1. See Alejandro Enrique Planchart, The Repertory of Tropes at Winchester
(Princeton, 1977).
2. This article is based on the research documented in my Ph.D. dissertation from
U.C.L.A., 1986, entitled "Illustrations of Troper Texts: The Painted Miniatures in the Prüm
Troper-Gradual, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds latin, MS. 9448."
3. Literature on the iconography of the Ascension scene is complex. The important
works are: E. T. Dewaid, "The Iconography of the Ascension," American Journal of
Archeology, 19 (1915), 277-319, esp. p. 278; H. Schrade, "Zur Ikonographie der
Himmelfahrt Christi," Vortraegeder Bibliothek Warburg, 8 (1928-29), 66-190; Zur
Ikonographie der Himmelfahrt Christi (Leipzig, 1930); H. Gutberlet, Die Himmelfahrt
Christi in der bildenden Kunst (Strassburg, 1935); L. Réau, Iconographie de l'art
chrétien (Paris, 1958), vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 582-90, esp. 584-85; G. Schiller,
Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst (Guetersloh, 1971), vol. 3, pp. 141-61; and Schapiro,
"Image of the Disappearing Christ." A good example of the Eastern or oriental type is in the
Rabbula Gospels from 586 (Schiller, fig. 459) while the classic version of the Western or
Hellenistic type is on the Munich ivory, c. 400 (Schiller, fig. 451).
4. M. Schapiro, "The Image of the Disappearing Christ:. The Ascension in English Art
around the Year 1000," Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 23 (1943), 135-52.
5. Planchart, Repertory of Tropes, pp. 47-50.
6. C. R. Dodwell, "Techniques of Manuscript Painting in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts,"
Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull'allo medioevo, 18 (1971), 649ff.
7. For example in the coin of Constantine from 337 A.D., reproduced in G. Schiller,
Ikonographie, vol. 3, fig. 450.
8. Luke 24:50-51. The other sources are Mark 16:19 and Acts 1:9-12, as well as the
apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus in two Greek and one Latin forms (quoted in Dewald's
''Iconography of the Ascension").
9. For early Christian and Carolingian versions of the scene, see G.
page 77
Schiller, Ikonographie, vol. 3, figs. 451-79.
10. On the Drogo Sacramentary see W. Köhler, Die Karolingische
Miniaturen (Berlin, 1960), vol. 3, pt. 1, pp. 14142; A. Böckler,
Abendländische Miniaturen bis zum Ausgang der romanischen Zeit (Berlin, 1930);
F. Mütherich, Drogo Sakramentar: manuscrit latin 9428, Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris (Graz, 1974); F. Ünterkircher, Zur Ikonographie und Liturgie des
Drogo-Sakramentars (Graz, 1977). The apostles and Mary are from the Eastern tradition (see
n. 3).
11. On the Minden ivory, see A. Goldschmidt, Elfenbeinskulpturen (Berlin,
1914), I, 27 (65). On the Codex Egberti, see H. Schiel, Codex Egberti der Stadtbibliothek
Trier (Basel, 1960); and F. X. Kraus, Die Miniaturen des Codex Egberti (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1884).
12. S. Beissel, "Miniaturen aus Prüm," in Zeitsehrift für Christliche
Kunst, 19 (1906), nr. 1.
13. W. von den Steinen, Notker der Dichter und seine geistige Welt (Bern, 1948),
pp. 50-52 (my translation).
14. The name is interchangeable with Ethan, who is also mentioned as one of the three
choirmaster/prophets of David. The combination of this name with the word for "hands of" in
Hebrew would spell Jedithun. For more information, see Catholic Bible Encyclopedia
(New York, 1956), p. 490; Encyclopedia Biblica (London, 1901), vol. 2, cols. 2345-46; E
Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible (Paris, 1926), vol. 3, cols. 807-8; and A
Dictionary of the Bible, ed. J. Hastings (New York, 1923), p. 225.
15. Isidore of Seville, Etymologia, Book 7, chap. 8. See W. M. Lindsay,
Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi (Oxford, 1911), vol. 1, pp. 28-29; and Luis Cortes y
Góngora, San Isidoro de Sevilla: Etimologías (Madrid, 1951), p. 179.
16. Paris, B.N. fonds latin, MS. 9448, fol. 47.
17. "Idithun: leaping or passing over them. He leapt over those who cleave to the earth,
who are bent to the earth, who think on those things which are in the depths, and who place their
hope in transitory things, singing, singing, he who is called the one leaping over."
18. "Idithun interpretatur Transiliens eos vel saltans: quia quosdam humo inhaerentes, et
ea quae in imo sunt cogitantes, et in rebus transeuntibus ponentes, transilivit canendo iste qui
vocatur Transiliens" (Johannes Balbus, Catholicon). See D. Du Cange, Glossarium
(Niort, 1885), p. 284.
19. For example, see Vatican, Biblioteca Apostoliana, MS. lat. 9820 (Exultet Roll),
Montecassino, eleventh century, m. 9 (in Schiller, Ikonographie, vol. 3, fig. 133).
20. "Omnes gentes plaudite manibus jubilate Deo in voce exultationis. Ascendit deus in
jubilatione dominus in voce tubae."
21. Schapiro, "Image of the Disappearing Christ."
22. On the Sacramentary of Robert of Jumièges and its attribution to Canterbury
see J. J. G. Alexander, "Some Aesthetic Principles in the Use of Colour in Anglo-Saxon Art"
Anglo-Saxon England, 4 (1975), 145-54;
page 78
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Illuminated Manuscripts
of British Isles, vol. 2 (London, 1976), no. 72 (see also bibliography there.) On the Bury Psalter
and its attribution to Canterbury see C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination
1066-1200 (Cambridge, 1954); Robert M. Harris, "The Marginal Drawings of the Bury St.
Edmunds Psalter" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1960); Temple, Anglo-Saxon
Manuscripts, no. 84 (see also bibliography there.)
23. On the Æthelwold Benedictional see Temple, Anglo-Saxon
Manuscripts, no. 23 (see also bibliography there); J. J. G. Alexander, "The Benedictional of
St. Aethelwold and Anglo-Saxon Illumination of the Reform Period" in Tenth-Century
Studies, ed. David Parsons (London, 1975); Robert Deshmann, ''The Iconography of the Full-Page Miniatures of the Benedictional of Aethelwold" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1970);
ibid., "Anglo-Saxon Art after Alfred," Art Bulletin, 56 (1974), 176-200; ibid., "Christus
Rex et Magi Reges: Kingship and Christology in Ottonian and Anglo-Saxon Art,"
Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 10 (1976), 367-405.
24. See Planchart, Repertory of Tropes.
25. Regarding the availability of the Nicodemus gospel in Anglo-Saxon England consult
the section on the Apocrypha in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, a reference
project currently being edited by Paul E. Szarmach at SUNY, Binghamton.
26. The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century, ed. R. Morris, Early English
Text Society, ser. 1, no. 73 (London, 1880).
27. See Albert S. Cook, The Christ of Cynewulf: A Poem in Three Parts (Boston,
1900), pp. 116-18.
28. See Charles W. Kennedy, The Poems of Cynewulf (New York, 1910-49) and
Daniel G. Calder, Cynewulf (Boston, 1981).
29. This is discussed at length in Calder, Cynewulf, pp. 51-54.
30. Ibid., p. 51.
31. See Early Travels in Palestine, ed. Thomas Wright (New York, 1968), pp. 5-6.
32. For diagrams of both Arculf and Bede's accounts see John Wilkinson, Jerusalem
Pilgrims before the Crusades (Warminster, 1977), appendix 4.
33. Kennedy, Poems of Cynewulf, p. 167.
34. Schiller, Ikonographie, vol. 3, fig. 451.
