25 July 2025
The Passion in pictures
The Nails with which Christ was hammered to the Cross, the Crown of Thorns, the Lance that left a wound on Christ’s tortured body — these objects constitute a striking visual catalogue of the instruments of Christ’s Passion, as depicted in our newly-acquired Arma Christi manuscript (Add MS 89792).
The opening page of ‘O Vernicle’ with the Veil of Veronica (England, 15th century): Add MS 89792, f. 7r
Made for private devotion, this little 15th-century book contains the Middle English poem ‘O Vernicle’ or ‘O Veronica’. It was named after its opening lines that refer to the Veil of Veronica, a cloth with an imprint of Christ’s face. According to medieval legend, a woman named Veronica (‘vera icona’, a true icon), wiped sweat from Christ’s face with a linen fabric on the road to Calvary. Her garment was marked with a miraculously produced portrait of Christ. ‘O Vernicle’ begins with a prayer to this renowned relic:
O Vernicle, I honoure hym and the
That the made thorow his priuete
The cloth he sett to his face
The prent lefte ther thorow his grace
(‘O Veronica, I honour him and you
Who made you through his divine mystery
The cloth he set to his face
The imprint remained there through his grace’)
‘O Vernicle’ was a popular text, preserved in some twenty-two surviving manuscripts, five of them at the British Library (another copy was recently discovered at Bar Convent, York). It's what comes next in the poem that gives it perpetual fame, namely verses dedicated to the so-called Arma Christi, the tools associated with Christ’s Passion. Each verse treats an object, symbol or isolated micro-episode related to Christ’s sufferings, all illuminated with dramatic precision next to the text.
‘O Vernicle’ with the Pelican at the top: Add MS 89792, f. 7v
Turning to the poem's second page, the reader’s eyes are drawn to the image of the pelican which resurrects its young with its own blood. The accompanying verse compares the selfless pelican with Christ’s sacrifice, whose blood serves for the salvation of all the faithful.
Just below the pelican, an image of thirty coins illuminates the verse about Judas’s betrayal, begging God to shield the supplicant from treachery and covetousness. A Lantern, following next, symbolises the night when Christ was taken while the adjoining verse pleads with God to protect the supplicant from ‘night’s sin’.
It was relatively uncommon for medieval poetry to be illuminated. That so many copies of ‘O Vernicle’ were decorated with a set of images tells us that illuminations played a key role in the devotional practice to which this poem attests.
The instruments of Christ’s Passion: Add MS 89792, f. 8v
Arranged in chronological order, the verses and images lead us meticulously through Christ’s Passion, urging the reader to repeat and almost to physically experience His difficult path. From the clubs with which Christ was hit and the hand that slapped His face to the vessel of gall from which He was forced to drink, the materiality of the Arma Christi depictions transforms the reading into a tangible understanding of the magnitude of Christ’s pain and sacrifice. At the same time, the verses relate Arma Christi to the readers’ personal struggles with sin, making the Gospel story relevant to their own spiritual lives.
‘O Vernicle’ in a roll form, England, 15th century: Add MS 22029
Sometimes, the path-like composition of the poem finds its expression in the very form of the manuscript. Many surviving manuscripts of ‘O Vernicle’ are rolls. Engaging with ‘O Vernicle’ in the roll form implies physically unravelling verse after verse and image after image, moving like a pilgrim on a spiritual journey.
The resurrected Christ standing in the Sepulchre: Add MS 22029
At the end of this journey awaits a great reward: participation in Christ’s Resurrection. The final section of ‘O Vernicle’, namely Christ’s Sepulchre, is where the different medieval artists of the ‘O Vernicle’ manuscripts took the most liberty in interpreting the verse. The textual meditation on the Sepulchre expresses hope that the supplicant will join the Lord in heavenly bliss after their death. In at least two other copies of ‘O Vernicle’, the illuminators depicted the Tomb with Christ’s wounded and bleeding body, highlighting the idea of suffering and sacrifice. The artist of Add MS 22029 instead chose to emphasise the idea of salvation in the figure of the resurrected Christ standing triumphantly in the Tomb. The reader’s passage through the episodes of Christ’s Passion concludes here on a truly high note.
Christ’s Sepulchre in ‘O Vernicle’: Add MS 89792, f. 10r
In our newly-acquired Arma Christi manuscript, the Tomb is empty. Christ has already left, a sign of His resurrection. The sepulchre shines from the inside with golden strokes.
Christ’s Resurrection: Add MS 89792, f. 12v
However, this is not the end of our journey through this book. The image of Christ victorious over death spotlights another devotional climax in the manuscript. It begins a series of prayers each starting ‘O Jesus’ and contemplating different aspects of Christ’s Passion, from the Last Supper to His suffering on the Cross, expanding the themes referenced in ‘O Vernicle’. The reader’s devotional experience was staged around Christ’s Passion in a way that repeatedly moves from the darkness of Christ’s agony to the light of his salvation, in the hope for absolution.
How exactly this manuscript was used, who was its original owner, and what it tells us about 15th-century devotion, are questions still to be addressed. But this is not the time to untangle these fascinating puzzles: the Arma Christi manuscript awaits future research.
Our newly-acquired Arma Christi manuscript (Add MS 89792) is now on display in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery. Alongside it is one of our roll versions of the Arma Christi (Add MS 22029), showing the different ways in which the text was transmitted.
We are very grateful to the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the American Trust for the British Library (Bernard Breslauer Fund), the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, the British Library Collections Trust and other donors for supporting the acquisition of Add MS 89792.
Elena Lichmanova
04 June 2025
Five outstanding manuscripts acquired for the nation
We are thrilled to announce that the British Library has acquired five medieval manuscripts of outstanding national heritage significance, formerly in the collection of Longleat House. Together, these manuscripts shed exceptional light on the study of Hebrew by Christian monks in medieval England, on the administration of a medieval English town, and on spiritual devotion in medieval England and Ireland. The acquisition has been made possible thanks to substantial grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, The American Trust for the British Library, the British Library Collections Trust, the Friends of the Nations' Libraries, and other donors. They are now available to view in full online and they can be consulted by readers in the Manuscripts Reading Room at St Pancras. We hope that these manuscripts will inspire people worldwide and will lead to new discoveries about their contents, history and use.
The first manuscript was made at Ramsey Abbey (medieval Huntingdonshire, modern-day Cambridgeshire) in the middle of the 13th century, in collaboration between the Christian monks and Jewish scholars. This manuscript (Add MS 89788, formerly Longleat House MS 21) contains three works fundamental for the study of Hebrew: a unique trilingual Hebrew-Latin-Middle French dictionary, containing definitions and interpretations of over 3,600 Hebrew words, made by Christian scribes in consultation with Jewish scholars; a Hebrew Psalter, made originally by Jewish scribes but subsequently annotated heavily by Christian monks; and a grammar of the Hebrew language, partly transliterated into Latin, and said to be the most important grammatical work on Hebrew made in medieval Europe. Prior Gregory of Ramsey is renowned as a student of Hebrew around this time, and so this manuscript may have been compiled for him or for the use of his fellow monks. Add MS 89788 is considered to be the most important surviving manuscript for Christian-Jewish relations in the period before the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.
Trilingual dictionary, Psalter and Hebrew grammar: Add MS 89788. f. 190r
The Red Book of Bath (Add MS 89789, formerly Longleat House MS 55), so-named because it retains its original leather chemise, originally dyed pinkish-red, was compiled in the 1420s by the officials of the town of Bath. This volume contains an extraordinary array of historical, legal, administrative and medical texts. Among them are a unique Life of King Arthur in Middle English verse; a unique Middle English Life of St Katherine of Alexandria (patron saint of Bath); a diagram of a bloodletting man; and two sketch maps of the Mediterranean. Of particular relevance to Bath is an account of bell-ringing in the town, the oath to be sworn by burgesses to the mayor, and an order for placing the town's pillory. Inside the front cover of the medieval binding is a seemingly unique recess which once held weights and a pair of scales for weighing gold. We can imagine that the town's officials carried this manuscript with them when overseeing trade and carrying out their official duties.
The Red Book of Bath: Add MS 89789
Our third newly-acquired manuscript was made in the region of Dublin in the 15th century, perhaps for a female patron (Add MS 89790, formerly Longleat House MS 29). It contains a highly unusual collection of devotional and visionary texts, written by Nicholas Bellewe in the Hiberno-English dialect. This manuscript occupies an important position in the transmission of the works of Richard Rolle of Hampole (d. 1349), being the only copy that addresses The Form of Living to Margaret Kirkby, a Yorkshire anchoress. Also found in this manuscript is the most complete and perhaps the earliest copy of A Revelation of Purgatory, a first-person account of a series of visions experienced by an anchoress in Winchester in 1422.
Richard Rolle’s ‘The Form of Living’ and related works: Add MS 89790, 126r
Next in sequence is a unique collection of Middle English sermons (Add MS 89791, formerly Longleat House MS 4), written in the early years of the 15th century, and thought to have been composed by an anonymous Franciscan friar. The author, who has also been credited with a more famous text, Dives and Pauper, was writing at a time of great controversy in the English Church, stoked by the teachings of the English theologian John Wycliffe (d. 1384). Indeed, Dives and Pauper was condemned as heretical around this time by the archbishop of Canterbury, which may throw light on the content and context of the sermons.
Middle English sermons: Add MS 89791, f. 12v
Our final new acquisition contains the Arma Christi and other devotional texts (Add MS 89792, formerly Longleat House MS 30), and was written by Theodericus Werken, a Dutch-born scribe who had moved to London by around 1450. The Arma Christi describes the instruments of the Passion of Christ, and this version is accompanied by a series of illuminations, including two major half-page miniatures of Veronica's Veil and Christ as Man of Sorrows. Other texts were added to the manuscript towards the end of the 15th century, including a prayer devoted to St Brigit of Sweden, suggesting that it may once have been owned by a Bridgettine community.
Arma Christi: Add MS 89792, ff. 6v–7r
The British Library is extremely grateful to the many funders who have supported the acquisition of these five manuscripts. We would be delighted to hear how researchers and other audiences make use of them, and we will blog more about each manuscript in turn over the coming months.
29 March 2025
The Moutier Grandval Bible loaned to Jura
The British Library has loaned the Moutier-Grandval Bible to the Musée Jurassien d'Art et d'Histoire in Delémont, Switzerland. This enormous manuscript of the whole Bible was made in the scriptorium of the abbey of St Martin in Tours in the 830s or 840s. It was subsequently held at the Abbey of Moutier-Grandval near Delémont in north-west Switzerland. The manuscript is celebrated for its four, spectacular, full-page illustrations. The first of these, facing the opening of the book of Genesis, in on display in Delémont.
The page facing the opening of the Book of Genesis, from the Moutier-Grandval Bible (Tours, France, c. 830–c. 840): Add MS 10546, f. 5v
The illustration on this page is a narrative sequence in four panels. The scenes depict events described in the second and third chapters of Genesis: the Creation of Adam and Eve; God’s warning not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge; the Temptation and Fall; the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden; and Eve suckling and Adam toiling. Within the borders of these scenes is a Latin poem written in chrysography, or gold letters, that summarises the events.
This monumental manuscript, which has 449 leaves, making 898 pages in total, weighs 22 kg. It is the work of some twenty scribes and contains the Latin text of the Bible as revised by Alcuin of York, who had been abbot at Tours from 796 until his death in 804.
The Moutier Grandval Bible (Add MS 10546), on display at the Musée Jurassien d'Art et d'Histoire
The exhibition includes other manuscripts and objects made in the early Middle Ages, most notably the crozier of St Germain, the first abbot of Moutier-Grandval, which dates from the 7th century.
The opening of the exhibition attracted great press attention, and both His Excellency James Squire, His Majesty’s Ambassador to Switzerland, and Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider spoke at the inaugural event. Radio Télévision Suisse have also made a TV documentary about the manuscript which will be broadcast in April.
Claire Breay, Head of Medieval Manuscripts, being interviewed at the press preview for the exhibition: © [email protected] 2025
This is not the first time that the Moutier-Grandval Bible has been on display in Delémont. In 1981, the manuscript was loaned to the Musée Jurassien d'Art et d'Histoire for three months, where it was seen by more than 30,000 visitors.
The Moutier-Grandval Bible is again on display there until 8 June 2025 and the museum has organised an extensive programme for visits by school groups to introduce a new generation to the manuscript.
There will also be a research colloquium on 9–10 May in Tramelan, organised by Mémoires d’Ici, Centre de recherche et de documentation du Jura bernois, in collaboration with the University of Geneva.
For more information on the exhibition and opening times, visit the website of the Musée Jurassien: https://www.mjah.ch/e/expositions/detail/784-la-bible-de-moutier-grandval-fait-son-retour-en-2025
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25 February 2025
Medieval Women manuscripts now online
It’s the final week of our major exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words and we have some fantastic news! Several important items from our Medieval and Renaissance Women digitisation project are now available to consult online, including handwritten volumes, charters, and rolls. All these manuscripts have been on display in the exhibition and can be explored in their entirety.
A full list of the items, with links to their digitised images and summary catalogue information, can be consulted on the British Library website. We will be adding more manuscripts from the project over the coming weeks. The Medieval and Renaissance Women project was made possible through the generous support of Joanna and Graham Barker.
Here are a few highlights from the items now available:
Christine de Pizan, Livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie; London, England, 1434: Harley MS 4605, f. 3r
Refoundation charter of Bordesley Abbey; Devizes, England, 1141-1142: Add Ch 75724, Seal obverse
Cicero, De senectute, written by Ippolita Maria Sforza, Milan, Italy, 1458: Add MS 21984, f. 3r
Hildegard von Bingen’s Liber divinorum operum; England, Late 15th century: Add MS 15418, f. 7r
Breviary; Northern Germany, 2nd half of the 15th century: Harley MS 2975, f. 73v
The will of Margaret Paston; England, 1482: Add Roll 17253, Membrane 1
Middle Dutch prayer-book; Southern Netherlands, c. 1440-c. 1500: Harley MS 3828, f. 27v
Collection of medical treatises in Middle English; England, 2nd quarter of the 15th century: Sloane MS 6, f. 177r
The Martyrology of Syon Abbey; England, 2nd half of the 15th century: Add MS 22285, Upper cover
Indenture between Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, and John Islip, Abbot of Westminster Abbey; London, England, 1506: Lansdowne MS 441, f. 3r
Aldobrandino of Siena, Le Régime du corps; England, 4th quarter of the 15th century: Sloane MS 2401, f. 36v
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
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21 January 2025
Black Agnes and the siege of Dunbar
Overlooking the harbour town of Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland, stands a ruin. The corner of a tower, a broken courtyard, and the walls of a blockhouse: these stone fragments and the barest of foundations are all that remain of one of the most important fortresses in medieval Scotland. Dunbar Castle’s location and prominence against the surrounding coastal landscape meant that it was often the target of enemy lords and across the centuries, it sustained many sieges. One particular siege would take on an almost legendary status in Scottish history thanks to the actions of a single woman. In 1338, Agnes Randolph (b. c. 1312, d. 1369), commonly known as ‘Black Agnes’ either because of her dark complexion or her fierce character, led a heroic five-month defence of its fortifications against an invading English army. An account of the siege and Agnes’ bravery is detailed in the Orygynale Cronykil by the 15th-century writer Andrew Wyntoun, currently on display in our exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words.
Dunbar Castle Ruins by Jennifer Petrie: CC BY-SA 2.0
Agnes was the daughter of Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and later Countess of Dunbar through her marriage to Patrick Dunbar, a prominent Scottish lord during the reigns of Robert the Bruce and David II. In January 1338, Patrick Dunbar was away on an expedition, leaving Agnes to hold the castle. It was then that an invading English army led by William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury, took the opportunity to cross the Scottish border, the latest in a series of military campaigns ordered by Edward III to seize Scotland. They surrounded the fortress and laid siege to it. The defenders were made up of Agnes, her household and only a handful of soldiers, but despite the odds against her, Agnes refused to give up the castle.
A 15th-century map of Scotland, including a depiction of Dunbar Castle (bottom left), from John Hardyng's Chronicle: Lansdowne MS 204, ff. 226v-227r
During the siege, Montagu made various attempts to assault Dunbar Castle. He began by using catapults to fire huge rocks at the walls, but they did little to damage the strong fortifications. According to Wyntoun, Agnes poured salt on the wound of Montagu’s failed bombardment by sending out her ladies-in-waiting to dust the ramparts with pieces of cloth:
Thai warpyt at the wall gret stanys
Bathe hard and hewy for the nanys
Bot that nane merryng to thame made.
And alswa qwhen thai castyne hade,
Wyth a towalle a damyselle
Arayid jolyly and welle
Wipyt the wall, that thai mycht se,
To gere thaim mare anoyid be.
They threw great stones at the wall
Both hard and heavy for that purpose
But they did no damage.
And also, when they had the thrown them,
A damsel with a cloth,
Dressed prettily and well,
Wiped the wall, so that the English could see,
To make them even more annoyed.
The siege of a medieval castle, defended by women, from the Luttrell Psalter: Add MS 42130, f. 75v
When the catapult barrage failed, Montagu then tried to blackmail Agnes into submission, by threatening to execute her brother, John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray, who had recently been captured. Agnes responded by pointing out that there was no incentive for her to save her brother, as his death would leave her the inheritor of the earldom. At the same time, another effort by the English to reach the walls with a special siege engine, called a 'cat’ or a ‘sow’, ended badly when Agnes ordered a giant boulder to be dropped on it, re-purposing one of the very stones Montagu had fired at the castle earlier in the siege.
An English attempt at bribing one of Agnes’s men to sneak them through the castle gates similarly led to disaster for the besieging army. The guard received the money, but promptly told the countess, who used it as an opportunity to set a trap for Montagu and his men. When a portion of the English army was already through the gates, she suddenly closed the portcullis behind them with no way for them to leave. While the English earl was able to escape in time, many of his men were killed in the chaos that ensued.
A woman defends a castle from assault, from the Smithfield Decretals: Royal MS 10 E IV, f. 18v
Eventually, on 10 June 1338, five months after the English had first arrived at Dunbar Castle, with supplies dwindling and having spent some £6000 in the attempt (the equivalent of over £4.5 million in modern currency), Montagu decided to raise the siege completely. Wyntoun’s chronicle quotes a song the English are believed to have sung as they abandoned the castle, its words a testament to the strength of Agnes’ resilience and the impression she left on them over those five months:
I wowe to God, scho maid gret stere
The Scottish wenche ploddere.
Come I are, come I late,
I fand Annot at the yhate.
I vow to God, she makes a great leader
That Scottish woman fighter.
Come I early, come I late
I found Agnes at the gate.
Andrew Wyntoun’s verse account of the Siege of Dunbar in his Orygynale Cronykil; Scotland, 15th century: Royal MS 17 D XX, ff. 238v-239r
To learn more about Agnes Randolph and see the account of the Siege of Dunbar in person, visit our exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can purchase your tickets online now.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
Calum Cockburn
18 January 2025
The mortuary roll of Lucy of Hedingham
What is the measure of a life once it has ended? In the early decades of the 13th century, the Benedictine nuns of Castle Hedingham Priory in Essex marked the life and passing of their first prioress, Lucy, in the most special way: they made a mortuary roll for her. This most poignant of manuscripts (Egerton MS 2849) can be found on display in our major exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, which runs till 2 March 2025.
The installation of the Mortuary Roll of Lucy of Hedingham (Egerton MS 2849) in Medieval Women: In Their Own Words
Mortuary rolls were used to commemorate the deaths of the most significant members of monastic communities during the medieval period. They were typically composed of a covering letter, which eulogised the deceased and set out a call for prayers to be made for their soul. Specially employed messengers would then take the roll around neighbouring institutions, who would add these Latin prayers for the dead beneath the letter, together with memorials and reflections on their passing.
The mortuary roll of Prioress Lucy was made between 1225 and 1230. Now divided into two parts, the roll comprises ten parchment membranes and is almost six metres long. It is particularly notable for its opening illustrated panel, arranged in three framed scenes. At the top, a depiction of the Crucifixion is shown alongside the seated Virgin and Child; in the middle, two angels carry the soul of Prioress Lucy up to Heaven; at the bottom, a vision of Lucy’s funeral appears, with her body lying in a bier, surrounded by priests, clerics, and nuns.
The illustrative programme at the beginning of the Mortuary Roll of Lucy of Hedingham: Egerton MS 2849/1, Membrane 1
The roll’s covering letter, written by Agnes, Lucy’s successor as prioress of Castle Hedingham, provides an account of her virtues – among them her virginity, her piety, her abstinence, and her lifelong discipline – and the grief of her fellow sisters at her death, ‘ymbres lacrimarum, et fletuum innundacionem’ (a storm of tears and flood of lamentation).
The letter is followed by the written responses (also known as 'tituli') of 122 religious houses in East Anglia and the southern half of England, including Barking Abbey, the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, Campsey Priory, St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, Dover Priory and Wilton Abbey. It is unclear how long it took the roll-bearers to reach these houses and return to Castle Hedingham, but it could have been a period of many years, a reflection of both the magnitude of the nuns’ undertaking and the strength of their affection for the late prioress herself.
The first response, made by the monks of St Botolph’s Priory in Colchester, some 20 miles from Castle Hedingham, is also the longest and includes a set of Latin verses dedicated to Lucy, which play on the Latin meaning of her name, ‘light’:
Hec Virgo vite mitis super astra locatur.
Et sic Lucie lux sine fine datur.
Transijt ad superos venerabilis hec Monialis.
Vix succedit ei virtutum munere talis.
Luci lucie prece lux mediente Marie
Luceat eterna, quia floruit vt rosa verna.
This Virgin, humble in life, is placed above the stars.
And so, Lucy is given eternal light.
This venerable nun has passed to the Heavens.
There are few who can compare to her in virtue.
Let the eternal light shine on Lucy with its light,
by the intercession of Mary’s prayer, because
she flowered just like a spring rose.
The first ‘titulus’ or written response added by the monks of St Botolph’s Priory: Egerton MS 2849/1, Membrane 3
Little is known about the rest of Prioress Lucy’s life. There are few documents or references to her in the surviving historical record, though some have speculated that she was a close relation of Audrey de Vere (d. 1194), 1st Earl of Oxford, who probably founded Castle Hedingham Priory in the second half of the 12th century. Nonetheless, the impact of her life and the emotion at her passing are preserved forever in this precious mortuary roll, made by the community of women she led and left behind.
The Mortuary Roll of Lucy of Hedingham on display in Medieval Women: In Their Own Words
To see the Mortuary Roll of Lucy of Hedingham in person, visit our exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can purchase your tickets online now.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
Calum Cockburn
07 January 2025
Tales of Medieval Women
The team behind our major exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words has created a new animation (designed by animator Ivyy Chen) telling the stories of five of the exhibition’s extraordinary leading figures, women who carved out their own destinies in ways that would be remembered for generations to come. The full animation can now be viewed below!
Discover the stories of Empress Matilda, who battled to assert her claim to the English throne in the 12th century, and Shajar al-Durr who became the first Sultana of Egypt and defended her country from an invading Crusader army.
Learn about Margery Kempe, a visionary responsible for the first autobiography written in the English language, and Christine de Pizan, a professional female author who argued for the moral and intellectual equality of women in her writings.
Explore the life of a military leader and patron saint of France, the young peasant girl Joan of Arc, who was inspired by a divine calling to rally the French army and save her country.
The animation’s design has been inspired by medieval manuscripts that are part of the British Library’s collections, many of which are also on display in the exhibition. How many references can you spot?
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can purchase your tickets online now.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
Calum Cockburn
26 December 2024
The Nativity according to St Birgitta
In August 1372, a woman had an extraordinary experience that changed the way that people pictured Christmas. Birgitta Birgersdotter (or, as she is better known, St Bridget of Sweden) was a Swedish widow who had moved to Rome and made a name for herself as a holy woman. When she was around 69 years old, Birgitta made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There, at the Grotto of the Nativity, the subterranean cave in Bethlehem traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Christ, she experienced a spiritual vision in which she saw the events of the first Christmas. Of the many visions she experienced in her life, Birgitta’s vision of the Nativity is probably the most famous and influential, going on to profoundly shape the way the scene was depicted in medieval art.
Before Birgitta
The descriptions of the Nativity in the Bible are light in detail. The gospels of Matthew and Luke recount that Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit by a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed or married to a man called Joseph. They state that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, with Luke explaining that Mary and Joseph had travelled there for a census and that Mary “wrapped him [Jesus] in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).
In order to create vivid and compelling images of the Nativity, medieval artists desired more information. They drew extra details from Old Testament prophecies, apocryphal gospel accounts and medieval childbirth practices. The standard image of the Nativity in Western Europe until the 14th century showed the Virgin Mary reclining in bed, as was normal for medieval mothers. Jesus is usually lying in the manger, being adored by an ox and ass. Joseph and sometimes midwives accompany the scene, as in the example below. In the 14th century, however, a new type of Nativity scene began to appear, due in a large part to Birgitta’s vision.
Birgitta’s vision of the Nativity
Birgitta described her vision at the Grotto of the Nativity in her magisterial visionary work, the Liber celestis revelacionum (heavenly book of revelations), which was widely read throughout Europe. She described seeing the pregnant Virgin Mary enter the cave with Joseph, the ox and ass. Joseph lights a candle and fixes it to the wall, then leaves. Mary takes off her shoes, mantle and veil, spreading her long golden hair. After preparing cloths in which to wrap the baby, she kneels facing east and begins to pray. According to Birgitta,
“While she was thus praying, I saw the infant in her womb move, and at that very moment, in the flash of an eye, she gave birth to her son... The birth of the child was so instant and sudden that I was unable to see or discern how or even with what part of her body she gave birth. And yet I immediately saw that glorious infant lying on the ground, naked and shining”.
(Liber celestis, book VII, chapter 21, translation by Denis Searby, 2012, p. 251).
Birgitta’s vision is rich with details, two of which are particularly important for medieval art. First, the Virgin Mary gives birth instantly while kneeling, with Christ supernaturally transported out of her womb and onto the ground. As the mother of eight children, Birgitta was fully aware of the realities of childbirth. Birgitta’s description of this miraculous birth is her way of explaining how Mary could give birth without damaging the virginal intactness of her body. Additionally, since the Bible presents painful childbirth as a punishment inflicted on womankind for Eve’s disobedience (Genesis 3:16), Birgitta’s description of the painless birth implies that Mary was free from Original Sin inherited from Eve.
The other distinctive feature is that the newborn Christ shines. The idea that the birth of Christ was accompanied by a bright light originated in apocryphal gospel accounts, probably referring to the idea of Christ as “the light of the world”. Birgitta specifies that light radiates from the body of Christ and that his brightness outshines both the sun and the candle that Joseph had brought in:
“Such indescribable light and splendour went out from him that the sun could not be compared to it. The candle that the old man had placed there was giving no light at all, for that divine lustre completely outshone the material lustre of the candle”.
(Liber celestis, book VII, chapter 21, translation by Denis Searby, 2012, p. 251).
Within only a few years, these elements from Birgitta’s vision began to appear in medieval depictions of the Nativity.
Nativity scenes in Books of Hours
One place where medieval Nativity scenes often appear is in Books of Hours. These prayer books, often described as the “best-sellers of the Middle Ages”, contain sets of prayers for reading at the eight canonical hours of the day. The most important of these, the Office of the Virgin, often begins each hour with a picture from the life of the Virgin Mary, where the Nativity usually accompanies the hour of prime (first daylight). An examination of Books of Hours in the British Library reveals many examples of Nativity scenes depicting elements from Birgitta’s vision.
The Book of Hours shown below was made in Italy in 1412 for Neapolitan nobleman and diplomat Antonio Carafa. Nativity scenes inspired by Birgitta’s vision first appeared in Italy, where she spent the latter part of her life and had many supporters. Although the Western artistic tradition usually sets the Nativity in a stable, this image depicts the birth of Christ taking place in a cave, corresponding with Birgitta’s description of the Grotto of the Nativity. The Virgin Mary kneels and the infant Jesus lies on the floor emitting light, outshining the sun above and the candle that Joseph holds up. Behind them, the ox and the ass wait by the manger and in the background an angel announces the birth of Christ to the shepherds.
More often, artists transported the key elements from Birgitta’s vision to a stable or a classical ruin. The idea that the Nativity took place in a stable was a logical inference based on biblical references to a manger and animals, and the ruin was a symbol of paganism crumbling with the birth of Christ.
The image of the Nativity shown below includes a pilgrim’s bag and staff lying on the floor in the foreground, perhaps referring to Birgitta’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We can imagine that we are seeing the scene through Birgitta’s eyes, with her belongings laid down in front of her.
It is questionable whether the artists who created these images and the book owners who admired them were always aware of Birgitta’s vision. Most medieval images were based on other images rather than texts, so once the vision became an image, it took on a life of its own. The kneeling Virgin, the shining Infant on the ground, the sun's rays and Joseph holding a candle all became part of the visual tradition of the Nativity, and they can still be found in many Nativity scenes to this day.
You can see manuscripts of Birgitta’s Liber celestis and learn more about her incredible legacy in the British Library’s exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. Tickets are available to purchase online now.
From everyone in the Medieval Manuscripts team, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Eleanor Jackson
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This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
Translations
The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden: Volume III: Liber Caelestis, Books VI–VII, trans. by Denis Searby, ed. by Bridget Morris (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 250-51.
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