Altarpiece of the Pilgrim II.

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Triptych of the altarpiece, the Maria with the baby Jesus on her lap of two archangels shows surrounded

The Altarpiece of Pilgrim II is a medieval altarpiece that stands in the cathedral of the Italian city ​​of Cividale . The silver essay was donated by Pilgrim II , the Patriarch of Aquileia , around the year 1200 and today it crowns the main altar of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta . It shows Mary and the baby Jesus surrounded by archangels and a group of saints . Due to its rich decoration and the early typographic production technique of its inscriptions, the work of art is of interest both in terms of art history and printing history .

description

View through the main nave to the illuminated altarpiece in the choir

The silver, in places gilded relief portrait is today in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in the small town of Cividale in Friuli . The approximately one meter high and two meters wide rectangular plate is enthroned in a modern display case above the main altar in the choir . The essay is a consecration gift from Pilgrim II ( Latin name Pellegrinus), who exercised the patriarchy of Aquileia from 1195 to 1204 .

The altarpiece is divided into four parts: the center is the triptych , which shows Mary as the Mother of God (Latin mater dei ) with the baby Jesus on her lap; from left and right the archangels Michael and Gabriel hurry towards the seated mother with child. The scene takes place under a three- arched arcade . The triptych is flanked on each side by a section in which a total of 25 male and female saints stand side by side in three horizontal rows. All figures with the exception of the baby Jesus are identified by name. Around the triptych and the two side sections runs the frame in which head medallions are depicted without inscriptions. In the upper horizontal frame piece Christ and John the Baptist and the four evangelists are shown. In the lower counterpart, Pilgrim II, kneeling at the feet of Mary, can be identified as the donor of the altarpiece by an accompanying inscription. The votive inscription , which contains ten Leonine verses , runs horizontally on the inside of both frame boards .

typography

All the inscriptions on the altarpiece are in Latin . The font type of dedicatory inscription is by and large classified as Gothic capital. To produce the inscriptions, according to the unanimous opinion of modern commentators, the letters were successively stamped into the silver using individual letter punches . The typographical production method is supported by the fact that the letters apparently meet the criterion of type identity , according to which each letter image must come from one and the same letter mark. This can u. a. Recognize by the faulty "R", the damage of which is repeated in all Rs in the text. The letters protrude in the high relief from rectangular depressions that were created by the flesh of the deep relief punches; the separation of the letters and their indentations from one another by fine margins is a further indication of the sequential use of individual letters. The observation that the letters do not always keep the line, but rather 'dance' on the base line , indicates the use of individual letter marks.

Overall, the use of around forty letters can be made out in the typeface, which appear in approximately equal parts in a smaller and a larger font size. The names of the saints and the patriarch's benefactor's inscription were hallmarked with the smaller letters, while the others were used to print the names of the archangels, the Mother of God, the abbreviations of sanctus / sancta (“holy”) and the two-line inscription. The latter was struck on eight silver stripes, which were then nailed to one another on the wooden base of the altarpiece.

According to the art historian Angelo Lipinsky, the typographical technique could have been borrowed from the Byzantine cultural area, where inscriptions made in this way were to be found in the 10th to 12th centuries on stowed away and Lipsanothek . A random check of this assumption using the Limburg Staurothek , however, showed that the inscription was actually engraved directly into the metal .

The Prüfening consecration inscription of 1119 is another early example of typographical text production in the Latin West, which, however, differs in some technical features: the inscription appears in low relief and the top is made of clay , not silver. In accordance with the lower hardness of the substrate , no metal punches but (wooden) punches were used.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Brekle 2011, p. 1f .; Lipinsky 1986, pp. 75f.
  2. ↑ a b Brekle 2011, p. 1f.
  3. ↑ Brekle 2011; Visintini 2007; Pertoldi 1997; Koch 1994; Lipinsky 1986; Cuscito 1975
  4. ↑ a b Brekle 2011, p. 2
  5. ↑ Brekle 2011, p. 19; Visintini 2007, footnote 82; Pertoldi 1997; Lipinsky 1986, p. 78
  6. ↑ a b c Brekle 2011, p. 19
  7. ↑ Brekle 2011, p. 17
  8. ↑ a b Brekle 2011, p. 4
  9. ↑ Lipinsky 1986, p. 78f .; Koch 1994, p. 213
  10. ↑ Brekle 2011, p. 2f.
  11. ↑ a b Brekle 2005, pp. 22-25
  12. ↑ Brekle 2011, p. 19

literature

  • Herbert E. Brekle : The typographical production technique of the inscriptions on the silver altarpiece in the cathedral of Cividale , Regensburg 2011
  • Herbert E. Brekle: Theprüfungingen consecrated inscription from 1119. A paleographic-typographical investigation , Scriptorium Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-937527-06-0
  • Giuseppe Cuscito: La pala di Pellegrino II nel duomo di Cividale , in: Studi cividalesi , Antichità altoadriatiche, Vol. 7 (1975), pp. 99-108
  • Walter Koch : Literature report on medieval and modern epigraphy (1985-1991) , Monumenta Germaniae Historica : Aid, Vol. 14, Munich 1994, ISBN 978-3-88612-114-4 , p. 213
  • Angelo Lipinsky: La pala argentea del patriarca Pellegrino nella collegiata di Cividale e le sue iscrizioni con caratteri mobili , in: Ateneo Veneto , Vol. 24 (1986), pp. 75-80
  • Rudy Pertoldi: La “pala” in argento dorato della basilica di S. Maria Assunta a Cividale del Friuli ed il suo committente, il patriarca Pellegrino II , in: Forum Iulii , Vol. 21 (1997), pp. 91-113
  • Maria Visintini: Alcune osservazioni sulla grande “tabula argentea” del patriarca Pellegrino II , in: Forum Iulii , Vol. 31 (2007), pp. 39-72

Web links

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