DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7597#0147
114
BIBLIA PAUPERUM.
[CHAP. III.
the three subjects it represents, with the verses accompany-
ing them.* A few specimens of the cuts are also copied, that
those who have not an opportunity of seeing the original work, may
be, in some degree, enabled to judge of the style and abilities of
the ancient artist by whom it was executed.
No. 1. ^
Eve tempted by the Serpent. The Annunciation. Gideon and tlie Fleece.
Vipera vim perdit Rore madet vellus
Sine vi pariente puella. Pluviam sicut arida tellus.
Virgo salutatur innupta manens gravidatur.
The figure of the Virgin in the compartment representing " the
Annunciation" has considerable merit. The composition is also in
other respects remarkable ; trie artist, having introduced the body of
the infant Christ descending amidst, the rays which proceed from
God the Father; according to the doctrine of Valentine, a heretic
of the second century : that, " Christum corpus de ccelo attulisse, et
per Mariam tanquam per tubum, et fistulam transiisse." Zani re-
marks, that several other ancient masters have fallen into the same
error, and especially Italians.-f- Perhaps, indeed, the reason for
the original introduction of the group of Eve tempted by the Ser-
pent, as typical of the incarnation of Christ, may be traced to the
heresy of the sect of the Ophites, a branch of the Valentinian sect,
who imagined that the serpent by which our first parents were de-
ceived, might have been Christ himself.^:
A copy of the whole of this first leaf of the Biblia Pauperum, is
* Or rather some of the verses—in which Moskeim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i.
I have followed Heineken. p. 230. (Edinburgh, 1803.)
f Materiali, &c p. 110. See, also, % Mosheim, vol. i. p. 234.
BIBLIA PAUPERUM.
[CHAP. III.
the three subjects it represents, with the verses accompany-
ing them.* A few specimens of the cuts are also copied, that
those who have not an opportunity of seeing the original work, may
be, in some degree, enabled to judge of the style and abilities of
the ancient artist by whom it was executed.
No. 1. ^
Eve tempted by the Serpent. The Annunciation. Gideon and tlie Fleece.
Vipera vim perdit Rore madet vellus
Sine vi pariente puella. Pluviam sicut arida tellus.
Virgo salutatur innupta manens gravidatur.
The figure of the Virgin in the compartment representing " the
Annunciation" has considerable merit. The composition is also in
other respects remarkable ; trie artist, having introduced the body of
the infant Christ descending amidst, the rays which proceed from
God the Father; according to the doctrine of Valentine, a heretic
of the second century : that, " Christum corpus de ccelo attulisse, et
per Mariam tanquam per tubum, et fistulam transiisse." Zani re-
marks, that several other ancient masters have fallen into the same
error, and especially Italians.-f- Perhaps, indeed, the reason for
the original introduction of the group of Eve tempted by the Ser-
pent, as typical of the incarnation of Christ, may be traced to the
heresy of the sect of the Ophites, a branch of the Valentinian sect,
who imagined that the serpent by which our first parents were de-
ceived, might have been Christ himself.^:
A copy of the whole of this first leaf of the Biblia Pauperum, is
* Or rather some of the verses—in which Moskeim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i.
I have followed Heineken. p. 230. (Edinburgh, 1803.)
f Materiali, &c p. 110. See, also, % Mosheim, vol. i. p. 234.