creative cosmologies in late gothic bohemia illuminated diagrams and memory tools for the court of...

8/19/2019 Creative Cosmologies in Late Gothic Bohemia Illuminated Diagrams and Memory Tools for the Court of Wenceslas…

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Manuscripta 54. (200): 2–48 ( 0.484/...00786)

Creative Cosmologies in Late Gothic

Bohemia: Illuminated Diagrams andMemory Tools for the Court of Wenceslas IV

Eric Ramírez-Weaver

L , oneof Wenceslas IV’s court astronomers, nicknamed Ter-zysko, gazes outward at the sun and stars from withinan ordered presentation of the zodiacal system of aspects(fig. ). This diagram, painted in Prague within the first fewyears of the fifteenth century, provides the reader of an As-tronomical Anthology a window on the heavens, just as Ter-zysko, who signed his nickname on the wax tablet restingupon his lectern, studies the celestial cloud over his headwith a quadrant. Such creative diagrams attest to the so-

. Josef Krása, Die Handschriften König Wenzels IV , trans. Herta Soswin-ski (Vienna, 97), 56, 2–2, underscored the multicultural contribu-tions to the development of astrological practice in late medieval Prague,as exemplified by the Astronomical Anthology (Munich, Bayerische Sta-atsbibliothek, Clm. 826). Around the year 400 the international interest

in astrology and astronomy—as well as related occult practices—had thecurious effect of opening a forum for the use, sharing, and disseminationof scientific or pseudo-scientific texts preferred by the various peoples ofthe book: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. The Astronomical Anthology at-

*An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Thirty-Fifth An-

nual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies (7–8 October 2008)at Saint Louis University in the session on “Manuscripts and Memory”organized by Susan L’Engle. I wish to thank the University of Virginia fortwo Summer Research Grants (2009–200) while revising the paper.


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F i g u r e .

M u n i c h , B a y e r i s c h e S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k ,

C l m 8 2 6 , f o

l . 8 r

T e r z y s k o , A s t r o n o m i c a l A n t h o l o g y

f o r

W e n c e s l a s I V

P h o t o : B a y e r i s c h e S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k ;

W i t h p e r m i s s i o n o

f t h e B a y e r i s c h e

S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k , M u

n i c h


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Creative Cosmologies

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phistication of astronomical and astrological study in late-

fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Prague during theturbulent reign of Wenceslas IV. The king was crowned thefuture sovereign of Bohemia during the second year of hislife in 363, assumed full responsibility for Bohemia fromthe death of his father, Charles IV, in 378 until his owndeath in 49, and was for a time the elected King of the Ro-mans, a title he held from 376 until 400.2 With their pris-

tests to this collaborative phenomenon. For background information anda brief synopsis of the Anthology ’s contents, see Anton Legner, ed., DieParler und der Schöne Stil, –: Europäische Kunst unter den Lux-emburgern; Ein Handbuch zur Ausstellung des Schnütgen-Museums in der

Kunsthalle Köln, 5 vols. (Cologne, 978–80), 3:04–5, alongside the morerecent discussion in Gerhard Schmidt and Eric Ramírez-Weaver, “Wenc-eslas IV’s Books and their Illuminators,” in Prague: The Crown of Bohe-

mia, – , ed. Barbara Drake Boehm and Jiří Fajt (New York, 2005),223–24, and the German-language catalogue accompanying the same ex-hibition: Karl IV., Kaiser von Gottes Gnaden: Kunst und Repräsentationdes Hauses Luxemburg – , ed. Jiří Fajt (Munich, 2006), 490–9.Julius von Schlosser, “Die Bilderhandschriften Königs Wenzel I.,” Jah-rbuch des kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 4 (893): 24–37 first identified the Anthology as a member of the set ofmanuscripts that can be verifiably linked to the court and reign of Wenc-eslas IV (266–68). For more on the artistic milieu in fourteenth- and

fifteenth-century Prague, see the articles in Manuscripta 50 (2006) byMilada Studničková, Maria Theisen, and Karl-Georg Pfändtner.2. For more on the life and rule of Wenceslas IV as well as his per-

sonal interest in astronomy, see “Wenceslas IV,” in Prague, 90–03. HereBoehm and Fajt relate the king’s interest in visualizations of the cosmo-logical harmony to the manufacture of the Astronomical Clock on theOld Town Hall in Prague. In fact, one of the timepiece’s designers, MasterIohannes Šindel, was also the king’s personal physician in 409 before be-coming the relatively tolerant University of Prague’s rector in 40. Nich-

olas of Kadaň assisted Šindel with the clock’s construction (99). Heavenlystudy and healing were intrinsically intertwined in late medieval Europe,likewise attested by Iohannes Šindel’s intersecting courtly interests. Formore on astrological medicine (melothesia) ca. 400, see Harry Bober,“The Zodiacal Miniature of the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry:Its Sources and Meaning,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Insti-


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tine geometry, perfect order, and symmetry, diagrams like

this also belie the political realities of life in Prague.3

Scien-tific manuscripts were made by artists in the capital, occa-sionally under the employ of courtiers like Terzysko, ratherthan the embattled Wenceslas IV, who was imprisoned ontwo occasions.4 Wenceslas’s supporters nevertheless sup-plied him with de luxe diagrams5 and miniatures,6 foster-ing the king’s renowned interest in astrology and offeringhim refined reminders of the putative links between the

movements of heavenly bodies and life on earth.7 Imagesfrom the Munich Astronomical Anthology and a cosmologi-cal diagram from a Bohemian copy of William of Conches’stwelfth-century Dragmaticon philosophiae in Madrid (Ma-drid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS Res. 28), reliedupon several different strategies for presenting scientificinformation in pictorial form for the purpose of assistingrecollection. The visual strategies that Bohemian artists ad-opted or adapted to their scientific illustrations played adual role in the King’s library. On the one hand, lavish pre-sentations of the heavens invited reflection as Wenceslas IVand other readers sat at their lecterns like Terzysko, study-ing the cosmological principles contained within these illus-trated books with satisfaction. On the other hand, creative

tutes (948): –34. For more on Wenceslas IV and the internationalcourtly interest in astrology, see also Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magicand Experimental Science, 8 vols. (New York, 923–58), 3:590–92.3. Eric Ramírez-Weaver, “William of Conches, Philosophical Continu-

ous Narration, and the Limited Worlds of Medieval Diagrams,” Studies inIconography 30 (2009): –4.

4. Prague, 9.5. Schmidt and Ramírez-Weaver, 223–24.6. Krása, Die Handschriften, 42–58. Also see Gerhard Schmidt, “Malerei

bis 450: Tafelmalerei—Wandmalerei—Buchmalerei,” in Gotik in Böh-men, ed. Karl M. Swoboda (Munich, 969), 230–39.7. Die Parler und der Schöne Stil , 3:79–88.


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design enhanced the ability of the viewer to remember what

had been seen and the ideas presented by the imagery.

A - s

Recent scholarship has investigated the pictorial and rhetor-ical ways in which cosmological and astronomical images,especially diagrams, contributed to the dissemination and

remembrance of metaphysical or epistemological claims.Bianca Kühnel has argued that the introduction of crossesinto cosmological diagrams during the early medieval pe-riod emphasized the contributions made by patristic fathersand Carolingian prelates toward the creation of a coherentChristian understanding of the heavens. Partly motivatedby millennial eschatological fears, early medieval savantsrelied upon scientific diagrams to organize, cognize, and visualize their mental models and situate conceptually andartistically the earth and its inhabitants within the cosmosbelieved to be controlled ultimately by its divine Creator.8 Such representations delimited spatially medieval conceitslike the geocentric model of the universe while they ele- vated both the textual and visual information to hegemonicstatus, confirming certain scientific beliefs as orthodox in

an (albeit sometimes unsuccessful) effort to silence hetero-dox voices. Thomas Raff and Barbara Obrist have exploredthe subtle ways that specific crafted diagrams or imagina-tive presentations of the winds meaningfully deviated fromtheir classical models.9 All of these approaches treat medi-eval scientific illustrations as cogent presentations of belief,

8. Bianca Kühnel, The End of Time in the Order of Things: Science andEschatology in Early Medieval Art (Regensburg, 2003), 6–260.9. Thomas Raff, “Die Ikonographie der mittelalterlichen Windpersoni-

fikationen,” Aachener Kunstblätter 48 (978–79): 7–28; Barbara Obrist,“Wind Diagrams and Medieval Cosmology,” Speculum 72 (997): 33–84.


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explainable by appeals to larger philosophical and religious

claims, following the traditional methodological approachof Lynn Thorndike, who related the history of science tolarger socio-cultural fluctuations in the history of ideas.0 Inthis regard, current art historical studies reflect a scholarlyinterest shared by historians of science such as Stephen Mc-Cluskey and Edward Grant,2 as well as specialists studyingcomputistical treatises like Arno Borst,3 Faith Wallis,4 andNadja Germann.5

Bruce Eastwood has reviewed Carolingian astronomicaldiagrams, rigorously critiquing certain examples for theircreativity or adaptation of earlier images.6 Eastwood hasalso argued that there is a fundamental separation betweenthe ability of a scientific diagram to convey information andthe kind of embellishment studied by art historians. Theconflation of a modified author portrait on folio 8r of the

0. Thorndike, 3:585–60.. Stephen C. McCluskey, Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval

Europe (Cambridge, 998), 5–64.2. Edward Grant, God & Reason in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 200),

–48; Edward Grant, Science & Religion, B.C. to A.D. : From Ar-istotle to Copernicus (Baltimore, 2004), –224.3. Arno Borst, Die karolingische Kalenderreform, Monumenta Ger-

maniae Historica, Schriften, 46 (Hanover, 998); also see the concise pre-sentation of Borst’s ideas in Arno Borst, “Alkuin und die Enzyklopädie von 809,” in Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in CarolingianTimes, ed. Paul Leo Butzer and Dietrich Lohrmann (Basel, 993), 53–78.4. See the helpful introduction in Bede: The Reckoning of Time, trans.

Faith Wallis, rev. ed., Translated Texts for Historians, 29, (Liverpool,2004), xv–ci; also see Faith Wallis, “Images of Order in the MedievalComputus,” Acta 5 (988): 45–68.5. Nadja Germann, De Temporum Ratione: Quadrivium und Gotte-

serkenntnis am Beispiel Abbos von Fleury und Hermanns von Reichenau (Leiden, 2006), –76.6. Bruce S. Eastwood, Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and

Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance, History of Science and Med-icine Library, 4, Medieval and Early Modern Science, 8 (Leiden, 2007),373–425.


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Munich Astronomical Anthology with a presentation of the

zodiacal system of aspects, in addition to assorted infor-mation about birth horoscopes (genethlialogy), accordingto Eastwood’s contention undermines the ability of the di-agram to present its astrological and astronomical ideas, orat the very least transforms the image into another type ofpicture.7 Arguably, the Munich page could be said to haveexchanged its content for visual impact, diverting atten-tion away from the astrological principles revealed in word

and image and toward the representation of the anthology’scompiler, Terzysko.8

Eastwood is partly correct to argue that the author por-trait of Terzysko could overwhelm the viewer and thereforestand in opposition to the educational utility of the diagram.On the other hand, as Eastwood rightly notes concerningcomputistical imagery, “… the words gave the truth; the di-agram facilitated memory.”9 The schematic and textual ele-ments on folio 8r of the Astronomical Anthology present the

7. Eastwood, 393–98; in his words, folio 8r “… would no longer be a sci-entific diagram, although it made use of a scientific diagram as part of itsconstruction” (398).8. Krása, Die Handschriften, 52–56, reported that documents attest to

the collaboration of two astronomers on an astronomical anthology forWenceslas IV, which was completed by 407 in time for the King of theRomans to transport the manuscript from Karlštejn to Točník Castle. Al-though there is no reason to believe that the Astronomical Anthology is tobe identified with this manuscript, Krása identified one of the authors,a Teříšek, with Terzysko, who prepared this second anthology for theking with the aid of another courtier named Bušek. Also see Krása’s re-marks in Die Parler und der Schöne Stil, 3:04–5. Wenceslas IV’s extendedinterest in Terzysko’s work suggests that the latter may have benefited

from a more sophisticated and prolonged Maecenatism than typicallyexpected after Wenceslas IV’s 402 arrest, which was orchestrated byhis half brother, Sigismund. For more on the royal turmoil, see Jörg K.Hoensch, Kaiser Sigismund: Herrscher an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit – (Munich, 996), 93–8.9. Eastwood, 420.


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so-called system of aspects (explained below) with addi-

tional notes concerning genethlialogy inserted between theseries of large concentric circles forming a twelve-part zo-diac wheel, delicately embellished along the circumferenceby alternating red and blue florettes. Genethlialogy denotesthe astrological study of the birth horoscope, which adheresto certain normative principles that serve as semiotic oper-ators, or rules, elucidating the connections between observ-able astronomical events and their significance for human

beings.20 Around the circumference of the zodiac wheel, the various mental and physical characteristics associated withchildren born under the zodiac signs were adduced for thecurious reader, who turned the manuscript around in a cir-cular motion, recalling the twenty-four hour passage of thezodiac around the earth daily.2

In the lower left quadrant, the first sign of the astrologicalyear, Aries, is located at 9:00 in the diagram, with Taurus,the second sign of the zodiac at its right. The signs progressin counter-clockwise fashion around the outer series of con-centric circles, accurately reflecting the passage of the sunalong its annual wavy path through the zodiac.22 It is inter-esting to note that the placement of Aries at 9:00 can itselfbe considered a significant gesture on the part of the moreaccomplished of the two medieval painters who worked on

this manuscript, probably in tight collaboration with Ter-zysko.23 According to the principle of equinoctial preces-

20. Roger Beck, A Brief History of Ancient Astrology (Malden, Mass.,2007), 38–39, discussed astrology as a semiotic system, which can be

treated art historically as an established set of rules applied to heavenlyconfigurations and earthly events.2. For a concise introduction to astrology, see Tamsyn Barton, Ancient

Astrology (New York, 994), 86–3.22. Beck, 20–2.23. Schmidt and Ramírez-Weaver, 224.


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sion, the link between the Vernal Equinox and the sign of

Aries has shifted slightly toward the sign of Pisces.24

This phenomenon is reflected by the nearly contempo-raneous image from the Très Riches Heures of Duke Jeande Berry, in the scene of the “Hallali” at the end of the huntfrom the image for December, made before 46 (Chantilly,Musée Condé, MS 65, fol. 2v).25 That image includes bothof the signs for the month: Capricorn and Sagittarius. Byplacing the division of the zodiac between the same two

signs at the apex of the diagram from the Astronomical An-thology not only did Terzysko and the artist draw attentionto the Winter Solstice, but they also united the horoscopesof men and Christ, born according to Christian tradition onDec. 25 in the sign of Capricorn.26 In keeping with Kühnel’sthesis, this was a significant artistic design decision thateffectively submitted the astrological logic of the diagramto Christian orthodoxy. The diagram also thereby soughtChristian sanction.

Rather than undermine the informative quality of the me-dieval diagram, as Eastwood’s criticism had suggested, thecareful integration of art and science in painterly diagramslike this one elicited additional responses from the learnedreader, enhancing the pedagogical utility of the image. Theiconographic evaluation of the ordered arrangement of the

zodiac signs in Terzysko’s author portrait revealed its mean-ingful structure. The mental act of discovery linking humanhoroscopes and the birth of Christ in the diagram increasedthe likelihood that students of astrology like King Wences-las IV himself would recall the concealed and then revealed

24. Barton, 92.

25. Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Lim-bourgs and their Contemporaries, 2 vols. (New York, 974), :97, 42–32,2:fig. 646.26. Michele Renee Salzmann, On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of

and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 990),50.


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information. In these Bohemian diagrams artistry fostered

learning and expanded the educational utility of medievaldiagrams as memory tools precisely because painterly craftintroduced additional layers of complexity. The textual por-tions of Terzysko’s portrait conveyed the appropriately or-ganized information, but the quality of the craftsmanshipincreased the likelihood that the viewer would recall whathad been seen. This was true because of the diagram’s over-all structure and because the painted representation of the

compiler held the attention of the student.In order to understand what is both insightful and inad-

equate about Eastwood’s view concerning the role artistryplays in astronomical illustration, a distinction proposedby Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida regarding the his-tory of photography could be helpful. Barthes argued thatsocio-political context and the ideas presented in an im-age constitute its studium, whereas the punctum is an in-dividual reaction to the artistic details in an image, which“pricks” the mind, as it were, and captivates the viewer’s at-tention.27 Eastwood noted that the structural presentationof information in a radial format enhances the ability ofthe viewer to recall salient pieces of information placed ina meaningful relationship to one another.28 The composi-tional emphasis placed upon Terzysko, working at the or-

igin of the concentric circles within the diagram, eclipsedthe astrological information and its content (or studium forBarthes), according to Eastwood, fixing the viewer’s gazeexclusively upon the portrait in the middle.29 Terzysko doesindeed arrest the spectator’s reading eye, but as punctum inBarthes’s nomenclature, excites the mind and implants the

27. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography , trans.Richard Howard (New York, 98), 25–55. 28. Eastwood, 48: “The wheel pattern that is almost ubiquitous in com-

putus is an ordering, and thereby a memory, device.”29. Ibid., 398.


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diagram within the memory. The artistic embellishment, in

fact, quickens the beleaguered student’s mind and providesan opening into the consciousness through which the in-formation contained within the diagram can enter and bestored for further use.

At 8:00 in the diagram, there is the sign of Taurus. Ac-cording to the text, “Taurus is cold and dry; whoever is bornunder this sign of the horoscope will have the followingcharacteristics: a long face, large eyes, a thick and stunted

neck, be a faithful person, have keenly discerning wide nos-trils, have curly hairs, and be lazy in the city but rise above[others].”30 The reference to the cold and dry nature of Tau-rus refers to the common medieval concept of the “triplic-ities,” or the classificatory astrological features believed tohave been shared by the signs of Taurus, Virgo, and Capri-corn, likewise linked to one another by the larger double-lined triangle that united the signs located at 8:00, 4:00, and2:00, respectively. These triplicities derived from ancientBabylonian precedents, influencing the development of thesystem of aspects likewise depicted on folio 3r of the Astro-nomical Anthology (fig. 2).3

The system of aspects in the center of the diagram iscomplemented by astrological information about the var-ious signs of the zodiac and their so-called planetary

houses, indicating the planets that exert a more positive ef-fect within them.32 At 2:00 in the outermost ring on folio3r the division between Pisces and Aries has sensibly been

30. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 826, folio 8r: “Thaurusest frigida et sicca; natus sub huius signi horoscopo est erit naturae fa-cies longa, oculi magni, collum spissum et breve, fidus, latae nares

acute, capilli crispi, et est dissolutus in urbis et volax.” The translationsof texts from the Astronomical Anthology are my own unless otherwiseindicated.3. Meiss, :43. For the application of these principles to horoscopes, see

Barton, 8, 25–30.32. Barton, 96–02; Beck, 20–2.


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Figure .

Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 826, fol. 3rPlanetary and Zodiacal Influences, Including the System of Aspects,

Astronomical Anthology for Wenceslas IV

Photo: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek With permission of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich


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placed at the beginning of the zodiacal year, emphasizing

springtime renewal. Within a series of concentric circles,important pieces of astrological and cosmological informa-tion were arrayed in organized fashion for the viewer, in-cluding a twelve-part wind rose, the triplicities, planetaryhouses and exaltations, astrological annotations, and thesystem of the aspects.33 According to the diagram, Aries be-longs to the house of Mars, and the sun has its greatest in-fluence, or “exaltation,” in Aries.34 Additionally, the wedge

to the immediate right of 2:00 within the third nested ringof the diagram (proceeding centripetally) contained textinforming the reader that “Whenever a star falls from thesign of Aries, as it likewise splits the sky, and divides itssignal, then this indicates that a king of the Christians willdie, that there will be losses of property, and that there willbe mighty wars in the land of Babylon.”35 Such statementson folio 3r derived from standard astrological compendiabut could have borne an additional personal significancefor Wenceslas IV, who was officially stripped of his title asKing of the Romans when King Ruprecht of the Palatinatewas elected his successor in 400, even though Wenceslasnever really ceased to posture himself King.36

The embedded shapes at the center of the diagram, re-calling those from the author portrait, further the dis-

cussion of planetary influences, known as the system ofaspects. According to the geocentric model of the universe,planets traveled around the earth through the zodiac signs.

33. Franz Boll, Sphaera: Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungenzur Geschichte der Sternbilder (Leipzig, 903; repr. Hildesheim, 967),49–22.

34. Beck, 84–85; Barton, 96–97.35. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 826, folio 3r: “Quando

aliqua stella cadit ab ariete ad similitudinem quod scindit caelum et di- visit suum signale significat quod morietur rex christianorum et quod inrei secciones et guerrae fortes erunt in terra babylonie.”36. Prague, 233–35; Krása, Die Handschriften, 6–63.


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As planets moved about, they entered into geometric rela-

tionships with one another. These links were expressed bya straight line, the triangle, square, and a hexagon. Rela-tionships involving the first two powers of two were perni-cious: these included the opposition of two signs delineatedby a straight line in “diametrical” aspect and the square,designating the “quartile” aspect. Two relationships involv-ing threes—the triangular “trine” or hexagonal “sextile” as-pects—indicated instead favorable circumstances.37

Just as Terzysko was pictorially and astrologically framedby the possible planetary relationships in the author por-trait, by progressing through the frontispiece cycle from the

Astronomical Anthology on folios through 0 King Wenc-eslas IV as student and reader of the book would also haveimmersed himself in a structured repetition and expansionof its astrological ideas. The original frontispiece cycle of-fered a regulated series of apertures into the heavens, help-ing the king to recall salient details about the astrologer’scraft and second-century Ptolemaic astronomy.38 The levelof artistic sophistication further enhanced the reader’s abil-ity to remember the astronomical and astrological ideascontained within the frontispiece cycle. At times, unusualinnovations like the conflation of an author portrait and as-trological diagram on folio 8r actually enhanced the ped-

agogical potential of the manuscript precisely because the

37. Beck, 20–23, 84–85; Barton, 20–23, 99–02.38. Krása, Die Handschriften, 56. It must be emphasized that Boll, 42–

22 n. 3, and von Schlosser, 267 reported that the zodiacal diagram on fol.2r and the square schematic depicting twelve astrological houses on fol.3v were later sixteenth-century additions to the Astronomical Anthology,

and therefore could not have formed part of the original cycle designedby Terzysko or studied by Wenceslas IV and his contemporaries. Thisalso attests, however, to the centenary use of this manuscript. The spon-sor of the additions could have been its early sixteenth-century owner,identified by Krása (in Die Parler und der Schone Stil , 3:04) as WilhelmHaller of Nuremberg.


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crafted curiosities as puncta in Barthes’s use of the term ig-

nited the spark later to be fanned into the flames of memory.As Mary Carruthers has argued, “… decoration is practicalin the medieval understanding of that word, having a ba-sic role to play in every reader’s moral life and character be-cause of its role in the requirements of memory practices.”39 The artistic decisions, like the choice to begin the year withChrist’s horoscope in the author portrait but not in the pre-sentation of planetary astrology on folio 3r, underscore the

ways that craftsmanship led the mind of the reader to dis-covery, and subsequently along a guided path toward recol-lection. In fact, on folio 8r, the image inserts Terzysko withinthe modeled recreation of his own thought processes, as the viewer witnesses the courtier’s mental recreation of the as-trological relationships that were the foundation of his sci-ence. The reader is presented with the same grid structurethrough which Terzysko’s astronomical observations wereorganized within his mind and laid bare before the viewer’seyes. On folio 8r, the spectator observes not only a presen-tation of the system of aspects but that system at work in themind of Terzysko, legitimizing the system and inviting bothcompiler and reader to further discovery.

P

Mary Carruthers has also discussed certain mythologicalaccounts or “inventory fables,” which provide an explana-tory rationale for the conventional forms of the constella-tions, facilitating their user’s recollection of their normativeforms.40 Carruthers explained that constellations and “star

39. Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Me-dieval Culture, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2008), 336; for her more fully devel-oped treatment of nedieval diagrams, see 324–37.40. Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and

the Making of Images, – (Cambridge, 998), 27.


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myths” are visual and narrative summaries treating fac-

tual celestial relationships (like the relative placement ofthe stars into clusters from a geocentric point of view) andfictional narratives. Since such myths provide an organizedinterlocking network of verbal cues and visual referencepoints, together they facilitate an observer’s identificationof specific star clusters, and the creation of that scientificmental framework is the primary goal of their correspond-ing astronomical study:4

The purpose of organizing stars into constellation pat-terns is not “representation,” but to aid human beings,needing to find various stars, to locate them by meansof a recognizable pattern retrieved immediately and se-curely from their own memories. Constellations aremnemotechnical tools.42

Following the frontispiece cycle in the Astronomical An-thology , on folios r–27r the same artist who painted theoriginal diagrams created a fairly standard series of sevenplanetary personifications and a novel array of thirty-sixrepresentations of the constellations. The latter portrayedthe “paranatellonta,” or the regular clusters of stars groupedinto constellations, contained within ten-degree zones of

zodiacal space, called “decans.”43

Avenarius (d. 69), theJewish polymath from Toledo depicted at work in the fron-tispiece to the section on folio v (fig. 3), prepared a He-brew translation of the seminal ninth-century Islamic trea-tise, the Introductorium maius of Abu Ma‘shar (d. 886).

4. Ibid., 24–29.

42. Ibid., 26; she adds: “‘Locating’ things to be remembered in a story isan elementary human mnemonic principle.”43. Boll, 42–25; Barton, 20–22, 42; Krása, Die Handschriften, 56–57,

2–4. Also see Karel Stejskal and Josef Krása, “Astralvorstellungen inder mittelalterlichen Kunst Böhmens,” Sborník Prací Filosofické FakultyBrněnské University 8 (964): 74–75.


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The Hebrew text was translated first into French by an-

other Jewish scholar, Haginus of Mecheln, in 272, and fi-nally into Latin by Pietro d’Abano in 293 with a new title,the Introductorium quod dicitur principium sapientiae; thisis the edition in the Astronomical Anthology . Attesting tothe work’s notoriety, a printed edition had already been pre-pared by 507 in Venice.44

Both the pictures and the texts in this section were in-tended to provide handy reference tools for star-gazers,

who wished to identify the constellations associated withspecific decans and zodiac signs. For example, the followingexcerpts, adducing the constellations visible within the zo-diac sign of Cancer, were located beside their correspond-ing images on folio 4r of the Astronomical Anthology (colorplate 2):

And in the second decan [of Cancer] a young girl as-cends, who is represented in a cloud, and in that verysame place is the middle of the dog and half of the earsof the left-hand donkey. And the Indians say in theirlanguage that in the second decan the beautiful hand-maid ascends, over whose head at another time thecrown mixed with red rests according to Herasr (?);in her hand is a wooden walking stick, and the same

woman seeks wine and singing. And according to theopinions of [the second-century astronomer] Ptol-emy, the head of Ursa Major ascends, as later does theside of Cancer and the belly of the ship, too.

And in the third decan [of Cancer] the handmaid ofthe virgins, who sometimes wanders about the eastbut now and then toward the west, ascends; and in

turn the nether parts of the Gemini ascend, the sec-

44. Krása, Die Handschriften, 56. Also see, Boll, 49; the Venetian printededition was reproduced by Boll and is used here (423–24).


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S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k , M u n i c h

F i g u r e .

M u n i c h , B a y e r i s c h e S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k ,

C l m 8 2 6 , f o

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P h o t o : B a y e r i s c h e S t

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W i t h p e r m i s s i o n o f t h e B a y e r i s c h e

S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k , M u n i c h


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ond half of the ears of the left-hand donkey ascend,

and in the same manner a second donkey to the south.As you see, the wise men of India believed that in thatplace a man ascends, whose foot resembles serpents,and the serpent rises over his body; and his ardentdesire is to board the ship and sail the sea in orderto bring silver and gold and thereby make rings forhis wives. And according to the opinions of Ptolemy,the neck of Ursa Major and its right paw, the claws of

Cancer, the head of the audacious man, and finally theship, all ascend.45

These small framed miniatures are lively but straightfor-ward visual translations of their corresponding texts intoimages, providing useful reminders for astronomers andastrologers of the constellations one could expect to seewithin any decan. The relative placement of the constel-lations one to another was paramount, and that required

45. As transcribed by Boll from the 507 Venetian edition of the text re-produced with analysis in Sphaera, 423–24 and confirmed by compar-ison with the microfilm of Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm.826, folio 4r: “Et ascendit in secunda facie (cancri) puella iuvenis, que

simulatur nubi, et ibidem medietas canis et dimidium auricularum as-ini sinistri. Et Yndi dicunt ascendere in ipsa ancillam pulchram in verbis,super cuius caput inest de herasr [sic] alias corona mixta rubeo corona[sic], in manu eius baculus ligneus, ipsaque querit vinum et cantum. Etascendit secundum sententiam Ptholomei caput urse maioris et latuscancri posterius, venter quoque navis. Et ascendit in tercia facie (cancri)ancilla virginum, que interdum discurrit inter oriens, aliquando versusoccidens; et ascendit iterum geminorum posterior medietasque secundaauricule asini sinistri et asinus itidem secundus meridianus. Yndorum

quippe sapientes putaverunt illic ascendere virum, cuius pes pedi ser-pentis simulatur, et super eius corpus serpens; eiusque desiderium estnavem intrare et mare navigare, ut aurum argentumque afferat, ut ex-inde mulieribus suis anulos componat. Et ascendit secundum sententiamPtholomei collum maioris urse eiusque manus dextra et cornua cancri etaudacis caput ultimumque navis.”


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accommodating partially visible star clusters like the head

and forepaws of the Great Bear in the first picture, or theGemini belonging to the second image, depicted as a singleyouth naked from the waist down. These illustrations drewupon both western and non-western understandings of theheavenly spheres. In the second book of Abu Ma‘shar’s trea-tise, as in the subsequent presentation by Avenarius, the be-liefs of three discrete traditions were juxtaposed in order toprovide an encyclopedic view of the constellations in the

heavens: the Persian-Babylonian-Egyptian tradition, theIndian study of astronomy, and the Greek Ptolemaic sys-tem.46 Avenarius’s openness to non-western astronomy co-incidentally reflected the political and educational realitiesin Prague, where there was also a historical openness toJewish and Islamic learning during the fourteenth and fif-teenth centuries.47

These images of the decans helped the reader to re-call which constellations were associated with Cancer, andtherefore enabled the reader to look outward like Terzyskofrom his lectern, imposing order upon the cosmos. It is im-portant to underscore that the novel representations of thedecans partly contributed to this effort, because they wereso odd. Fragments of body parts, the depictions of fancifulcreatures populating the night sky, and monstrous aberra-

tions like the snake-footed man of the third decan of Cancerall fostered recollection of these images through the cre-ative insight and vision of the manuscript painter. As Car-ruthers has argued, “It is a principle of mnemotechnics thatwe remember particularly vividly and precisely things thatare odd and emotionally striking, rather than those that arecommonplace. Sex and violence, strangeness and exaggera-

46. Krása, Die Handschriften, 56–57.47. Prague, 99; Krása, Die Handschriften, 56–57; also see Vivian B. Mann,

“The Artistic Culture of Prague Jewry,” in Prague, 83–89.


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tion, are especially powerful for mnemonic purposes.”48 The

bizarre and unnatural aspects of these star pictures contrib-uted to their educational value, providing puncta that as-trologers in Prague like Terzysko could exploit to recall theparanatellonta of the decans.

A-S’

In the Astronomical Anthology eighteen elaborate minia-

tures of the constellations from an Islamic tradition like-wise attest to the interest in Prague around the year 400for integrated, multicultural presentations of the heav-ens. By the early sixteenth century, these star pictures wereconjoined with the other sections of the Astronomical An-thology . Whether the representations of the constellationsbelonging to the ‘Abd al-Rhaman al-Sufi (d. 986) catalogueof the fixed (non-planetary) stars—known as the Kitab su-war al-kawakib al-thabita (The Book of the Images of theFixed Stars)—were intended to complement the images ofthe decans from the outset, is impossible to confirm withabsolute certainty. There is no question, however, that theal-Sufi illustrations were created in the same courtly andartistic milieu within Prague as the remainder of the codexwith the exception of the sixteenth-century additions to the

book.49

For this reason it is permissible to reflect upon thestructure of the Astronomical Anthology as a whole. Aroundthe year 400, Wenceslas IV or one of his courtiers recog-nized the value of the al-Sufi illustrations, which supplieddepictions of the stars that were clustered together withinindividual constellations. These star pictures arguably en-hanced the overall astronomical utility of the Astronomical

Anthology by focusing the reader’s attention upon the forms

of the constellations and the stars they contained, creating

48. Carruthers, Craft of Thought , 28–29.49. See note 38.


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complementary records of fifteenth-century science. The

discrete astronomical sections of the anthology expandedthe possibilities for memory work that the collection as awhole was intended to offer the reader. Moving from the di-agrammatic frontispiece cycle of astrological principles tothe paranatellonta depicted within their respective decansand then telescoping the reader’s outlook further to the in-dividual celebrations of the constellations themselves, the

Astronomical Anthology was an integrated presentation of

medieval erudition and superstition pertaining to the lib-eral art of astronomy and the late medieval courtly cul-tivation of astrology. It is generally agreed that these starpictures are by a second and less talented painter who cop-ied the representations of the constellations in the Strahov

Atlas, a northern Italian astrological manuscript that was inPrague during the reign of Charles IV (d. 378), Wenceslas’sfather and Holy Roman Emperor (Prague, Strahov Library,MS DA II 3).50

Perseus (on fol. 39r) elevates a sword in his left hand, andintimates the Islamic influence at work in the star picture(fig. 4). Medusa’s head was replaced by the diabolic Ra’s al-Ghul , literally the “head of the demon,” seen dangling byhis devilish locks from Perseus’s right hand.5 The star Beta(β) Persei, otherwise known as Algol, is an eclipsing binary

star, which is still used by star-gazers to locate the constel-lation in the night sky.52 The gruesome head of the demon,according to Carruthers’s view, reinforced the ability of theastronomer to recall the star cluster Perseus, since the vi-

50. Krása, Die Handschriften, 2–4; Schmidt and Ramírez-Weaver,223–24. For more on al-Sufi and Islamic artistic traditions, see also Ste-

fano Carboni, Following the Stars: Images of the Zodiac in Islamic Art(New York, 997), esp. 3–7, 38–39.5. Erwin Panofksy and Fritz Saxl, “Classical Mythology in Mediaeval

Art,” Metropolitan Museum Studies 4 (933): 228–80 at 240–4; also seeKrása, Die Handschriften, 2.52. Ian Ridpath, Stars and Planets (London, 2002), 8.


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sion of Algol in the miniature seared its form into the read-

er’s mind as punctum, according to Barthes. In other words,the demon’s gaze activated its mnemonic magic. Arguably,the Arabic name for the star Algol might also have provideda mnemonic device for a Bohemian reader “in the know,”since the name was a straightforward descriptor, situatingthe star within the constellation for the star-gazer’s conve-nience. In the al-Sufi images of the constellations, the tech-nical artistry of the painter in Prague and the layers of late

medieval cultural exchange on which the painter drew forhis imagery worked in tandem to make the pictures morememorable. This also enhanced their effectiveness, pro-moting learning and recall.

D

Terzysko’s involvement in the creation of the Astronomical Anthology assured his place historically among a small num-ber of elite intellectuals who may have sponsored highly re-fined secular commissions in Prague themselves. Anothermanuscript attributable to the circle of painters workingfor Wenceslas IV, yet for which there is no identifiable pa-tron, is a de luxe copy of the Dragmaticon philosophiae: Ma-

drid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS Res. 28.53

Williamof Conches included over two dozen diagrams in his cos-mological dialogue, which he composed for Duke GeoffreyPlantagenet in 47–49 after William’s dismissal from thePlatonist School of Chartres for his defense of theoreticalstudy against Cornifician reformers. In the author portraiton folio r of the Bohemian copy of the Dragmaticon, Wil-liam scrawled the numbers on his wax tablet that yield the

53. Prague, 229–3; Krása, Die Handschriften, 6–63. Most recently, seealso Ramírez-Weaver, –4, with earlier bibliography.


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Figure .

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS Res. 28, fol. 49rTwo Arguments for the Roundness of the Earth, Dragmaticon philosophiae

Photo: Biblioteca NacionalWith permission of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid


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date of the book’s production, 402.54 In addition, an illumi-

nator in Prague executed a diagram to accompany William’scosmological argument for the roundness of the earth, em-ploying yet another mnemonic visual strategy (fig. 5). Un-like the astronomical illustrations discussed above, whichfacilitated learning and memory through variously orga-nized presentations of putative factual information, thephilosophical modality of manuscript illumination dis-cussed here traces instead the logical structure of an argu-

ment, as a sort of visual thought experiment. In this way, theBohemian reader of the manuscript will not only come tounderstand the conclusion of the argument for the round-ness of the earth, but also be able to reproduce its logicalpresentation to others, as well.

In the Bohemian copy of the Dragmaticon, a painter fol-lowed closely William’s original designs, but transformedwhat was probably a linear schematic into a painted min-iature, presenting a reductio ad absurdum argument for theroundness of the earth on the top of folio 49r. The slop-ing rooftops and crenellated curtain walls of the twin cit-ies located first in the east (on the left) and second in thewest (on the right) allude to aspects of Germanic Bohemianarchitecture, which recall Wenceslas IV’s restorations ofKřivoklát Castle, near Prague, during his reign.55 In the Pro-

logue to Book Six of the Dragmaticon, William explained toDuke Geoffrey his rationale for composing the book: “Mat-ters that I have heard again and again from my teachers,most serene Duke, I have committed to memory after end-less recollection and constant meditation; I have set my pento record them so as to retain more firmly the words that flyoff, past recall.”56 The verbal presentation of William’s argu-

54. Ramírez-Weaver, –8.55. Prague, 96; Ramírez-Weaver, 9.56. William of Conches, A Dialogue on Natural Philosophy = Dragmat-

icon Philosophiae, trans. Italo Ronca and Matthew Curr (Notre Dame,


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ment for the roundness of the earth, illustrated at the top of

folio 49r in the Madrid Dragmaticon safeguarded his ideas,ensuring that the philosophical cosmology William had re-hearsed and memorized through repetition and concentra-tion would not be forgotten.

William justified his use of a diagram: “So that you canunderstand this better I shall sketch a figure in which I shalldraw a line for the flat earth and at the two ends of it twocities, and above it I shall draw in the curve of the sun and

above each of the two cities the [rising and setting] sun, inthis way.”57 William’s argument is straightforward, but per-fectly illuminated by the Bohemian painter. The logic of areductio ad absurdum argument requires that the reader pre-suppose that the opposite of the desired conclusion is true.Then, William asks his reader to consider two test cases.If the earth were flat, then the city in the east (on the left)would experience morning and then noon shortly thereaf-ter. Similarly, if the earth were flat, then the city in the west(on the right) would rapidly witness high noon followed bysundown. This is not so; therefore, the world is not flat, asassumed, but round.58

Although the argument is compelling, William’s dia-gram, as presented by the Bohemian manuscript illumina-tor, successfully facilitates the reader’s comprehension and

recollection of the original argument precisely because theimage reveals the flat earth theory’s lack of sense. In orderto capture the two discrete case studies requisite for a com-plete presentation of this argument, the Bohemian painterfollowed William’s model and reduplicated the image of the

997), 9; all citations for this manuscript are from this edition. As aconvention, passages in the Dragmaticon are designated by book, chap-ter, and paragraph; this passage is from (book) VI. (chapter) . (para-graph) .57. William of Conches, Dialogue, 2 (VI.2.3).58. Ibid.


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sun, which became a wandering planetary protagonist in

the diagram, in order to evince the impossibility of the flatearth theory. Whereas the astrological diagrams and starpictures from the Astronomical Anthology represented pu-tative celestial relationships in ordered and patterned waysthereby rendering them comprehensible and memorable,William’s diagram assists the reader’s study of cosmologyby showing what cannot be so. The painter who created thediagrams, displaying the system of aspects from the Astro-

nomical Anthology , charted the positive and negative rela-tionships, which were believed to link planetary movementthrough the zodiac with human activity.59 The logical rela-tionships revealed by the myriad lines and planar shapesdividing and uniting such diagrams into discrete pictorialrealms of sense facilitated their intelligibility, fostering theiruse as propaedeutics, and thereby ensuring their legacy asmemory tools. Through artistry, the image for the reduc-tio, however, expressed in visual terms the logical struc-ture of William’s argument for the roundness of the earth.As a philosophical illustration, it was insufficient to displaythe conclusion; instead, it was necessary to unveil the logi-cal way in which the arc tracing the sun’s path illuminatedits reader’s journey toward acceptance of the argument’sconclusion.

C

All these painterly presentations of astrological, astronom-ical, and cosmological ideas remain memorable, because ofthe refined ways in which they were crafted. Modern read-ers of these Bohemian books can marvel at the logical andordered universe they open up on the past, just as Terzys-

ko’s celestial cloud had permitted him access to the heavensfrom within the frontispiece cycle of the Astronomical An-

59. Beck, 40–42.


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thology . The diagrams in the anthology revealed recondite

ideas about astrology in a memorable format because oftheir structural innovations, such as the decision to submitTerzysko’s author portrait discussing genethlialogy to thehoroscope for the birth of Christ. The novel presentationsof the decans encouraged recollection because of the bi-zarre and unexpected depictions of the constellations pop-ulating their frames. In fact, it is the imaginative ingenuityof these pregnant presentations of the paranatellonta that

makes them so memorable, not the degree to which theyprovide visual translations of their corresponding texts. Inthe depiction of Perseus from the al-Sufi star catalog, theIslamic rendition of the star picture piqued the interest ofthe reader and fostered memory. The Bohemian renditionof William’s reductio defiantly challenged its reader, pre-senting a fallacious world and a sound argument to be re-membered. In closing, it is equally important to recall thatthese scientific images did more than just foster learning.The manuscripts also provided their patrons and readers,like Wenceslas IV or Terzysko, with moments for medita-tive reflection, focusing their understanding upon the com-forting ordered cosmos contained within these folios. Suchassiduous study and corresponding metaphysical comfortwere necessary, according to William, for the ideas con-

tained within these Bohemian scientific manuscripts couldonly “… [be] committed to memory after endless recollec-tion and constant meditation.”

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

creative cosmologies in late gothic bohemia illuminated diagrams and memory tools for the court of...

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