Lexicon of Christian Iconography

The Lexicon of Christian Iconography , abbreviated to LCI , is an eight-volume art - historical manual that presents iconographic motifs of Christian art in a lexical form. In addition, it introduces the iconological contexts of individual motifs. The first four volumes deal with general iconographic terms, such as the representation of virtue - allegories , biblical figures such as Bathsheba , the remaining four volumes the iconography of saints .

In addition to the actual iconography of a motif, the articles list the most important sources, possibly a short biography and a short list of the most important research literature. Illustrations show the main types of the respective subject matter.

The first volume of the LCI appeared in 1968, the eighth in 1976. It has remained the standard work in German up to the present and has been reprinted several times without any changes. The art of late antiquity, Romanesque and Gothic was given particular attention; the representations, symbols and attributes of the baroque , on the other hand, were cited less frequently.

literature

• Lexicon of Christian Iconography . Edited by Engelbert Kirschbaum (volumes 1–4) and Wolfgang Braunfels (volumes 5–8). 8 volumes. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1968-1976, ISBN 3-451-22568-9 .
• Project presentation by the Herder publishing house for the second edition (PDF; 6.4 MB)