DOI Heft:
No. 2
DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: The Farewell in Bethany: some iconographical notes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17161#0048
in nine images and it seems therelore reasonable to prcsume that this manuscript offers to us
the amplest preserved pictorial documentation of the subjcct under discussion.
This narrative of the Parting of Christ from His Mother is mainly based on a Latin texts,
published for the first time in 19407. The title of the latter, informing as to the author and the
content of the work, runs as follows: Passio Christi et opera Christi post Lazari a mortuis resusci-
tationem. Et collocutiones, que dominus habuit cum matre sua ante passionem suam feria 2a, 3a,
4a, 5a secundum Jacobum de Vitriaco doctorem in theologia, episcopum et cardinalem, qui com~
posuit ea propter audiencium devocionem.
To the editor of the Passion of Jacobus of Vitry (1170—1240) — Dr K. Ruh — only two
manuscripts of this text were known8, both of them dated — to 1451 and to 1466 respectively.
It must be noted, however, that in the Archives of the Cracow Chapter a manuscript is preser-
ved "with the identical text, written in the early XVth in Cracow by Jan Szczekną, professor
at the Cracow University (jl4l3)9. Needless to say that the fact can not remain without conse-
quences as far as the influences of the Passion of Jacobus on literaturę and art are concerned10.
Mediaeval elaborations of the theme of the Farewell in Bethany were based on John 19:25 — 27,
considered in all its aspects and frequently commented upon by patristic and mediaeval exegetes:
But meanwhile near the cross where Jesus hung, stood His mother with Her sisterMary, wife
of Clcophas, and Mary of Magdala. Jesus saw His mother with the disciple whom he loved, stan-
ding beside Her. He said to Her: „Mother, there is your son" and to the disciple: „There is your
mother"...11
In the VIth century Romanos Melodes, a deacon at the Anastasis Church in Constantinople
(f ca 560)12, composed a hymn intendcd for the liturgy of Good Friday, the kontakion, in which
he described the dialogue between the dying Christ and the sorrowful Virgin, standing at the
foot of the Cross13. Seeing the sufferings and agony of Her Son Mary expresses Her grief and
compassion. Jesus consolates His Mother with the promise of the Resurrection and of His futurę
Appearance to Her in glory. At the same time the Crucified explains the soteriological meaning
of His Passion.
6. For the connections of Polish Passion literaturę with the treatise of Jacobus of Vitry sce T. Dobrzeniecki, „Rozmyślania
Dominikańskie", Pamiętnik Literacki, LV, Wrocław, 1964, p. 319 — 339.
7. K. Ruh, Ber Passionstraktal des Heinrich von St Gallen, Thayngen, 1940. Dr. Ruh discovercd the dependence of this German
text, known as it is from hundred thirty three manuscripts, on the Latin treatise of Jacobus of Vitry.
8. The first of them (lost during the last war) was formerly preserved in the Municipal Library in Elbląg (Cod. Q. 75), the
second, coming from the Cistercian convent in Altariga, is kept in the Unbyersity Library in Freiburg i /Nechtland (L. 16).
9. Ms 152 Miscellanca Thcologica, fol. 39 — 72: Liber de Passionewith the explicit: Passio rererendi magistri dicti Szczekną
finita amen. The manuscript is mentioned in I. Polkowski, Katalog rękopisów kapitulnych katedry krakowskiej, Kraków, 1884,
p. 35. The identification of the tcxt was done by the present writer.
10. An early cvidence of the influence of Jacobus' conception of the Farewell in Bethany may be found in the treatise
of Nicolaus of Massa, the Augustinian friar, active at the Paris University ( f 1337). I wish to express my warmest grati-
tude to Dr Johann Taubert (Munich) who kindly supplied me with microphotographs of six manuscripts of this treatise,
prescrved in the Staatsbihliothek in Munich. The treatise of Nicolaus of Massa was translated into German as early as
the XIVth century; see H. Fromm und H. Fischer, ,,Eine deutsche Bearbeitung des Passionstraktats von Michael de Massa,
Mittelalterliche deutsche Handschriften der UruversitatsBibliothek Munchen 111,4 Cod. Ms 488", Feslgabe fur U. Pretzel,
Berlin, 1963, p. 64-71.
11. See A. Feuillet, ,,Les adicux du Christ a sa mere (Jo 19,25 — 27) et la maternite spirituelle de Marie", Nouvelle Refue Theo-
logiaue, LXXXVI, 1964, p. 469-489.
12. B. Altaner, Patrologie, Freiburg, 1963, p. 494.
13. J. B. Pitra, Analecla Sacra Spicilegio Solcsmensi parała, Parisiis, 1876, I, p. 101 — 107 (Greek text and Latin translation);
Sancli Romani Melodi Canlica. Cantica genuina, ed. by P. Maas and C. A. Trypanis, Oxford, 1963, p. 142 — 149 No 19.
The hymn became the inspiration for many authors of akin works; of the Latin texts the most popular was De Planetu
beatae Mariae, ascribed to St. Bernard; Patr. Lat. 182, col. 1133—42; see also H. Barre, .,Le Planctus Mariae attribuć a St
Bernard", Reeue d'Ascctique et de Mysliąue, 1952, No 111, p. 243 — 266.
38
the amplest preserved pictorial documentation of the subjcct under discussion.
This narrative of the Parting of Christ from His Mother is mainly based on a Latin texts,
published for the first time in 19407. The title of the latter, informing as to the author and the
content of the work, runs as follows: Passio Christi et opera Christi post Lazari a mortuis resusci-
tationem. Et collocutiones, que dominus habuit cum matre sua ante passionem suam feria 2a, 3a,
4a, 5a secundum Jacobum de Vitriaco doctorem in theologia, episcopum et cardinalem, qui com~
posuit ea propter audiencium devocionem.
To the editor of the Passion of Jacobus of Vitry (1170—1240) — Dr K. Ruh — only two
manuscripts of this text were known8, both of them dated — to 1451 and to 1466 respectively.
It must be noted, however, that in the Archives of the Cracow Chapter a manuscript is preser-
ved "with the identical text, written in the early XVth in Cracow by Jan Szczekną, professor
at the Cracow University (jl4l3)9. Needless to say that the fact can not remain without conse-
quences as far as the influences of the Passion of Jacobus on literaturę and art are concerned10.
Mediaeval elaborations of the theme of the Farewell in Bethany were based on John 19:25 — 27,
considered in all its aspects and frequently commented upon by patristic and mediaeval exegetes:
But meanwhile near the cross where Jesus hung, stood His mother with Her sisterMary, wife
of Clcophas, and Mary of Magdala. Jesus saw His mother with the disciple whom he loved, stan-
ding beside Her. He said to Her: „Mother, there is your son" and to the disciple: „There is your
mother"...11
In the VIth century Romanos Melodes, a deacon at the Anastasis Church in Constantinople
(f ca 560)12, composed a hymn intendcd for the liturgy of Good Friday, the kontakion, in which
he described the dialogue between the dying Christ and the sorrowful Virgin, standing at the
foot of the Cross13. Seeing the sufferings and agony of Her Son Mary expresses Her grief and
compassion. Jesus consolates His Mother with the promise of the Resurrection and of His futurę
Appearance to Her in glory. At the same time the Crucified explains the soteriological meaning
of His Passion.
6. For the connections of Polish Passion literaturę with the treatise of Jacobus of Vitry sce T. Dobrzeniecki, „Rozmyślania
Dominikańskie", Pamiętnik Literacki, LV, Wrocław, 1964, p. 319 — 339.
7. K. Ruh, Ber Passionstraktal des Heinrich von St Gallen, Thayngen, 1940. Dr. Ruh discovercd the dependence of this German
text, known as it is from hundred thirty three manuscripts, on the Latin treatise of Jacobus of Vitry.
8. The first of them (lost during the last war) was formerly preserved in the Municipal Library in Elbląg (Cod. Q. 75), the
second, coming from the Cistercian convent in Altariga, is kept in the Unbyersity Library in Freiburg i /Nechtland (L. 16).
9. Ms 152 Miscellanca Thcologica, fol. 39 — 72: Liber de Passionewith the explicit: Passio rererendi magistri dicti Szczekną
finita amen. The manuscript is mentioned in I. Polkowski, Katalog rękopisów kapitulnych katedry krakowskiej, Kraków, 1884,
p. 35. The identification of the tcxt was done by the present writer.
10. An early cvidence of the influence of Jacobus' conception of the Farewell in Bethany may be found in the treatise
of Nicolaus of Massa, the Augustinian friar, active at the Paris University ( f 1337). I wish to express my warmest grati-
tude to Dr Johann Taubert (Munich) who kindly supplied me with microphotographs of six manuscripts of this treatise,
prescrved in the Staatsbihliothek in Munich. The treatise of Nicolaus of Massa was translated into German as early as
the XIVth century; see H. Fromm und H. Fischer, ,,Eine deutsche Bearbeitung des Passionstraktats von Michael de Massa,
Mittelalterliche deutsche Handschriften der UruversitatsBibliothek Munchen 111,4 Cod. Ms 488", Feslgabe fur U. Pretzel,
Berlin, 1963, p. 64-71.
11. See A. Feuillet, ,,Les adicux du Christ a sa mere (Jo 19,25 — 27) et la maternite spirituelle de Marie", Nouvelle Refue Theo-
logiaue, LXXXVI, 1964, p. 469-489.
12. B. Altaner, Patrologie, Freiburg, 1963, p. 494.
13. J. B. Pitra, Analecla Sacra Spicilegio Solcsmensi parała, Parisiis, 1876, I, p. 101 — 107 (Greek text and Latin translation);
Sancli Romani Melodi Canlica. Cantica genuina, ed. by P. Maas and C. A. Trypanis, Oxford, 1963, p. 142 — 149 No 19.
The hymn became the inspiration for many authors of akin works; of the Latin texts the most popular was De Planetu
beatae Mariae, ascribed to St. Bernard; Patr. Lat. 182, col. 1133—42; see also H. Barre, .,Le Planctus Mariae attribuć a St
Bernard", Reeue d'Ascctique et de Mysliąue, 1952, No 111, p. 243 — 266.
38