The Manger-Crib in Medieval Culture and Beyond
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville
Organizer Name
Mary Dzon; Theresa Kenney
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville; Univ. of Dallas
Presider Name
Elina Gertsman
Presider Affiliation
Case Western Reserve Univ.
Paper Title 1
Sedulius's Manger: Food for the Ages
Presenter 1 Name
Theresa Kenney
Paper Title 2
Saint Francis of Assisi and the First Manger-Crib at Greccio: A Novel Manifestation of a Eucharistic Spirituality
Presenter 2 Name
Richard Nicholas
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of St. Francis, Joliet
Paper Title 3
The Praesepio as a Sculptural and Spatial Phenomenon: The Early Case of Arnolfo di Cambio's Ensemble in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome (ca. 1291)
Presenter 3 Name
Patricia Simons
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Paper Title 4
The Ox and the Ass: From Symbolism to Symbiosis
Presenter 4 Name
Mary Dzon
Start Date
9-5-2019 1:30 PM
Session Location
Bernhard 213
Description
“And this shall be a sign unto you….” What kind of sign is the Babe lying in the manger? And how did medieval people – Christians, Muslims, and Jews – respond to the notion of the baby Jesus lying in a crib? From the earliest days of the new religion, Christians regarded the manger as an image profoundly subversive of human values, indeed, as central to Christian discourse on poverty, humility, meekness, as well as power. Patristic and medieval writers saw the narrow manger, Jesus’ first receptacle on earth, as foreshadowing his sacrificial death on the Cross. Indeed, the manger was commonly conflated with the altar, while the ox and the ass were viewed as reverent worshippers, who fed upon the Eucharist. Later, the image of the manger increasingly became a symbol of the human heart itself, the locus of humanity’s intersection with the divine, not necessarily within a sacramental context. This panel will examine varieties of approaches to the manger in the Middle Ages up to, and even extending into, the Reformation, when full-scale manger scenes became more and more popular and elaborate. Although older studies exist on the history of the manger/crib/cradle in art and devotion, and on the manger scene’s development, current critical focuses on material culture, gender, and the history of emotions, as well as animal studies, could also be brought into play when considering this central image in the canonical infancy gospels – an image that reappears in many medieval and later sources. Papers on the topic of the manger in theology, art, apocrypha, or literature are invited. Mary Dzon
The Manger-Crib in Medieval Culture and Beyond
Bernhard 213
“And this shall be a sign unto you….” What kind of sign is the Babe lying in the manger? And how did medieval people – Christians, Muslims, and Jews – respond to the notion of the baby Jesus lying in a crib? From the earliest days of the new religion, Christians regarded the manger as an image profoundly subversive of human values, indeed, as central to Christian discourse on poverty, humility, meekness, as well as power. Patristic and medieval writers saw the narrow manger, Jesus’ first receptacle on earth, as foreshadowing his sacrificial death on the Cross. Indeed, the manger was commonly conflated with the altar, while the ox and the ass were viewed as reverent worshippers, who fed upon the Eucharist. Later, the image of the manger increasingly became a symbol of the human heart itself, the locus of humanity’s intersection with the divine, not necessarily within a sacramental context. This panel will examine varieties of approaches to the manger in the Middle Ages up to, and even extending into, the Reformation, when full-scale manger scenes became more and more popular and elaborate. Although older studies exist on the history of the manger/crib/cradle in art and devotion, and on the manger scene’s development, current critical focuses on material culture, gender, and the history of emotions, as well as animal studies, could also be brought into play when considering this central image in the canonical infancy gospels – an image that reappears in many medieval and later sources. Papers on the topic of the manger in theology, art, apocrypha, or literature are invited. Mary Dzon