The "Histoire ancienne" and dialectical identity in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

• Autores: Lisa Mahoney
• Localización: Gesta, ISSN 0016-920X, Vol. 49, Nº. 1, 2010, págs. 31-52
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César is a historical account of events from Genesis to the Roman Republic. One version of this chronicle (London, British Library, MS Add. 15268), made in the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during the second half of the thirteenth century, contains illuminations noteworthy for their emendations to pictorial tradition and their calculated use of Byzantine formal elements. A close study of these characteristics shows them to be complementary devices with a common goal: laying claim to a magnificent past and marking the heroic figures and legendary deeds recounted within its pages as emphatically Christian. This emphasis distinguishes the London Histoire ancienne from its counterparts in the West, which take the secular form of romance or epic. It also points to an identity crisis provoked by close contact with the local Muslim population and the recognition that this "enemy" was more similar to than different from its Christian patron. This dialectical relation is explicit within the frontispiece, where a depiction of Creation surrounded by Islamic imagery not only suggests the Eastern context of its manufacture literally (i.e., the Muslims surround the Christians) but also launches the theologically complex and strategic design of the pictorial program that follows. In this light, the value of the London Histoire ancienne lies in its capacity to complicate our understanding of the particular geographic area in which it was made and, by extension, other objects of material culture born of this same environment.