Page - 66 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert

66 michaEl a. michaEl It is clear, moreover, from surviving evidence, whether in painting or in sculpture, that a dialogue between artists and writers, one feeding off the other led to a rapid development of these themes all over Europe.35 If we consider the image of Synagoga in the Antiquaries Lindesey Psalter again, it is notable that she is small and contained in a roundel at the top right (Christ’s left) of the crucifixion (fig. 13). She is blindfolded, (a reference to Lam. 5:16–17: ‘The Crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that have sinned! For this our heart is faint: for these things our eyes are dim’). She also carries the tablets of the old Mosaic Law in her right hand while below her in another roundel, a horned Moses is seated with a book in his hand. In her right hand Synagoga carries a broken lance (perhaps that which pierced the side of Christ) signifying the defeat of death, but also her own defeat. However charming this image may seem, this was a time in England when an- ti-Semitic feelings were easily roused. Anti-Jewish riots were widespread and led to murder at York and later Lincoln in 1220. By 1244 stories of the death of Little Hugh of Lincoln son of Beatrice, were well established and eventually given cre- dence as an official record of events through the writings of the great St Albans’ chronicler Matthew Paris.36 It is important to note, that it was the emotive report of the crucifixion of this child as part of a ritual murder, subsequent to being held captive that aroused the populace in Lincoln against the Jewish minority. Such stories persisted long after Edward I’s Edict of expulsion of Jews from England in 1290. The surviving late thirteenth-century illustrated story of Adam of Bristol, son of William the Welshman, from the Benedictine Cathedral Priory of Holy Trinity, Norwich, is an example of this.37 Adam’s story is set during the reign of Henry II (1154–1198), although it appears to have been written c. 1280–1290, when shrines first to William of Norwich (d. 1144) and then to Hugh of Lincoln (d. 1255) were already established. The image of the crucified Adam (one of four alleged victims), shows the Jew Samuel killing the crucified boy with a knife above what appears to be a tomb (London, The British Library, Harley 957, fol. 22r, fig. 19).38 If we return to the passage in Cursor Mundi already quoted and read on for another six lines it is notable that after describing the flowering of the cross the reaction of the Jews then provides a commentary on its significance: 35 Nigel J. Morgan: Iconography. In: Painted Altar Frontals of Norway 1250–1350, 3 vols., ed. by Unn Plahter / Erla B. Hohler / Nigel J. Morgan/ Anne Wichstrøm, London 2004, vol. 1, pp. 39–65, esp. p. 50. 36 Francis Hill: Medieval Lincoln. Cambridge 1965, pp. 223–233. 37 It is inscribed Liber fratris William monachi Norwic, fol. 18v. See: A Catalogue of the Har- leian Manuscripts in the British Museum with Indexes of Persons, Places and Matters, 3 vols. 1808–12, London 1808, vol. 1, p. 484. 38 Christoph Cluse: Fabula ineptissima: Die Ritualmordlegende um Adam von Bristol nach der Handschrift London, British Library, Harley 957. In: Aschkenas: Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden 5 (1995), pp. 293–330; Robert C. Stacy: ‘Adam of Bristol’ and Tales of Ritual Crucifixion in Medieval England. In: Thirteenth Century England, Proceedings of the Gregynog Conference 11, 2005, ed. by Björn Weiler / Janet Burton / Philipp Schofield, Woodbridge 2007, pp. 1–15; Harvey J. Hames: The Limits of Conversion: Ritual Murder and the Virgin Mary in the Account of Adam of Bristol. In: Journal of Medieval History 33 (2007), pp. 43–59.