The Jew, the Cathedral and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteenth CenturyIn the thirteenth century, sculptures of Synagoga and Ecclesia - paired female personifications of the Synagogue defeated and the Church triumphant - became a favoured motif on cathedral façades in France and Germany. Throughout the preceding centuries, the Jews of northern Europe prospered financially and intellectually, a trend that ran counter to the long-standing Christian conception of Jews as relics of the prehistory of the Church. In this book, Nina Rowe examines the sculptures as defining elements in the urban Jewish-Christian encounter. She locates the roots of the Synagoga-Ecclesia motif in antiquity and explores the theme's public manifestations at the cathedrals of Reims, Bamberg, and Strasbourg, considering each example in relation to local politics and culture. Ultimately, she demonstrates that royal and ecclesiastical policies to restrain the religious, social, and economic lives of Jews in the early thirteenth century found a material analog in lovely renderings of a downtrodden Synagoga, placed in the public arena of the city square. |
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
PART II ART AND LIFE ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL STAGE THREE CASE STUDIES | 79 |
The Afterlife of an Image | 238 |
Notes | 251 |
Glossary | 293 |
295 | |
321 | |
Other editions - View all
The Jew, the Cathedral and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the ... Nina Rowe Limited preview - 2011 |
The Jew, the Cathedral and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the ... Nina Rowe No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
adorned Altercatio antique archbishop Art Resource artists Augustine authority Bamberg Cathedral Bamberg Rider burghers canons Carolingian cathedral’s cathédrale de Strasbourg chapter Chazan chevet Christ Christian Church and Synagogue clerics Cloisters Cross coronation crown Crucifixion Crusade discussion Ecclesia and Synagoga Ecclesia-Synagoga motif ecclesiastical emperor ensemble female personifications Figs figures of Ecclesia Foto Marburg/Art Resource France Frederick II Frederick II’s Fürstenportal Geschichte Ibid iconography idem images imperial intellectual interpretive community ivory Jesus Jewish Jewish-Christian Jews Judaism Juden king Kunst Last Judgment manuscript Medieval Middle Ages Mittelalter monumental notion Old Testament papal Paris personifications of Church Photo Pillar of Angels Pope portal Rashi Reims Cathedral ritual Roman rulers sacred Saint Saint-Gilles-du-Gard scholars scripture sculpted sculptures of Ecclesia Solomon Song of Songs south façade south transept Strasbourg Cathedral Strasbourg south Straßburger Straßburger Münster Studies Talmud theological thirteenth century transept twelfth century tympanum University Press viewers Virgin visual west façade