that details of depiction of the lion and the dragon in the Tiberius St Michael drawing parallel those of the Harrowing, and this is appropriate only since the apocryphal account of the Harrowing places Michael in Hell as Christ's helper.56 By 1050 there was an established tradition for the illustration of the Gospel of Nicodemus, and a part of that tradition was the depiction of angel helpers aiding Christ in Hell. 57 The earliest example is that of a fresco at St John's church, Miustair, dated around 800.58 In the Stuttgart Psalter59 and in the Zeno Chapel mosaic of Santa Prassede in Rome60 Christ is flanked by a single angel, while the Exultet Rolls show twin angels in reference to the angel host of the apocryphon.61 In none of these works is there a clear characterisation of any angel as Michael, but they do show wide dispersal of compositions placing an angel at the gates of Hell with Christ. In part this tradition is being evoked when the Tiberius artist makes visual associations between his drawing of St Michael and that of Christ harrowing Hell, but the artist is conditioned also by the widespread perception of Michael as chief psychopomp and eschatological helper of man.62

The clearest indication of the purposeful nature of the repetition of motifs between the drawing of the Harrowing and that of St Michael is found in a miniature of the Romanesque Winchester Psalter. The Harrowing of Hell scene in Nero C.IV is a fusion of the ideas implicit in the two Tiberius drawings (P1. 9c). In the later psalter Christ pierces the bound Satan with his cross-staff at the same time as he raises Adam and Eve from a conventional, laterally-viewed hell-mouth. Christ is flanked by an angel who is probably St Michael, slaying a lion with his lance. Both Christ and the angel trample a dragon that is an emaciated relative of the Tiberius beast. 63

J. Beckwith, Ivory Carvings in Early Medieval England, London 1972, no. 85 and figs 138-39, with attribution to England. Both wings have versified inscriptions referring to the conquest of death and the enemy. 55 In addition to these singular Western images there is also a certain Byzantine tradition for depiction of the triumph of Michael at the fall of the angels, evidenced on the bronze doors made in Constantinople for the church of Monte Gargano. Here the archangel stands over a defeated angelic form. Alexander (as in n. 53), p. 88 and n. 5, pl. 16f. 56 Kim (as in n. 49), p. 46. 57 Davis-Weyer (as in n. 33), pp. 187-88 and passim. 58 L. Birchler, 'Zur karolingischen Architektur und Malerei in Miinster-Miistair', Friihmittelalterliche Kunst in den Alpenliandern. Akten zum III Internationalen Kongress fiir Friihmittelalterforschung, Lausanne 1954. Davis-Weyer (as in n. 33), pp. 187-88, relates this image to that of the Basilewsky Situla; in both North Italian works an angel confines the struggling Satan. At Mfistair a further angel accompanies Christ.

59 fol. 29v. 60 Davis-Weyer (as in n. 33), fig. 186 and passim. 61 e.g., Gaeta Cathedral Lib., and Bibl. Vaticana, MS

Vat. lat. 9820, see Schiller (as in n. 28), iii, figs 130, 132. 62 See the prayer cited on p. 22. See also 'Michael, the archangel', F. L. Cross, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2nd edn, Oxford 1983, p. 913, and Galpern (as in n. 42), pp. 160-61. 63 The slightly earlier St Albans Psalter, related iconographically in many respects to the Tiberius Psalter, contains an interesting miniature of the Harrowing, p. 49, Picht et al. (as in n. 8), pl. 30b. Two angels accompany Christ, who bears a bannered cross-staff and raises a multitude from Hell's jaws. This image, along with the Quenington and Hereford sculptures, seems to be representative of the general, predominantly North Italian tradition (as Picht observed of the St Albans manuscript, p. 93), thus highlighting the additions seen in the Winchester psalters, Tiberius C.VI and Nero C.IV.


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 25 One other early image of St Michael and the dragon clearly evokes the

Harrowing of Hell, together with Michael's role as chief psychopomp. The Arnulf Prayer-Book, produced around 1000 in Milan, contains a miniature of St Michael slaying the dragon (P1. 10C).64 The image is based upon conventional iconography,65 but makes its own unique reference to the association between Michael and the rescue of humanity'at the Harrowing of Hell. Michael leans forward and pierces a dragon with a lance held in his right hand. With his left hand he tenderly raises a naked soul from the dragon's mouth-a soul whose posture, diminutive size, and vulnerability frankly recall the figures of Tiberius (P1. 8a), the Bristol relief (P1. 9b), the Quenington tympanum, and the Nero C.IV Psalter (P1. 9c). The Arnulf miniature faces a version of an old Insular prayer to St Michael in which the supplicant refers to the archangel's eschatological role as protector of souls, in terms not dissimilar to those of the penitential prayer cited already.66

Two SYMBOLIC IMAGES OF THE CONQUEST OF EVIL The theme of the battle with the Devil is extended beyond these essentially narrative images of the prefatory cycle to embrace two entirely symbolic images. The first of these is the drawing of Christ trampling the beasts which is located at a major text division of the psalter proper, facing Psalm ci (P1. 7c). Christ tramples a lion and a dragon while he spears the former with the ubiquitous cross-staff, in a well-established image of triumph derived from illustrations of the words of Psalm xc, 13: You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

Images of Christus super aspidem were used to illustrate the actual words of the psalm in several early psalters, such as the Stuttgart Psalter (P1. 11a),67 the Utrecht Psalter,68 and the Anglo-Saxon Bury St Edmunds Psalter.69 In addition, such images appear as symbolic illustrations in two other eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon psalters besides Tiberius C.VI, the Crowland Psalter and the Winchcombe Psalter:70 after the eleventh century their use in this manner became widespread. The iconography

64 London, B.L., MS Egerton 3763, fol. 104v. See P. M. Johnston, no title, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, xxiv, 1911-12, pp. 159-70, for all illustrations; also T. J. Brown, G. M. Meredith Owens, D. H. Turner, 'Manuscripts from the Dyson Perrins Collection', British Museum Quarterly, xxiii, 1961, pp. 27-37; D. H. Turner, 'The Prayer Book of Archbishop Arnulf of Milan', Revue Benedictine, lxx, 1960, pp. 360-92. 65 Alexander (as in n. 53), pp. 88-98. 66 The prayer is on fols 105 ff. This is the only miniature in this manuscript which does not depict a standing saint. This tempts one to wonder whether the image travelled with the prayer, and was derived by the scribe from a slightly earlier Insular source. The prayer is found in the two eighth- to ninth-century prayer- books, known at Winchester in the eleventh century, the Book of Cerne, fol. 76v, Kuypers (as in n. 50), p.

152, and the Book of Nunnaminster, London, B.L., MS Harley 2965, fols 35v-36, W. de Gray Birch, An Ancient Manuscript of the Eighth or Ninth Century: formerly belonging to St Mary's Abbey or Nunnaminster Winchester, London 1889, p. 87, and in two eleventh-century Winchester manuscripts, London, B.L., MS Arundel 60, fol. 136, Temple (as in n. 1), no. 103, and London, B.L., MS Arundel 155, fol. 183, Temple (as above), no. 66. 67 De Wald 1930 (as in n. 35), fol. 107v. 68 De Wald 1932 (as in n. 31), fol. 53v. 69 Bibl. Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 12, fol. 98. See M. Schapiro, 'The Religious Meaning of the Ruthwell Cross', Art Bulletin, xxvi, 1944, pp. 230-45, fig. 4. 70 The Crowland Psalter, Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS Douce 296; and the Winchcombe Psalter, Cambridge Univ. Lib., MS Ff.I.23. See Temple (as in n. 1), nos 79, 80.


26 K. M. OPENSHAW and location found in Tiberius are not therefore unusual, but here the drawing serves to reinforce the programme contained in the images we have been discussing. The beasts beneath Christ's feet are not just the guardians of Hell named in the old Insular prayer; they are also personifications of sin, evil, death and the Devil.71

A contemporary Anglo-Saxon text affirms the visiual links we see in Tiberius between the images of Christ trampling the beasts and the Harrowing of Hell, and ties the two to the Crucifixion. An anonymous Old English Easter homily of the eleventh century is subtitled 'On the descent of Christ to Hell'. 72 At one point, before describing Christ's triumphal entry to Hell, the homilist first discusses the Crucifixion in triumphal terms, and then quotes Psalm xc, connecting the trampling of the beasts in the psalm to the binding and defeat of Satan in Hell.7" An earlier Anglo-Saxon visual association of the triumphal concept of Christ trampling the beasts to the Crucifixion is found on the ivory Alcester Tau Cross, which is decorated with back-to-back carvings of the two scenes.74

The Tiberius image of Christus super aspidem, with its lion and dragon, obviously reminds us of the lion-headed dragon conquered by St Michael (P1. 8b), and thus of the image of the Temptation of Christ with which the St Michael picture is paralleled (P1. 7a). Once again there are earlier examples of comparable juxtapo- sitions of images and ideas. In the Crowland Psalter the full-page miniature of Christ trampling the beasts faces an historiated initial in which a figure usually identified as St Michael fights a dragon.75 Perhaps more interesting are three initials in the Odbert Psalter, which are historiated with the three Temptations of Christ. The initial Q to Psalm xc contains the first Temptation (P1. 1lb). As he rebuts the Devil with holy script, Christ tramples on a lion and a dragon beautifully assimilated to the form of the letter.76 This fusion of the Temptation with the trampling of the beasts emphasizes the triumphal nature of the rebuttal that the evangelists Matthew and Luke had already cast in such terms, by quoting verses 11 and 12 of Psalm xc in their narratives of the Temptation (Matthew iv, 5-6, Luke iv, 9-11).77 The actual juxtaposition of a scene of the Temptation with Christ trampling the beasts occurred much earlier, in the Stuttgart Psalter's illustrations for the same psalm (P1. la). Above the dynamic miniature of Christus miles,78 trampling on both lion and serpent-like dragon, is a miniature of the Temptation of Christ. The scene is juxtaposed to the verses of Psalm xc quoted by the Evangelists in their narrative of the Temptation. The triumphal aspects of the Temptation as a conquest of evil were thus emphasized, and they were reinforced by the conflation in the upper miniature, showing the departing Devil and the ministering angels who affirmed Christ's divinity (Matthew iv, 11). In the Odbert Psalter the third 71 Schiller (as in n. 28), iii, 'Christus Victor', pp. 32-38. See also B. Brenk, Tradition und Neuerung in der christlichen Kunst des erstenJahrtausends, Wiener Byzantin- istische Studien, iii, Vienna 1966, pp. 188-210. 72 The homily is preserved in Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS Junius 121, ed. A. M. L. Fadda, 'De descensu Christi ad Inferos: una inedita omelia anglosassone', Studi Medie- vali, Serie terza, xiii, 1972, pp. 989-1011. 73 ibid., pp. 1000-02. 74 Beckwith (as in n. 54), no. 29, figs 65, 66; Goldschmidt (as in n. 54), iv, no. 8.

75 Reproduced in Kahsnitz 1979 (as in n. 11), figs 88-89. 76 fol. 101. 77 For an alternative interpretation of the image see Schapiro (as in n. 69), pp. 230-45. 78 For this variant of the iconography of Christus super aspidem, see F. Saxl, 'The Ruthwell Cross', this Journal, vi, 1943, pp. 12-13.



Temptation is contained in the initial D of Psalm xcii (P1. 1lc). Here the triumph over the Devil is expressed as it is in the Temptation drawing of the Tiberius Psalter: Christ carries a cross-staff-apparently the only other occurrence of this attribute in a Temptation scene. This suggests that the Tiberius artist may well have been drawing upon an already-developed Insular tradition for some of the details in his depiction of these episodes.79 The Odbert initials and the Stuttgart miniatures remind us that the ideas with which we are concerned here were widely diffused, and were deeply ingrained in the churchman's perception of these events, although they were only occasionally given explicit visual expression.

There is one more symbolic miniature in the Tiberius Psalter which is related thematically to those we have examined. It is a single page with drawings of Vita standing over Mors (P1. 10b), contained within the computistic material with which the manuscript begins. The imagery derives from illustration of an obscure pagan prognostic text, the Sphaera Apulei, which enjoyed a certain popularity in Anglo- Saxon England. Only in one other manuscript, the tenth-century Glastonbury additions to the Leofric Missal, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 579,80 was it illustrated with figures of Life and Death, which face each other across the gutter of the manuscript. In the Tiberius Psalter, as Adelheid Heimann pointed out, the figures have been re-arranged so that Vita, who is clearly characterized as Christ by use of the cross-nimbus, surmounts Mors-in effect trampling on Death. The prognostic text which accompanies the Glastonbury drawings has been abandoned in the later psalter, except for a remnant inscribed around the perimeter of the page, so that the two figures are almost certainly included purely for their symbolic value. The Tiberius drawing relates in detail as well as theme to those we have examined, for as the cross-nimbed Life tramples on Death, little dragon-like demons escape to the sides. This is yet another drawing of Christ trampling on dragons.

Once again, the visual association between this image and that of Christus super aspidem in the Tiberius Psalter has an artistic precedent. The images of the Temptation and Christus miles that illustrate Psalm xc in the Stuttgart Psalter are directly preceded by an illustration to verses 5 and 6 of the same psalm (P1. 1ld), whose text reads: You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. Christ stands in a circular mandorla which protects him from the onslaught of a black demonic figure and six serpents representing the forces of evil mentioned in the psalm.81 The Tiberius drawing modifies this imagery and enhances its depiction 79 Kahsnitz 1988 (as in n. 32), pp. 83-89, has shown that the underlying iconography for the Odbert Temp- tation scenes was taken from Carolingian models. However, in the early eleventh century it is in the Insular milieu that we find the strongest interest in developing the triumphal imagery added by the Odbert artist to the Carolingian iconography, and it would thus be consistent to see these elements as having derived from Anglo-Saxon England. 80 F. E. Warren, ed., The Leofric Missal, Oxford 1883, pp. 44-45. For analysis of the Vita and Mors imagery,

history of the Sphaera Apulei, and discussion of the differences between the imagery of the Tiberius Psalter and that of the Leofric Missal, see A. Heimann, 'Three Illustrations from the Bury St Edmunds Psalter and their Prototypes', this Journal, xxix, 1966, pp. 39-43. See also R. Deshman, 'The Leofric Missal and Tenth Century English Art', Anglo-Saxon England, vi, 1977, pp. 146 ff. 81 De Wald 1930 (as in n. 35), fol. 107. See also Heimann (as in n. 80), p. 44; Miltherich et al. (as in n. 35), p. 121.


28 K. M. OPENSHAW of Christ's power against these forces, for in the Anglo-Saxon manuscript they are not merely deflected as in the Stuttgart Psalter-they are trampled and dispersed. The grouping of the three pictures in the Stuttgart Psalter, with this curious image of the conquest of evil preceding the Temptation and Christus Miles, suggests that some sort of prior artistic tradition may have influenced the adaptation by the Tiberius artist of the imagery of Vita and Mors for inclusion in this cycle.

The Tiberius image of Vita and Mors continues the theme of the victory of the cross over Satan. In the Tiberius Psalter Satan/Mors is conquered by the cross- nimbed Christ/ Vita. In the Leofric Missal Vita is not nimbed, and instead his Christological identification is clarified by the cross-staff he carries. Both are independent adaptations of a common source,82 the inspiration for which derived from the Christian perception of Vita. There are other early medieval representations of Vita triumphing over Mors through the power of the cross, although not as many as one might expect. The early eleventh-century Uta Gospel book from Regensburg contains a complex miniature with Christ on the cross flanked by the figures of Life and Death.83 Life's crown is centred with a cross; Death falls to one side, pierced by an angled cross-lance. Among the many inscriptions of this miniature, that under Mors reads 'The cross is the destruction of death'.84 Though this complex imagery of the triumph of the cross over evil was not repeated, there is one slightly later work of art which is in some ways analogous. The ivory Gunhild Cross, of around 1076, is decorated on both sides with another sophisticated blend of typology and symbolism, contained in carved roundels.85 On one side the roundel at the top of the cross contains Vita, while the roundel at its base shows a shrouded figure in a sarcophagus, inscribed with the name Mors. With its juxtaposed images of the end of time the whole is a potent representation of the power of the cross to defeat death. It could well have been knowledge of imagery of this type which inspired the Tiberius artist to include the drawing of Vita and Mors among his images concerning the power of the cross, although the pictorial formulation is obviously immediately dependent on the twin traditions of Christus super aspidem and the illustration of the Sphaera Apulei.

We have discussed eight images from the Tiberius Psalter which combine to create a strong visual expression of the triumph of Christ over Satan. However, the framework of such a programme was already present in the Southampton Psalter, with its scenes of David's combats with the lion and Goliath, and the Crucifixion. All three scenes are found in Tiberius, but there is an enhanced emphasis on the power of the cross. The cross-staff, symbol of the triumph of the cross, runs through the Anglo-Saxon cycle like a Leitmotif. There is a shift of focus from the battle of the Crucifixion to that of the Harrowing of Hell, but this is easily explained by the popularity of the Descent narrative in Anglo-Saxon culture,86 and also by the fact that the Descent makes visible the defeat of Satan. The increase in the number of

82 Deshman (as in n. 80), pp. 155, 171; but see also Jordan (as in n. 34), p. 303. 83 Munich, Staatsbibl., clm 13601, fol. 3V. See U. Kuder, Regensburger Buchmalerei, Munich 1987, cat. no. 17, pp. 33-34. 84 Other inscriptions and a numerological diagram reinforce the supremacy of Vita over Mors, ibid., p. 33.

85 Beckwith (as in n. 54), no. 43, figs 82-87; Goldschmidt (as in n. 54), iii, no. 124. See also Picht et al. (as in n. 8), p. 173, n. 3. 86 See Campbell (as in n. 30), passim.


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 29 these images of the conquest of evil was a major innovation of the Tiberius artist, made possible by drawing widely on differing contemporary artistic traditions. His other major innovation was the insertion of many of the symbolic scenes into the two narrative sequences. The carefully established visual associations between the scenes in question leave little doubt that he was aware of their symbolic relationships to each other, and wished these to be apparent to the user of the manuscript. His reasons remain to be established.

THE PREFATORY TEXTS OF THE PSALTER AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Why this emphasis on the conquest of the Devil in the Tiberius Psalter? I suggest that the images reflect a major concern of the prefatory texts contained in the psalter. Besides some rather common psalter prefaces87 the psalter contains various penitential texts to aid the sinner in his own battle against evil. The penitential preoccupation is clearly evident in the long confessional ordo, which gives a detailed recitation of sins and expression of hope for salvation.88 There is reference to the end of time, and the sinner begs that he may be saved from the Devil on the day of Judgement. 89 The ordo is not a psalter text; its closest analogues are in canon law collections and penitentials.90 Its inclusion here is more probably for its thematic relevance to other penitential items in the Tiberius Psalter than for use in administration of the sacrament of penance.91 The other penitential items include two instructions for the use of the psalter in private devotions,92 and some short

87 Most of the texts of the psalter were listed by Wormald (as in n. 1), pp. 135-37. A revised list and diplomatic transcription is included in my thesis (as in n. 9). The texts are the subject of my first chapter. For the prefaces, listed here in the order in which they are found in the Tiberius manuscript, see D. de Bruyne, Prtfaces de la bible latine, Namur 1921, as follows: his no. 1, p. 43, Origo psalmorum, fol. 19 (terminating at mid- sentence with 'in medio autem stabat David'); his no. 5, p. 46, Psalterium romae dudum positus, fol. 19v/9 (lacks the opening section, commencing at mid-sentence with 'labor iste desudat'); his no. 3, p. 45, Psalterium dicitur psallentium multorum, fol. 20/2; his no. 4, p. 46, Diapsalmus, fol. 20v/23; his nos 25b, 25e, pp. 76, 77, entitled Interpretatio alleluia and Interpretatio gloria apud Hebraeos in Tiberius, fol. 21/2. 88 The ordo occupies fols 23-27, and is unpublished,

but see n. 90 below. 89 fol. 26/1-3, 'Supplico te dei sacerdos ut de his omnibus sis mihi testis in die iudicii ne gaudeat de me inimicus meus et digne pro me deum clementiam deprecare'. 90 It is developed from the ordines found in association

with penitentials. For the first sixteen lines of the Tiberius ordo see R. Fowler, 'A Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor', Anglia, lxxxiii, 1965, p. 16, where the text is the only Latin element in a vernacular penitential handbook. For the closest analogue to the complete Tiberius ordo see Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS Bodl. 718, fols 15v-21, a tenth- century canon law manuscript discussed by D. Bethurum, 'Archbishop Wulfstan's Commonplace

Book', Publications of the Modern Languages Association, lvii, 1942, pp. 916-17, 928, and A. Frantzen, 'The Tradition of the Penitentials in Anglo-Saxon England', Anglo-Saxon England, ii, 1982, p. 39. 91 Though the complete ordo was obviously written originally for administration of confession by a confessor, in this context it would probably be intended for private perusal. The long central confession is in the first person and is close kin to many private confessional prayers. The confession contains fewer rubrics than the version in Bodley 718, perhaps to render it more suitable for devotional use. The fact that many of the items in the psalter are drawn from the private prayer-book tradition suggests that the same function was intended for this text. 92 fols 21'-22, 27. The first instruction, preceded by the titulus Oratio cuiusdam hominis dei, appears to be a loose adaptation and expansion of Chapter I of the Carolingian devotional compilation of about 850 that is printed in Migne as De psalmorum usu liber, PL ci, 468-508, esp. 468. See A. Wilmart, 'Le manuel de prikres de St Jean Gualbert', Revue B6nidictine, xlviii, 1936, pp. 263-65, for suggested date of composition and location of production to North Italy. The Tiberius text contains clear borrowings from this instruction for morning devotional prayer, but unlike its Carolingian predecessor the Anglo-Saxon text is focussed on penitential concerns. The rubric mentions the need to seek mercy and the forgiveness of sins, while the body of the instruction emphasizes penitential behaviour; the chest is to be beaten while the penitent kneels, his head on


30 K. M. OPENSHAW

prayers.93 Instructions for the private devotional use of psalms are a feature of private prayer-books from the Carolingian period forward, and such prayer-books sometimes include a psalter.94 Penitential prayers are common in eleventh-century psalters, but are usually combined with devotions addressing a variety of other spiritual needs.95

Another of the Tiberius Psalter's verbal expressions of spiritual psychomachia is the tElfrician homily on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.96 This Old English text emphasizes the deceit of the Devil, who constantly metamorphoses to bestow his 'ungifts' (ungifa) in confrontation to the gifts of God. Homilies are not usual psalter components. In its opposition of good and evil the theme of this text is conceptually related to the conflicts between virtues and vices which form one topos in penitential homilies, although precise details have no parallel.97 With its vivid characterization of Satan's dissembly one can see its relevance and usefulness as a private devotional reading in this particular book with its multiple images of Satan.

The clearest statement of the penitential purpose of these texts is probably that of a pseudonymous text which is labelled in other Insular psalters 'Sayings of the Holy Augustine on the virtues of the psalms'.98 It states, among other things, that the singing of psalms: drives out demons, expels darkness, brings sanctity to the sinful man ... It destroys sins ... Daily it tears out the root of evil things, just as the shield protects, the sword defends ... It is

the ground. The prayer of Tiberius, Peccavi Domine peccavi, is also specifically penitential.

The second Tiberius instruction, on fol. 27, with titulus Sententiae Leonis papae, is general in nature, but opens with the words 'Quicunque pro peccatis peniten- tiam agere voluerit', and closes with '... et si se spirital- ibus armis muniri ac defendi et si voluerit animam suam a periculis infernalibus eruere voluerit hos psalmos decantet'. The body of the rather short instruction seems to be heavily dependent upon the Alcuinian text Quia etiam prophetiae, PL ci, 465-68. The first five eventualities for which the psalms may be recited are the same as Alcuin's, and the next three are adapted from the Alcuinian text. After this the Tiberius text diverges from the order of the Alcuinian one, but includes adaptations of Alcuin's sixth and eighth uses. It is of interest that the Tiberius Psalter contains a complete version of the eighth and ninth uses of the Alcuinian text, on fol. 22v. The ninth use was tran- scribed by Haney (as in n. 7), p. 51, where it is identified as a prayer. 93 fols 22, 26, 26v, 30. A somewhat longer version of the first of these prayers, Omnipotens sempiterne Deus rex regum, was printed by A. Wilmart, 'The Prayers of the Bury Psalter', The Downside Review, xlviii, 1930, pp. 211-12. The prayers of fols 26 and 26v are part of the confessional ordo. The Oratio ante psalmos of fol. 30 is a standard item of private devotion with a pronounced penitential character. 94 See the discussion of psalm uses in J. G. Black, 'The Daily Cursus, the Week and the Psalter in the Divine Office and in Carolingian Devotion', Ph.D. diss., Toronto 1987, pp. 316 ff.

95 See T. H. Bestul, 'Continental Sources of Anglo- Saxon Devotional Writing', Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, Studies in Medieval Culture, xx, Kalamazoo 1986, pp. 103-26. 96 fols 28-29v. See A. Napier, ed., Wulfstan, Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen iiber ihr Echtheit, Berlin 1883, pp. 50, 56-60; H. Logeman, 'Anglo-Saxonica Minora', Anglia, xi, 1889, pp. 106-10. For (brief) discussion see D. Bethurum, The Homilies of Wulfstan, Oxford 1957, p. 305. (The homily was first thought to be the work of Wulfstan.) 97 There is no equivalent treatment of the seven gifts of which I am aware. The tenth-century Anglo-Saxon Vercelli homily xx lists capital sins and the virtues which can counter them; Vercelli xxi features an active Devil who fosters vices against which appropriate virtues are suggested. See P. E. Szarmach, ed., Vercelli Homilies ix- xxiii, Toronto Old English Series, Toronto 1981, pp. 77 ff. and 69 ff., and idem, 'Caesarius of Arles and the Vercelli Homilies', Traditio, xxvi, 1970, pp. 319-20. Both of these homilies are found in other manuscripts rubricated for Rogationtide, a penitential season. See J. Bazire, J. E. Cross, eds, Eleven Old English Rogationtide Homilies, Toronto 1982, nos 1 and 2. See also M. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins, East Lansing, Michigan 1952, pp. 76 ff. 98 fol. 27v, no titulus. See de Bruyne (as in n. 87), no. 26, p. 77. The titulus of Lambeth Palace, MS 427, fol. 2v/5, Dicti Sancti Augustini quae sint virtutes psalmorum, is in agreement with the edition of de Bruyne. Other Insular psalters either contain variants, e.g. London, B.L., MS Harley 2904, fol. 1V/1, Dicta Sancti Augustini quod canticum psalmorum animas decorat, which is a



hope of salvation, consolation of grief ... He who loves zealously singing psalms cannot sin ... He who has praise of God in his heart will rejoice before God at the last and his soul will dwell in heaven.99

The belief in the apotropaic value of the psalter, expressed particularly in the martial analogy, is striking, and the more so in all other Insular versions of the text, which contain a phrase curiously omitted by the Tiberius scribe: 'It (psalmody) is the daily battle'. This battle against evil, fought within each person every day, is the preoccupation of the predominantly penitential texts of the Tiberius Psalter-texts, which, though varied in genre, are unusually restricted in this focus on penitential concerns. They are the most probable reason for the strong visual expression of the sacred precedents for the battle in the illustrations of the manuscript.

Why are the images and texts discussed here allied with a detailed Passion Cycle? A full answer to this question is not at all straightforward, and is certainly beyond the reach of the present discussion. Nevertheless, we can observe that the combination found in the Tiberius Psalter stands in an old Insular tradition that was alive and well at Winchester during the eleventh century. The liturgical season of the Passion is one of penance, and at an early date Passion narratives were associated with penitential texts and the psalter. The Tiberius Psalter contains a nexus of material comparable in some respects to that of the Book of Cerne, an early ninth-century Anglo-Saxon prayer-book which is one of the oldest extant private prayer-books in the West.100 The earlier manuscript contains penitential prayers and confessions, the Passion narratives from the four Gospels, an apocryphal dialogue between Christ and Adam and Eve at the Descent into Hell, and an abbreviated psalter, as well as other varied devotional items. It is likely that this manuscript was known at Winchester in the eleventh century.10' Prayer-books like the Book of Cerne developed originally in an Anglo-Irish milieu which laid particular emphasis on private devotion and penance, and on the use of the psalms in those contexts. Under the impact of the Carolingian reforms, the tenth and eleventh centuries saw a proliferation of manuscripts with private prayers, sometimes combined with psalters. This development provides the contemporary context for a compilation such as the Tiberius Psalter,102 but it does not entirely account for the strong thematic focus of the pictures and texts discussed here.

A tentative explanation of this clear focus can perhaps be found in the early use of the psalter in the Insular world. Besides its corporate use in the psalmody of the Divine Office, the psalter was also one of the most powerful weapons of the individual in his battle against sin. We have already cited one text from the Tiberius Psalter which describes this function, the Dicti Sancti Augustini. In addition, the

combination of titulus and incipit, or have a different titulus, e.g. London, B.L., MS Arundel 155, where a line is extracted from the text to form the title. 99 '... Effugiat demones. Expellit tenebras. Efficit

sanctitatem homini peccatori ... Delet peccata ... Cotidie radicem malorum evellit. Sicut lorica induit. Sicut galea defendit. Spes salutis est. Consolatio doloris ... Qui diligit canticum psalmorum assidue non potest peccatum agere. Qui habet laudem dei in corde suo in postremo apud deum gaudebit, et anima sua in celo morabitur'.

100 See Kuypers (as in n. 50), passim; Bestul (as in n. 95), pp. 104-07. 101 Bestul (as in n. 95), p. 115. 102 See the introductory comments of B. J. Muir in his edition of an eleventh-century Winchester prayer-book, A Pre-Conquest English Prayer-Book (B.L. MSS Cotton Galba A.XIV and Nero A.II [ff3-13]), HBS, ciii, Woodbridge 1988, esp. p. xxxiii and n. 26.


32 K. M. OPENSHAW

psalter's two instructions for the use of psalms are practical expressions of this role, telling the user that if he says certain psalms he will obtain remission of his sins. Predating known examples of these types of devotional text was the use of the psalter in the administration of private penance, made clear in the lists of tarriffed penances found in penitentials. Saying large numbers of psalms was a frequently- prescribed penance from the earliest development of private penance in Ireland, and this practice continued, mediated by Continental developments, into late Anglo-Saxon England.'03 It is clear that the compiler of the Tiberius Psalter knew this tradition well, since he included among its prefatory texts an ordo drawn from a penitential manuscript, even though that text was not of a type normally used in a psalter.

It would be most appropriate for the manuscripts containing the psalms to be decorated with sacred paradigms for this battle against sin. The evidence provided by the Southampton Psalter, and the pictures we have discussed from the Odbert Psalter, suggest that the pictorial tradition for representation of the conquest of evil in psalters, and the use of the psalter contents to that end, may have been equally well developed in the Insular world. In support of this suggestion we should also note that it was in the Insular psalter that images of Christus super aspidem were first separated from the Psalm xc text for use as full-page decorations at the major psalter divisions. The earliest surviving examples are found in the Crowland and Winchcombe Psalters described above.104 In their new locations these pictures.must have functioned as symbolic images of the conquest of evil, an intention made clear by the inclusion of a juxtaposed scene of St Michael and the dragon in the former manuscript. 105

CONCLUSIONS

We have shown that in creating his typological picture programme of the triumph of Christ over Satan the Tiberius artist was working within a strong early medieval cultural and artistic tradition. From this he drew both the typological framework of the cycle and many of the individual details. The tradition for illustrating Christ's triumph over evil was a fertile one, which spawned a wide variety of unique works of art in a period in which manuscript art was still essentially conservative.106 The evidence of the Temptation images of the Odbert Psalter suggests that the tradition may have been particularly well-developed in Anglo-Saxon England, where our artist added his own contributions to this broad stream of creativity with his unique scenes of the Temptation, the Harrowing of Hell and St Michael slaying the dragon. The demonstrable impact of the very different traditions of psalter

103 See J. T. McNeill and H. Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance, New York 1938. For the penitentials in Anglo-Saxon England see A. Frantzen, The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England, New Brunswick N.J. 1983. 104 Although both these manuscripts are of the early eleventh century, see n. 70 above, they most likely reflect an established custom for psalter illustration, only witnessed earlier in the Durham manuscript of Cassiodorus's psalm commentary, Durham Cathedral

Lib., MS B II 30. Facing fol. 173 is an image of David trampling a snake, reproduced in Kahsnitz 1979 (as in n. 11), fig. 68. 105 See above, p. 26 and n. 75. 106 H. Kessler, 'On the State of Medieval Art History', Art Bulletin, lxx, 1988, p. 182. For the English penchant for iconographic innovation, see M. Schapiro, 'The Image of the Disappearing Christ: the Ascension in English Art around the Year 1000', Gazette des beaux-arts, xxiii, 1943, pp. 135-52.


CHRIST AND SATAN IN THE TIBERIUS PSALTER 33 illustration represented by the Southampton and Stuttgart Psalters serves to underline the catholicity of the sources consulted by the compiler, and we should not forget at this point that we have examined only some of the psalter's pictures. We have seen that for the manuscript's text selections this compiler ranged equally widely. By looking at the pictures of the Tiberius Psalter, with their theme of the conquest of Satan, and by reading the prefatory texts, the owner of the manuscript would have gained inspiration for his daily battle. We in our turn, by looking at the same materials, have begun to achieve some insight into the reasons for the creation and illumination of this psalter nine hundred years ago.

CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO


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Documents

K. M. Openshaw - The Battle Between Christ and Satan in the Tiberius Psalter