Job and the Dragon
Leaf from a glossed Book of Job on vellum
Southern Germany, c. 1130
Leaf: 189/193 x 142/145 mm, Initial: 70/77 x 52/55 mm
85,000,- CHF (VAT not included)
Margins cropped, slightly affecting text, a few small holes, a little darkened and stained.
This beautifully rendered initial is a rare, striking example of German Romanesque manuscript painting. The historiated initial V (or U, which was the same letter in medieval scriptures) is formed by the figure of Job suppressing a leviathan-dragon under his right foot, which in turn is biting his left ankle.
A beautiful example of Romanesque script and decoration, this text is an extremely early witness to the Glossa of Anselm of Laon (d. c. 1117). The glosses largely agree with those attributed to Anselm, but are evidently an early example influenced by commentaries circulating in southern Germany at the time and include references to Gregory’s Moralia in Iob and St. Jerome. Anselm was a French theologian, Dean and Chancellor of the Cathedral at Laon, and one of the principal pioneers of biblical hermeneutics. Although heavily criticized and defamed by the scholar Petrus Abaelardus (1079-1142), Anselm was highly praised and respected by his contemporaries. By renewing the interpretation of theological writings, he also provided an impulse to revive a theological insight, focusing on the ideas of creation and redemption. His greatest work is represented in the leaf at hand, the Glossa ordinaria, an interlinear and marginal gloss on the Scriptures and one of the great intellectual achievements of the Middle Ages.
The historiated initial V (or U, which was the same letter in medieval scriptures) is formed by the figure of Job suppressing a leviathan-dragon under his right foot, which in turn is biting his left ankle. Job holds a scroll, on which is written verse 19:23: Quis michi tribuat ut scribantur sermones mei (Oh that my words were written!). The large decorative initial introduces the Book of Job (Vir erat in terra hus nomine Iob). A demon which looks like a dragon, a snake, a crocodile, and sometimes a whale (or a mixture of all) appears in the visions of various world religions.
The style remotely recalls works from the Regensburg area, namely drawings from the Glossarium Salomonis, created in the monastery Prüfening, dated twice on 1158 and 1163 (Munich, BSB, Clm. 13002). From the same scriptorium and century, the drawings of the Hexameron by St. Ambrose of Milan (Munich, BSB, Clm. 14399) are in a somewhat comparable style.