The Ruler Portrait of Charles the Bald in the S, Paolo Bible

The Ruler Portrait of Charles the Bald in the S. Paolo BibleAuthor(s): William J. DieboldSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 76, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 6-18Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3046000 .

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The Ruler Portrait of Charles the Bald

in the S. Paolo Bible

WilliamJ. Diebold

The S. Paolo Bible (Rome, Abbazia di S. Paolo fuori le Mura), made in Reims between ca. 866 and ca. 875, includes an

image of Charles the Bald, king in western Francia from 843 and Roman emperor from 875 (Fig. 1).1 It shows him as the model ruler and, in this respect, is a pictorial counterpart to a common Carolingian literary genre, the admonitory texts to kings known to us as "mirrors of princes." The unusual function of the ruler portrait as a visual speculum principis is

particularly appropriate to the miniature's physical context since the Bible was the most important mirror of the ruler in the Carolingian era. The ruler portrait did not, however, have a single meaning in the early Middle Ages; rather, its

significance changed as it was viewed by its various ninth-

century audiences, which included the manuscript's patron (who may not have been Charles the Bald), perhaps the king himself, and a late ninth-century pope, probably either Hadrian II orJohn VIII.

The S. Paolo Bible is one of the most lavishly decorated

manuscripts of the Middle Ages, with twenty-four full-page miniatures (a twenty-fifth miniature, preceding the book of

Job, has been lost). All but the image of Charles the Bald served as frontispieces to books or prefaces of the Old and New Testaments. The original position of the ruler image is crucial to understanding its meaning. At present the ruler

portrait occupies fol. Ir of the Bible, but a fourteenth-century

foliation indicates that in the later Middle Ages the miniature was the verso of the manuscript's last leaf.2 This was probably its original position. Although ruler images in Carolingian manuscripts were usually at the opening of a volume, other

portraits placed at the end are known, notably the dedication miniature of Charles the Bald in the Vivian Bible.3

The miniature of Charles is framed on all sides by a broad border of stylized acanthus.4 The bottom fifth of the space inside the frame is given over to a rectangular block which is

painted purple and filled with a dedicatory poem written in

gold letters. Above this block of text, the immense figure of

Charles, the only person in the miniature who does not

stand, towers over his arms-bearing attendants. The king sits on a complex throne, its benchlike seat protected by a red cushion, and he rests his feet on a podium of variegated stone.5 Jeweled uprights support a large, hoop-shaped, jewel-bedecked frame which runs around the throne at a

height just below Charles's shoulders. A curtain hanging from this circular frame partially encloses the throne, while a four-arched arcade capped by a triangular gable rises above.

Charles's costume is similar to that shown in several other

depictions of him (cf. Fig. 2), but it is distinguished by its

extraordinary richness.6 The king wears a purple chlamys, streaked with gold and decorated at the edges with a jeweled border, over a blue tunic, likewise decorated with gold and

This article is derived from my doctoral dissertation, written under the beneficial direction of Herbert L. Kessler. I would like to thank Lawrence Nees and Richard Brilliant for their detailed comments. I All of the Bible's miniatures are reproduced in Bzbbza. To the useful bibliography there (pp. 61-63) should be added Arnaldi; Gaehde; J. Gribomont, "La Bible de Saint-Paul," La Bibbza "Vulgata" dalle orzgzni az nostrz giorni (Collectanea biblzca latzna, xvi), Rome, 1987, 30-39; and H. Schade, Untersuchungen zu der karolzngzschen Bzlderbzbel zu St. Paul vor den Mauern zn Rom, Ph.D. diss., University of Munich, 1954. A full facsimile of the manuscript with scholarly commentary has long been in prepara- tion.

Few scholars now doubt that the S. Paolo Bible was made in Reims (for a detailed discussion of the arguments, see Schade, 1959, 18-40). The Bible's date is more controversial. The identification of Charles the Bald as the subject of the ruler portrait gives a firm terminus ante quem of 877, the year of Charles's death. Furthermore, it is likely the Bible was made before the end of 875, since Charles is called rex in two poems in the manuscript. This terminus is not, however, absolutely secure. The scansion of zmperator is incompatible with the meter of the Bible's verses, although Carolingian poets who insisted on speaking of emperors in poems written in dactylic hexameter often used the archaic, but metrically acceptable, znduperator; see, e.g., M. G. H. Poetae, II, 806, s.v. "imperator." A relatively firm terminus post quem is provided by the poem beneath the ruler portrait, which hopes that by Charles's wife "distinguished issue may be rightfully given to the realm." This suggests a date after 866, for in that year Charles was without an acceptable heir; in the course of an unusual coronation and anointment of the king's wife, Ermentrude, God was asked to provide further issue to the couple; E.H. Kantorowicz, "The Carolingian King in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura," Late Classzcal and Medzaeval Studzes zn Honor of Albert Mathias Frzend,Jr., ed. K. Weitzmann, Princeton, 1955, 288, 291-293.

There have been historical and art-historical attempts to date the

Bible even more precisely, either by identifying the woman depicted in the ruler image as one or the other of Charles's wives or by claiming the S. Paolo Bible was the model for (or copy of) another, dated work of art. None of these arguments has won general scholarly acceptance. For a detailed critique, see Diebold, 176-181, 321-323, n. 122. 2 The ruler portrait was probably placed at the beginning of the Bible when it was rebound in 1646. For the collation of the Bible, the 14th-century foliation, and the rebinding, see Gaehde, II, 70-71, 79, and Schade (as in n. 1), 10.

The miniature of Charles the Bald was originally fol. 337v. The last text of the Bible, Revelation, ends on fol. 336r. Fols. 336v and the original 337r (the present Iv) are blank, although the last bears an empty frame. Every other miniature in the Bible has such a frame, filled with verses relating to the image, on its reverse. In the case of the ruler portrait, however, room for the dedicatory poem was provided inside the space of the miniature itself, making the frame superfluous.

3 Paris, Bibl. Nat. Ms lat. 1. For the Vivian Bible and its portrait of Charles the Bald, see Schramm, no. 36. The putative ruler portrait of Louis the German in that king's Psalter (Berlin, Staatsbibl. Ms theol. lat. fol. 58) is also on the manuscript's last leaf; Schramm, no. 52. 4 For a color reproduction of the ruler portrait, see Bzbbza, pl. 26. 5 This is probably a reflection of the Roman and Byzantine imperial practice of allowing the emperor, when in public, to walk only on purple or porphyry; 0. Treitinger, Dze ostrdmzsche Kazser- und Reichszdee nach zhrer Gestaltung zm hofischen Zeremonzell, Jena, 1938, 58-62. A similar podium appears beneath Charles's feet in the Munich Codex aureus (Fig. 2). 6 The other images of Charles, in the Vivian Bible, the Munich Codex aureus (Fig. 2), the Munich Prayer Book (Residenz, Schatzkammer), and the Paris Psalter (Bibl. Nat. Ms lat. 1152), and on the Throne of Peter (Fig. 3), are reproduced in this article or in Schramm, nos. 36-38.



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1 Charles the Bald Enthroned, S. Paolo Bible. Rome, Abbazia di S. Paolo fuori le Mura, fol. 1 (photo: Abbazia)



8 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1994 VOLUME LXXVI NUMBER 1

2 Charles the Bald Enthroned. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 14000, fol. 5v (photo: Staatsbibliothek)

jewels. His shoes are golden and his red stockings laced with

gold. He holds an inscribed disk in his left hand;' he gestures with his right, which is marked at the wrist with a bracelet of

gold and jewels.8 The gesture may acknowledge his richly dressed, veiled wife to his left, although Charles stares

straight ahead and does not look at the queen. She also raises her right hand, probably in response to the king's gesture.

Behind her stands another, smaller woman, surely the

queen's attendant. On the other side of the throne are two soldiers in military dress, one holding spear and shield, the other a sword.

Six figures fill the upper level of the miniature. The outer two are winged and nimbed angels; each holds a golden scepter surmounted with a cross in the left hand and gestures

7 The interpretation of the words on the sphere held by Charles is vexed, partly because of disagreements as to which letters appear on the disk, but mostly because what these cryptic letters might signify is extremely problematic. A sample of only two solutions indicates the depth of the problem. Schramm read the monogram as "Christe, conserva Karolum et Richildim" ("O Christ, save Charles and Richildis"; Schramm, no. 41), whereas Schade proposed "Hic rex novae Romae Salomon" ("Here is Solomon, king of the new Rome"; Schade, 1960, 15).

For a nonspecialist in Carolingian Latin to propose a definitive reading when the scholarly waters are so troubled would be foolish. It is worth noting, however, that at two points letter pairs instead of single letters appear. These pairs, "XR" and "IH," are probably monograms

within the larger monogram. More particularly, they are the mono-

grams of Christ and can therefore be resolved as Ihesus and Christus (or some declined form thereof, perhaps the vocative Ihesu Christe). Coupled with the appearance of "C," "R," "L," and "M" on the disk, probably to be resolved as the accusative form of Charles's name, Carolum, a solution

may be in sight. 8 This bracelet, previously unremarked by scholars, is the first appearance in Carolingian art of an armilla, an insigne of rulership. Unlike the Ottonian and later armillae preserved or known from ruler images, which were worn on the upper arm, Charles's bracelet dangles about his wrist. On armillae, see P.E. Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbo- lik, II, Stuttgart, 1955, 538-553.



CHARLES THE BALD IN THE S PAOLO BIBLE 9

toward Charles with the right. The other four figures, also nimbed, stand in the arches above the throne. All wear similar clothes, white veils over red or white tunics, and are

distinguished one from another primarily by their attributes, which (along with the poem below the miniature) identify them as Virtues. Wisdom (Prudentia), at the left, points to her

open book; Justice, adjacent to her, carries scales; Temper- ance (Moderatio), next in line, is without an attribute, but holds her hands apart, palms outward;9 Strength, at the far

right, has a spear and shield.'0 The combination in the S. Paolo Bible ruler portrait of

angels, Virtues, the monarch, his queen, and arms-bearing soldiers is unique in medieval art. To understand the

significance of the miniature as a whole, each of these elements will be examined in turn and placed in the context of Carolingian art and thought.

The poem below the miniature provides an important guide to the image's meaning. The special importance of this verse is apparent from its visual prominence. It is included within the frame of the miniature, whereas, by contrast, each of the other twenty-three miniatures in the Bible has the

accompanying poem on the reverse. The poem reads:

The lord, king of heaven, abounding in his 1 characteristic mercy,

Singled out this Charles, the master's king on earth.

So, therefore, that he was strong enough to share in such an office,

He filled him with the nourishing quartet of the four Virtues.

Here they hover over his head, pouring out all 5

things from above. In a word, he rules first himself (and then all things)

rightly, Prudently, justly, moderately, and strongly. On both sides surrounded by sacred angelic protection

So that he may rejoice in peace, all enemies driven back.

To the right arms-bearing servants present 10

weapons, for He is unbeaten, the eternal defender; may he, warlike Often honor the church of Christ with great triumphs. To the left, his noble wife, beautiful as always; Let her bear rightfully famous offspring into the 14

kingdom."

According to the poem, the angels in the miniature's

upper register provide the king with "sacred angelic protection." Similarly placed angels are common in Carolin-

gian art, especially in scenes of the Crucifixion and the

Majestas Domini, where they often flank Christ.'2 But aside from this image in the S. Paolo Bible, the only Carolingian examples of angels around a non-divine figure are two other

depictions of Charles the Bald, both of them contemporary with the Bible. Pairs of angels flank the central figure of the

king in the Munich Codex aureus of 870 (Fig. 2) and on the carved ivory Throne of Peter, probably made before 875

(Fig. 3).'3 These three works indicate that the adoption for the secular ruler of angelic bodyguards, otherwise the pre- rogative of the deity, was a development of the later part of Charles the Bald's reign. The idea that Charles was specially protected by angels also found verbal expression in this same

period. During Charles's coronation in 869 as king of

Lotharingia, Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, asked God to

"place his good angels for the protection of his [servant]."'4

9 Temperance (called Moderatzo in the manuscript) is without attribute probably because there was confusion in the 9th century about her proper symbol. In the Raganaldus Sacramentary, where the attributes of the Virtues otherwise agree precisely with those in the S. Paolo Bible, Temperance holds a torch in the form of a horn from which flames emerge and a jug with which she might extinguish the flames and thus put them under control (Autun, Bibl. Ms 19bis, fol. 173v; repro. in W. Koehler, Dze Schule von Tours [Die karolzngzschen Mznzaturen, I], Berlin, 1930-33, pl. 68b). The same attributes are held by Temperance in a late Carolingian miniature (Cambrai, Bibl. Ms 327, fol. 16; repro. in Katzenellenbogen, fig. 32). For the Carolingian poet Theodulf, however, Moderatio's attributes were a whip and bridle because she stimulates the slow and checks the fast; M. G. H. Poetae, I, 546.

The emphasis on balance and equality that is essential to Moderatzo is expressed in the Bible by Temperance's gesture. Hands spread, palms held outward, she portrays the idea of caution, balance, and nothing in excess ascribed to her by Hrabanus Maurus, who noted that Temperantza is also known as Dzscretzo "because she divides everything so that it does not exceed the mean or lean too far to the left or right, but walks what one might call the royal way"; Tractatus de anzma; Pat. lat. cx, 118, cited in Mihl, 143. 10 The sequence of Virtues in the S. Paolo Bible miniature, when read from left to right, mirrors that in the poem below the image. This sequence is found in only one other Carolingian text, Alcuin's De anzmae ratzone. On its possible significance, see M~ihl, 102. 1 "Rex caeli dominus solita pietate redundans/Hunc Karolum regem terrae dilexit herilem./Tanti ergo officii ut compos valuisset haberi,/ Tetranti implevit virtutum quattuor almo:/Imminet hic capiti de vertice cuncta refundens./Denique se primum, tunc omnia rite gubernat/

Prudenter, iuste, moderate, fortiter atque:/Hinc inde angelico septus tutamine sacro,/Hostibus ut cunctis exultet pace repulsis./Ad dextram armigeri praetendunt arma ministri,/Ecclesiam Christi invictus defensor in aevum/Armipotens magnis quis ornet saepe triumphis;/Nobilis ad levam coniunx de more venustat,/Qua insignis proles in regnum rite paretur"; M. G. H. Poetae, II, 257. Another translation is in Gaehde, I, 453.

The word I have translated in the fourth line as "quartet" appears as tetrastz in the manuscript. Traube, in his M. G. H. edition, amended this to tetrantz (Gaehde, although he claimed to be transcribing the manuscript, also has tetranti; Gaehde, II, 146). Whereas Traube's change is necessary if the poem's grammar is to be preserved (tetranti is the ablative of the masculine noun tetrans and a masculine noun is required in the verse since tetranti is modified by almo; tetras, the root of tetrasti, is feminine), the manuscript's reading makes more sense: tetrans means a quadrant or quarter, tetras a quaternion or tetrad. My translation maintains the sense of the manuscript reading; cf. "tetrarchy" offered by Gaehde, I, 453, and zdem, "The Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome: Its Date and Its Relation to Charles the Bald," Gesta, v, 1966, 13, n. 5. 12 E.g., A. Goldschmidt, Dze Elfenbeznskulpturen aus der Zezt der karohng- ischen und sachsischen Kazser, I, Berlin, 1914, nos. 1, 13, 71a, 78, 85-86, 88-89, 92, 96, 111-112, 114-115, and 130. The angels in the S. Paolo Bible have been associated, less convincingly, with the symmetrically arrayed, winged genii who hover above late antique rulers; Gaehde, I, 472-473. 13 On the Codex aureus, see Koehler and Muitherich, 175-198. For the Throne of Peter, see Cattedra and, most recently, Nees, 147-198, with a review of the literature and extensive bibliography. 14M. G. H., Capztularza regum Francorum, II, ed. A. Boretius and V. Krause, Hannover, 1893, 456. Frugoni attempted to associate another section of this ordo, which asks God to surround Charles with the wall of his protection, with the angels in the Bible's ruler portrait, whom she (to my mind erroneously) sees standing before a wall; C. Frugoni, "L'ideologia del potere imperiale nella 'Cattedra di S. Pietro,' " Bullet- tzno dell'Istituto Storzco Italzano per zl Medio Evo e Archzvio Muratorzano, LXXXVI, 1976-77, 99-100, n. 127.




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3 Charles the Bald with Angels and Fighting Groups, Throne of Peter (detail). Rome, St. Peter's (after Schramm, 314)

As Charles's guardians, the angels are the divine counter-

parts to the earthly soldiers who stand next to the throne. Lines eight through eleven of the poem below the miniature, which juxtapose descriptions of the two sets of guards, make the connection between celestial and terrestrial protection explicit. This verbal association is not expressed visually in the Bible; the soldiers, unlike the angels, are not positioned symmetrically about the miniature's central vertical axis. But there is an exact visual parallel between earthly and heavenly guards in the closely related ruler portrait of Charles in the

Munich Codex aureus. There, angels flank the baldachin of the throne and soldiers are arranged at either side of the enthroned Charles.15 The two miniatures may have had a common model that included a strictly symmetrical arrange- ment of angels and guards. The symmetry was disturbed in the Bible in order to include a depiction of Charles's wife, called for by special conditions in western Francia at the time the manuscript was produced.16

Similar protection for the king also appears on the Throne of Peter. Two pairs of angels and six roundels, each filled with two men fighting (or, in one case, a man fighting a

dragon) flank the ruler portrait of Charles at the base of the Throne's gable (Fig. 3). These carvings depict the angelic and earthly guards who work together to protect the king.17 Like the idea that the secular ruler received angelic protection, this new concept of combined celestial and terrestrial

protection for Charles must also be associated with develop- ments late in the king's reign, for it appears in the ruler

portraits in the Bible and the Codex aureus, as well as in that on the Throne of Peter, all works made in the years around 870.

In all three of these depictions, the defensive actions of Charles's divine and earthly guardians must be understood as strengthening the king for future battles. This role of the

guards is important, for it transforms Charles from the object of protection to protector. The nature and significance of this complex interaction between defender and defended,

among Christian God, Carolingian ruler, and ninth-century Church and people, is one of the themes of the ruler portrait in the S. Paolo Bible.

The verses beneath the miniature call Charles "unbeaten, the eternal defender" and hope that he "warlike, may often honor the church of Christ with great triumphs." God chose Charles to be his "king on earth"; in return, one of the king's royal duties is to defend God's terrestrial church. A conse-

quence of the Carolingian belief that kingship entailed many responsibilities, that the monarch was God's minister or

vicarius, the idea that the Carolingian ruler should be the

earthly defensor ecclesiae is not unique to the S. Paolo Bible; it also found expression in many Carolingian texts, including those produced in Charles's ambient. A poem written by the monks of St. Riquier to Charles called him "Christ's cultiva-

tor, respector, and friend,/The zealous lover of the holy Church.18 Hincmar of Reims, the foremost Carolingian exponent of the rights of the Church in its relations with the secular ruler, was extremely interested in establishing the

15 Similar use of honoring angels as a contrast and complement to terrestrial figures is found in other Carolingian works. In some Ascen- sion ivories (Goldschmidt [as in n. 12], nos. 70, 87), the angels mirror the Apostles; in a series of Crucifixion ivories (Goldschmidt [as in n. 12], nos. 78, 85, 88), the celestial realm of the angels is balanced by the terrestrial realm inhabited by personifications of Terra and Oceanus.

16 Kessler also argued that the common model of the miniatures in the Bible and the Codex aureus had symmetrically placed soldiers, although he did not adduce the verbal evidence of the poem in the S. Paolo Bible; Kessler, 136-137.

17 These roundels have been seen to represent Charles's victorious triumph, but this interpretation is problematic; cf. Frugoni (as in n. 14), 115-120; N. Gussone and N. Staubach, "Zu Motivkreis und Sinngehalt der Cathedra Petri," Friihmittelalterliche Studien, Ix, 1975, 352-353, and K. Weitzmann, "The Iconography of the Carolingian Ivories of the Throne," in Cattedra, 232. Good is defeating evil on the Throne (there can be no doubt that the dragon is meant to symbolize evil), but Charles himself is not playing an active role in that victory. In imperial triumphal iconography, with which the roundels on the Throne are often compared, it was the emperor (or Christ) himself, rather than a surrogate, who was shown slaying evil. (For recent discussions of this iconography in Carolingian art, see K. Weitzmann, "Der Aufbau und die unteren Felder des Einhard-Reliquiars," Das Einhardkreuz, ed. K. Hauck, G6t- tingen, 1974, 38-39, and Zoltan Kaid ir, "Sul tipo del cavaliere draconoc- tono nell'arte carolingia," Riforma religiosa e arti nell'epoca carolingia, ed. A.A. Schmid, Bologna, 1983, 143-145.) On the Throne, by contrast, the

fighting is done by anonymous soldiers while Charles is shielded from the combat by angels with crowns and palms. 18 M. G. H. Poetae, III, 331. Since the ruler's responsibility to defend the Church was frequently expressed in the 9th century, Schade's claim that the appearance of the title defensor ecclesiae in the S. Paolo Bible is linked to Charles's assumption of the imperial title is unjustified; Schade, 1960, 24.




royal duty to protect the Church.19 He put it succinctly: "The

king by divine judgment has received ecclesiastical property to defend and protect."20 Since Hincmar, himself an advisor to Charles the Bald, had a particular interest in the issue, it is not surprising that the S. Paolo Bible, made in Hincmar's city of Reims, emphasizes Charles's role as a defender of the Church.

Sedulius Scottus, who composed many panegyrical poems for Charles, also saw the relationship between secular ruler and Christian Church as symbiotic. In De rectoribus Chris-

tianis, a mirror of the ruler perhaps addressed to Charles,21 Sedulius wrote:

That ruler is thought great who has crushed fierce enemies,

The laurel-wreathed victor brings back renowned

trophies. But greater glory comes to the leader adorned by

celestial Arms, who is able to conquer lofty enemies.22

For Sedulius, the monarch's unaided individual strength pales in comparison to what he is able to achieve militarily with divine help. Since the king's duty is to protect the Church, that divinely given strength will return rewards for the Church by making the ruler a more effective defensor ecclesiae.

The "celestial arms" with which the angels adorn Charles were not to be used only for the physical protection of ruler or Church. Rather, the primary function of these weapons was to provide moral guidance so that Charles could rule himself and his kingdom virtuously, an idea expressed both

verbally and visually in the S. Paolo Bible. Many ninth-

century writers believed that good morals were necessary for the just ruler. The second chapter of De rectoribus Christianis is devoted to what Sedulius thought was the first duty of the

king, self-rule. "It is right that he who has ascended to the summit of royal authority (with God's help) first rule himself, for it is he whom divine disposition ordained to rule others. After all, rex [king] is derived from regendo [ruling]."23 Hincmar, quoting the pseudo-Cyprian, made the same

point, characteristically in terms less flattering to the secular ruler:

It profits nothing to have the authority of commanding, if the lord himself does not have the strength of virtue. But the strength of virtue does not require external might, although this also is necessary to secular lords, but rather inner spiritual power. It ought to be practiced along with

good morals. For often the power of commanding is lost

by weakness of spirit.24

To be a good ruler in Carolingian terms, the king needed

great physical strength and, more important, great moral fortitude. According to the poem accompanying the ruler

image in the S. Paolo Bible, the source of this necessary royal self-control, like that of Charles's great physical strength, was divine. God filled Charles's mind with the Virtues, so that he

might rule ". . . first himself (and then all things) rightly,/ Prudently, justly, moderately, and strongly." These Cardinal Virtues, derived from classical thought and Christianized by the Fathers of the Church, were often invoked as guides to ethical behavior in the early Middle Ages. The Cardinal Virtues were specifically associated with the Carolingian king's rule by Smaragdus of St. Mihiel in his ninth-century speculum principis; other Carolingian authors saw them re- flected in Charles the Bald's royal ancestors Charlemagne and Louis the Pious.25 A poem in the Vivian Bible ascribed the Cardinal Virtues to Charles himself.26 Although these Virtues are occasionally depicted in ninth-century art, only in the S. Paolo Bible are they associated with a Carolingian ruler.27

The role of the Virtues in the Bible's ruler portrait is in

many senses identical to that of the angels and the arms-

bearing soldiers. All provide protection for Charles, either

physical or psychological. This conceptual parallel is ex-

pressed visually. The connections between the angels and the Virtues are stressed as the two protecting angels bracket the four Virtues in the miniature's upper zone, and all six

figures are depicted in the same scale. The association of the

angels and the Virtues at the miniature's highest level is

appropriate because it is they who lead Charles to "greater glory" by protecting him from the "lofty enemies" (to quote

19 See K.F. Morrison, The Two Kingdoms, Princeton, 1964, passzm; Anton, 312-313; Devisse, 671-723, esp. 718; andJ.L. Nelson, "Kingship, Law, and Liturgy in the Political Thought of Hincmar of Reims," in her Politzcs and Rztual zn Early Medzeval Europe, London, 1986, 133-171. Nelson's n. 1 on p. 133 gives more of the extensive bibliography on this subject. 20 Hincmar, chap. 9; cited in the translation from Herlihy, 213. 21 For a good recent survey of the evidence about the recipient of De rectoribus Christianis, see O. Eberhardt, Vza Regza. Der Fiirstenspiegel Smaragads von St. Mihzel und seine literarzsche Gattung, Munich, 1977, 306, n. 104. Simpson has recently produced new arguments for the oft- repeated claim that Sedulius meant the work for Charles the Bald; Sedulius Scottus, Collectaneum miscellaneum, ed. D. Simpson (Corpus Chrzstzanorum contznuatio mediaevalzs, LXVII), Turnhout, 1988, xxiv.

Staubach has argued that the language of the verses accompanying the S. Paolo Bible's ruler portrait is dependent on Sedulius's writings; Gussone and Staubach (as in n. 17), 351, n. 98. 22 M. G. H. Poetae, III, 155. 23 Sedulius Scottus, 1906, 25.

24 Hincmar, chap. 10; trans. Herlihy, 214. 25 Anton, 258 and n. 561. On the royal associations of the Cardinal Virtues, see Katzenellenbogen, 30 and n. 4. For the Virtues in Carolin- gian thought, see Mahl. 26 "Esjustus prudens fortis moderatus"; M. G. H. Poetae, III, 250. 27 Other depictions of Virtues in Carolingian art are in the Raganaldus Sacramentary, the Cambrai Gospels, and the Vivian Bible, where they surround a depiction of King David (for the first two, see n. 9; the Vivian Bible miniature is reproduced in Kessler, fig. 140).

The idea that the miniature in the Cambrai Gospels showed Charles the Bald or another Carolingian ruler has been discarded in favor of an identification of the figure surrounded by Virtues as a personification of Wisdom; Schramm, 165. Although some scholars (e.g., Kessler, 133- 134) have seen the two female figures in the spandrels of the depiction of Charles the Bald in the Vivian Bible as personifications of Virtues, this is unlikely, both because there are only two women (the Carolingians knew that the Cardinal Virtues came as a group of four, as is indicated by the poem in the Vivian Bible itself cited in the previous note), and because they offer crowns to the king, not an action for which the Virtues are noted.




Sedulius) who endanger his soul, while the armed soldiers

guard Charles against more mundane perils.28 Furthermore,

just as the defense of the king by angels and armed guards was believed to give Charles more strength to defend the

Church, the Carolingians also saw a link between the Virtues and increased piety. One section of Hincmar's ordo for Charles's coronation in 869 as king of Lotharingia reads: "We ask,

omnipotent one, that your servant, who took the kingdom's helm through your mercy, may harvest from you increases in the virtues, by means of which, properly decorated, he will be able both to avoid the monsters of the vices and to come to

you 'who are the way, the truth, and the life' and who live and rule with God."29 During Charles's reign, the separate groups of angels, Virtues, and soldiers in the miniature would have been seen as working to a common purpose.

Unique among Carolingian ruler images to the S. Paolo Bible is the depiction of Charles with his queen.30 The unusual conditions under which the manuscript was produced (the Bible was made during a period in which Charles was greatly desirous of further offspring) help to explain her

presence,31 but the inclusion of Charles's wife is also related to the miniature's theme, the good ruler. De rectoribus

Chrzstianis again furnishes the closest textual parallel. Sedu- lius set a series of tasks for the ruler: "A pious and wise king performs the office of ruling in three ways: as we have shown

above, he should first rule himself; second, his wife, his

children, and his household; and third, the people entrusted to him, with reasonable and meritorious discipline."32 Pre-

cisely these ideas are expressed in the Bible's ruler image. Charles, the miniature's largest figure, is imposing and

governs himself morally and virtuously, as the poem beneath the miniature urges him to do ("he rules first himself'; compare Sedulius's "he should first rule himself"'). He towers over his wife, her attendant, and the flanking armsbearers, all of whom make up his household, the second step in the

hierarchy of rule mentioned by Sedulius.33 Finally, Charles holds (and thus rules) an emblem of the world, the orb-like

disk.34 He is truly (as the poem below the miniature says) "his master's king on earth," the monarch who "rules ... all

things rightly."

To this point, the depiction of Charles and the poem below it in the S. Paolo Bible have been considered in isolation, as autonomous text and image. But the ruler

portrait and its accompanying verses do not stand alone in the manuscript. The miniature of Charles culminates a series of images in one of the most sumptuously decorated of all

Carolingian books, just as the poem beneath the miniature is the last of the Bible's many texts.

Herbert Schade recognized that the physical context of the S. Paolo Bible is important to interpreting the ruler

image and argued that a parallel was established in the Bible between the portrait of Charles the Bald and the miniature of Solomon that precedes Proverbs (Fig. 4).35 The pairing of the Carolingian ruler with a hero of the past was common in

ninth-century art and literature. Charlemagne's use of the David typology is the most famous example, but visual or verbal comparisons between Charles the Bald and Old

Testament, late antique, and even earlier Carolingian rulers were also common.36 Schade supported his argument for the

pairing of Charles the Bald and Solomon in the S. Paolo Bible by citing numerous Carolingian texts that associated the two kings.37 He invoked visual evidence as well, observ-

ing that both rulers have the same posture and wear similar crowns decorated with lilies, and that both images have a

purple field beneath them (empty in the Solomon miniature, filled with the dedicatory verse on the Charles the Bald

page). Schade might also have noted the presence of armed

guards in both miniatures and the almost identical clothing of the two kings.

Although there are important differences between the

miniatures, most notably in the rendering of the thrones, Charles the Bald and Solomon are surely associated in the Bible. But evaluating the significance of that association is difficult. Because all of the many rulers shown in the S. Paolo

manuscript were depicted using similar conventions and visual formulae derived from late antique art (e.g., guards, crowns, clothing),38 they all look alike. The depiction of Solomon in the Proverbs frontispiece is close to the ruler

portrait of Charles, but so too are the images of Pharaoh in the Exodus frontispiece, Saul in the miniature before 1 Samuel, David in the frontispiece to 2 Samuel, Holofernes in the Judith miniature, both Antiochus and Matthatias in the Maccabees frontispiece, and the high priest in the miniature 28 That these enemies are directed against Charles's character rather

than his body is suggested well by Doyle's translation of hostes aereos (which I rendered by "lofty enemies") as "invisible enemies"; Sedulius Scottus, 1983, 55.

The significance of the Virtues in the Bible's ruler portrait is also visually reinforced by their placement. Hrabanus Maurus wrote: "The entire honor and glory of royal dignity is lifted by these four Virtues as if

by the most secure columns"; Tractatus de anima (as in n. 9), col. 118, cited in Katzenellenbogen, 30, no. 4. The simile is striking because the Virtues in the Bible are depicted in an arcade.

29 M. G. H., Capztularza (as in n. 14), II, 457.

30 There are two other depictions of Carolingian queens without their husbands; Schramm, nos. 17, 47.

31 Kantorowicz, passzm. 32 Sedulius Scottus, 1906, 34, cited in a version adapted from Sedulius Scottus, 1983, 59.

33 On the composition of the royal household in the 9th century, see Hincmar, chaps. 16-37.

34 For the significance of the orb, see P.E. Schramm, Sphazra, Globus, Rezchsapfel, Stuttgart, 1958, passzm.

35 Schade, 1960, 15-19.

36 Charles was visually associated with David and Christ in the Vivian Bible, with Saint Jerome in the Paris Psalter, and with Christ in the Munich Prayer Book and Codex aureus; for these typologies, see Diebold, 118-128, 139-142, 160-169, and 249-255. The range of verbal typologies applied to Charles was more extensive (for examples, see Anton, 419-446, which is also excellent on Carolingian typologies in general).

37 Schade's reading of the monogram on the disk held by Charles as another association of the king and Solomon was noted above, n. 7. Schade's examples of the Charles/Solomon typology in 9th-century texts could be multiplied; see Anton, 430-432. 38 On the late antique sources for the ruler images of Charles and Solomon in the S. Paolo Bible, see Kessler, 135-138, and J.E. Gaehde, "The Pictorial Sources of the Illustrations to the Books of Kings, Proverbs, Judith and Maccabees in the Carolingian Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome," Frithmzttelalterlzche Studien, Ix, 1975, 373-378.



CHARLES THE BALD IN THE S. PAOLO BIBLE 13

4 Solomon Enthroned, S. Paolo Bible. Rome, Abbazia di S. Paolo fuori le Mura, fol. 188v (photo: Abbazia)

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preceding the Pauline epistles.39 Indeed, so many of the Bible's miniatures contain such depictions of figures of

authority that Joachim Gaehde assigned the name "Master of the Throne Images" to one of the three artists he

distinguished in the manuscript. The similarities among all these images of rulers led Gaehde to reject Schade's claim that a Solomon/Charles typology was established in the Bible; Gaehde argued instead that the relationships among the ruler portraits were simply the result of a stylistic formula

favored by the miniaturist and were therefore without significance.40

Gaehde is right that, in the context of the numerous ruler

images in the S. Paolo Bible, the visual associations between the miniatures of Solomon and Charles are not especially strong, but his conclusion that therefore no connection between the two rulers was intended does not necessarily follow. Charles is compared with Solomon and with all of the other royal figures depicted in the manuscript. Taken to-

39 Fols. 21v, 83v, 93, 234v, 243v, 310; repro. in Bibbia, pls. 5, 11-12, 16-17, 24.

40 Gaehde (as in n. 38), 378.




gether, the ruler portraits in the S. Paolo Bible form a visual

speculum principis. Gaehde dismissed precisely this claim by noting that no Carolingian text mentions all of the kings depicted in the Bible; thus, he believed it was impossible to

argue that the miniatures functioned like a verbal mirror of the ruler.41 Although no other text associates Charles and the

many kings whose images appear in the manuscript, the S. Paolo Bible's illuminations are not dependent on another

speculum principis (Gaehde searched the admonitory tracts of Hincmar and Sedulius Scottus in vain); the miniatures of

kings in the manuscript illustrate the most important and influential mirror of the ninth century: the biblical books

themselves, the very text of the S. Paolo manuscript. In the ninth century, the Bible was often considered the

most important source of advice for a ruler. Charles the Bald owned three large, luxuriously decorated Bibles; all three

manuscripts commend their text to the king as a storehouse of wisdom. A dedicatory poem in the Vivian Bible begins:

O blessed king Charles, may this Bible please you, It bears the two testaments which must be reread. It conveys what you love, what you should want to love,

what it should be useful to learn, What you should cherish, hold, and do frequently. It corrects, urges, restores, reproves, dignifies, Reveals, entreats, rebukes, praises, and nourishes.42

According to the poet, the Bible's text is a complete guide to human behavior for Charles.

Similar sentiments are found in the poem that opens the Second Bible of Charles the Bald,43 but there the verses stress the specific utility of the Scriptures to the ruler:

You [God] always gave laws to kings and kingdoms, And whoever was obedient to your words about kings Shone more lofty than the highest peak. Happy are the words, happy too the deeds, and

Happy he who minded you. Your praise and glory reign!

Much concerning many things is carried in this series of books.44

This same complex of ideas appears once more in the dedication of the S. Paolo Bible, which also presents the biblical text as the ultimate handbook for man: "Everything you ought to fear, reader, or to desire/You will certainly be able to know through this crowned book."45

It was not only in Bibles themselves that the importance of the Old and New Testaments as an ethical and political guide for rulers was trumpeted. Carolingian mirrors of the ruler

frequently acknowledge the superior position of the Bible in

their genre. According to Sedulius Scottus in De rectoribus

Christianis, the cardinal rule for the king was to follow the Bible: "If anyone, therefore, intends and desires to guide the

ship of state successfully as a just ruler, let him not fail to observe the excellent counsels of the Lord which have been set forth in Holy Scriptures."46 Jonas of Orleans's mid-ninth-

century mirror De instztutione regia urged Pippin of Aquitaine to read Deuteronomy in order to learn "what sort of king he should be or what he should avoid."47 The Libri Carolini, written for Charles the Bald's grandfather Charlemagne, although not a speculum principis, neatly summed up Carolin-

gian admiration for the Bible, praising it simply and unreserv-

edly as "a treasure store which lacks in nothing whatsoever.'"48 There is ample evidence that many Carolingian writers,

including several close to Charles the Bald, believed the Bible's text was a fount of wisdom and of particular value as a

speculum principis. But were the miniatures in the S. Paolo Bible intended to function as a mirror of the prince? There are several indications they were. Because of the placement of the ruler portrait at the end of the book, the king had to

page through the entire Bible to find himself. Perhaps we can imagine Charles looking at the huge manuscript and,

having turned its 337 leaves, seeing himself culminating the series of full-page miniatures. All of the biblical exemplars lie behind him (literally and figuratively) and it is up to the king to make the right decisions. To Carolingian minds, the

experience of looking at the Bible and reading its text would have prepared Charles to make those decisions wisely. His

ability to carry them out would be aided by the two divinely sent protectors depicted in the ruler image, angels and

Virtues, and by the earthly guards at his side. There is textual confirmation that the miniatures in the S.

Paolo Bible were meant as a speculum przncipis. The dedica-

tory poem at the beginning of the book emphasizes the visual qualities of the Bible's message. In describing how the didactic content of the Bible would be transmitted, the poem uses a series of verbs--notare, videre (each twice), cernere, and

monstrare--which describe not just reading, but seeing in

general.49 The following passage demonstrates the emphasis on the visual nature of the Bible's contents:

Here may you perceive [cernas] Adam weighed in the scales of piety,

A failure by himself, but not abandoned without law.

Here you will see [videbis] with divided mind the twin cherubs

41 Gaehde, I, 184-185, and zdem (as in n. 38), 378-379, n. 105. 42 M. G. H. Poetae, III, 243-244.

43 Paris, Bibl. Nat. Ms lat. 2. On this manuscript, see P.E. Schramm and F. Muitherich, Denkmale der deutschen Konige und Kazser I, 2nd ed., Munich, 1981, no. 54. 44 M. G. H. Poetae, III, 255. 45 Ibd., 258.

46 Sedulius Scottus, 1906, 38; cited from Sedulius Scottus, 1983, 61.

7 Les Iddes polztzco-religzeuses d'un 6vique du IXe siecle.Jonas d'Orlians et son "De znstitutzone regia," ed. J. Reviron, Paris, 1930, 139; cited in J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, "The 'Via Regia' of the Carolingian Age," Trends zn Medieval Polztzcal Thought, ed. B. Smalley, Oxford, 1965, 26. 48 Libri Carolnz szve Carolz Magnz capztulare de zmagznibus, ed. H. Bastgen, M. G. H., Conczlia, suppl., Hannover and Leipzig, 1924, 96; cited in W. Ullmann, The Carolingzan Renazssance and the Idea of Kzngshzp, London, 1969, 18. See zbzd., 18-20, for more evidence of the importance of the Bible in the Carolingian era. In general on the Librz Carohnz's exceptionally positive attitude toward Scripture, see C. Chazelle, "Matter, Spirit and Image in the Librz Carolinz," Recherches Augustinzennes, xxI, 1986, 169. 49 M. G. H. Poetae, III, 257-258.




And you will mark [notabis] in a clear light kindly God.50

The poet's use of cernere, videre, and notare in these lines makes clear that he is recommending the images as well as

(or even instead of) the text for contemplation: a user of the

manuscript should look at the miniatures if he would gain the lessons of the Bible. The passage just cited is also

important because it indicates that not only the Bible's miniatures of rulers were meant to serve as models. The viewer can learn from the examples of other kings, but there are also valuable lessons in the actions of nonroyal persons such as Adam. Because the biblical text is an unsurpassed source of moral instruction, each of the miniatures in the S. Paolo Bible preceding the ruler portrait is a visual mirror for the ruler, presenting examples of good and bad conduct.51 The final image in the manuscript, that of Charles the Bald himself, illustrates the merits of virtuous self-rule and the means to achieve that goal.

So far, much of my discussion of the ruler image in the S. Paolo Bible has implicitly been from the perspective of its

subject. I have been concerned with how the depiction of Charles the Bald might have been understood by someone like the king himself, familiar with texts like late Carolingian mirrors of princes, who saw the ruler portrait as the last in a series of images of exemplary biblical figures. This is the normal art-historical model for the interpretation of early medieval ruler images. Carolingian and Ottonian monarchs are thought to have been both patron and audience, order-

ing flattering images of themselves for their own contemplation.52 But this assumption of an almost pathological self- obsession on the part of early medieval kings needs to be

tempered; the process by which ruler images were created and used was more complex. Although we have far too little information about the patronage, production, and function of ruler images in the early Middle Ages simply to discard the traditional model entirely and replace it with another, there are instances (and the S. Paolo Bible is one) where the traditional model is demonstrably flawed. In the absence of a

comprehensive study of the use and function of early medieval ruler images,53 the portraits of Charles the Bald can be

used as a relevant illustration of the often complex conditions under which these images were produced and con- sumed.

There are six extant depictions of Charles made during his lifetime. The king was not the patron of at least one of these, for the Vivian Bible, which contains exceptionally flattering visual and verse panegyrics of Charles, was produced as a gift for the king on the orders of Count Vivian, the lay abbot of the monastery of St. Martin at Tours.54 More striking than this proof that early medieval rulers were not always the

patrons of their images is the evidence that the monarchs were also not the only audience for these images. Each of the six portraits of Charles the Bald left the possession of Charles or his successors during the Middle Ages. Given the king's well-documented and sustained policy of giving away the

objects made for him, there is every reason to think that Charles himself was the donor of at least some of these works.55 The model of king as patron and audience is thus too simple because ruler images were not produced only on a monarch's orders and for his personal use. The role of

nonroyal patrons and nonroyal viewers also needs to be considered.

This new, more complex picture of the making and use of ruler images in the early Middle Ages corresponds well to what can be determined about the production and reception of the S. Paolo Bible. Charles the Bald was not the only person in the ninth century to whom the manuscript's ruler

portrait was available; indeed, there is no firm evidence that Charles was either the Bible's patron or its audience.

The S. Paolo Bible was not made in Charles the Bald's so-called "court school." (This northern French scriptorium, which is not precisely localized and was likely not at court, produced a number of manuscripts for the king around the same time that the Bible was illuminated.) In itself, this does not prove that the king was not the Bible's patron. The court school did not work exclusively for Charles and, even during the period when the workshop was most active, Charles

patronized other centers: the king's Second Bible was made at St. Amand between 871 and 873.56 But that Franco-Saxon

manuscript, totally lacking figurative decoration, is far re- moved in style from the products of the court school; Charles

may have seen it as an intriguing and desirable novelty. The

5o Ibzd., 258. 51 The presence in the S. Paolo Bible of miniatures of bad rulers such as Pharaoh and Holofernes does not invalidate the idea that the manuscript was intended as a speculum pnncipzs for Charles the Bald. The use of negative examples was common in 9th-century admonitions to kings; De rectonbus Chnstianzs, for example, discusses bad rulers such as Pharaoh (Sedulius Scottus, 1906, 44), while Milo of St. Amand's De sobrietate, a panegyric to the virtues of sobriety dedicated to Charles the Bald, is full of figures from the Old and New Testaments who were not sober (M. G. H. Poetae, III, 613-675). On negative exempla in Caroling- ian literature and art, see Anton, 434-435, and Nees, 263-277 and passzm. 52 For profitable applications of this model to the ruler portraits of Charles the Bald, see R. Deshman, "The Exalted Servant: The Ruler Theology of the Prayerbook of Charles the Bald," Viator, xI, 1980, 385-417; Kessler, 125-138; and Weitzmann, "Iconography" (as in n. 17), 217-245.

53 For surveys of early medieval ruler images, see P.E. Schramm, "Das Herrscherbild in der Kunst des frihen Mittelalters," Vortrage der Bibhlothek Warburg, II, Pt. 1, 1922-23, 145-224 (updated, but not

changed in its theory of the production and use of ruler images, in Schramm), and D. Bullough, " 'Imagines regum' and Their Significance in the Early Medieval West," Studzes zn Memory of David Talbot Rice, ed. G. Robertson and G. Henderson, Edinburgh, 1975, 223-276. It may be significant that both Schramm and Bullough are historians; no art historian has surveyed this material.

54 For a fine analysis of the complex conditions surrounding the making of the Vivian Bible, see H.L. Kessler, "A Lay Abbot as Patron: Count Vivian and the First Bible of Charles the Bald," Commzttenti e produzione artistico-letteraria nell'alto medioevo occidentale (Settimane di studio del Centro Italiano dz Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, xxxix), Spoleto, 1992, 647-675.

55 For the provenance of the ruler images of Charles the Bald, see Diebold, 430, 433-436, and zdem, "Verbal, Visual, and Cultural Literacy in Medieval Art: Word and Image in the Psalter of Charles the Bald," Word & Image, viIi, 1992, 96, 99, n. 48. More generally for Charles as a donor, see Diebold, 430-436. 56 On the problem of the "court school," see Koehler and Muitherich, passzm, and Diebold, 37-68. Of the twelve manuscripts generally associated with the school, only five can be definitely connected with Charles the Bald.




S. Paolo Bible, on the other hand, is stylistically so close to the court school manuscripts that it is occasionally grouped with them; the complexity of the Bible's iconographic program also associates it with such luxurious and densely illustrated court school manuscripts as the Munich Codex aureus and the Paris sacramentary fragment.57 Given the court school's proven ability in the years around 870 to

produce manuscripts very like the S. Paolo Bible, it is not obvious why Charles would have turned to Reims for the

manuscript. The place of the Bible's production thus raises the possibility that, like the Vivian Bible, the S. Paolo Bible was a gift for Charles, made on the orders of someone else.

Although conclusive evidence is lacking, the Bible's patron could well have been Hincmar, the powerful archbishop of

Reims, advisor and friend of Charles but also his rival on

many points.58 Hincmar's importance in Reims and his

exceptional interest in Carolingian kingship (especially that of Charles the Bald) make it difficult to imagine the production in his city of a manuscript for Charles without the

archbishop's knowledge and participation. The use of the Bible's miniatures as a speculum principis also accords with the

possibility of Hincmar's patronage. Although the archbishop was the author of two mirrors of the ruler directed to Charles the Bald, one on the royal person and office and the other on the exercise of virtue and the avoidance of vice, he (like most

Carolingian thinkers) believed the Bible was the most important admonitory text for the ruler.59 Furthermore, Hincmar's ideas about Charles and Carolingian kingship correspond well with details of the S. Paolo Bible's ruler portrait. The

archbishop's special interest in making the defense of the Church a duty of the Carolingian monarch was noted above, and several citations from his writings, including his ordo for Charles's coronation in 869 as king of Lotharingia, have

appeared in the preceding pages.60 The possibility that the Bible was produced in a scripto-

rium not intimately associated with Charles's court and for a

patron other than the king may explain one peculiarity of the manuscript: the Bible's iconographic program is conser- vative in comparison to the rest of Charles the Bald's artistic

patronage from the last decade of his reign. Although the

idea of using images as a speculum principis is an innovative one, the typologies invoked in the S. Paolo Bible are all traditional for the Carolingian period, comparing Charles to Old Testament kings such as David, Solomon, and Pharaoh. But by the 860s, other works of art made for Charles were

routinely expressing not only these usual Carolingian simi-

les, but also the revolutionary ideas that Charles was like Christian saints or even Christ himself.61 The implications of these new typologies are not apparent in the S. Paolo Bible, which emphasizes not that Charles is like God, but rather that with God's help, Charles can be the ideal ruler. These ideas agree precisely with the beliefs of Hincmar, who

thought that the king, because of his lofty position in society, was a model for all and therefore needed to be morally superior to everyone. He was better, however, not by virtue of his person (the ruler was not Christlike), but by his office, which indicated the special favor of God.62 This notion of the

authority of the royal office finds expression in the ruler

portrait of the S. Paolo Bible.63 Charles the Bald may well not have been the patron of the

Bible; he may also not have been its recipient. Although this idea has not, to my knowledge, been proposed before, the evidence indicating Charles was the intended audience for the S. Paolo Bible is surprisingly slight. The king is named

only twice in the manuscript, once in the poem accompanying the ruler portrait (which calls him "this Charles") and once in the dedicatory poem at the beginning of the

manuscript, the relevant section of which reads: ".. . the book at hand/ Which your dependent, King Charles of fair

countenance/And a faithful heart, offers to you and to yours, O Christ."64

These third-person mentions of Charles are relatively modest in comparison to the references to the king in the other manuscripts containing ruler images of him.65 In the

poems in the Vivian Bible, for example, Charles is addressed in the vocative on four separate occasions, clearly indicating

57 For the sacramentary fragment (Paris, Bibl. Nat. Ms lat. 1141), see Koehler and Mfitherich, 165-174. 58 On Hincmar, see Devisse. For the argument that Hincmar was the

patron of part of another admonitory work of art made for Charles the Bald (and later in papal hands), see Nees, 147-301.

59 Hincmar's mirrors for Charles are De regis persona et regzo miznsterio ad Carolum calvum regem, Pat. lat. cxxv, 833-856 and De cavendis vztzis et vzrtutzbus exercendis, Pat. lat. cxxv, 857-930.

On Hincmar's ideas on the importance of the Bible as a source of royal instruction, see chapter 2 of De ordzne palatzz, where he writes that the ruler "should pay close heed to the admonition and the warning of the

King of kings" and that "he should also listen carefully to Holy Scripture" (Herlihy, 210), and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, "History in the Mind of Archbishop Hincmar," The Writing of History zn the Mzddle Ages. Essays Presented to Richard William Southern, ed. R.H.C. Davis and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Oxford, 1981, 49.

60 See nn. 14, 19, 20, 24, 29, 33 and 59. It is worth noting that not only did Hincmar write the 869 ordo, but it was he (of the seven episcopal concelebrants of the coronation Mass) who actually voiced the request that God provide angelic protection, which was cited above at n. 14.

Though this is not entirely clear from the ordo's text, he probably also asked God to bestow the Virtues on Charles, a passage cited above in n. 29.

61 For the comparison between Charles and Saint Jerome in the Paris Psalter, see Diebold (as in n. 55), 89-99. Charles and Christ are

compared in the Munich Prayer Book; Deshman (as in n. 52). Charles's Christomimetic kingship is also apparent in the Vivian Bible, the Munich Codex aureus, and perhaps the Throne of Peter; Diebold, 160-169, 237-238, 249-255. 62 Devisse, 672-673, 681. Hincmar's position on this issue was the standard Carolingian one; cf. Morrison (as in n. 19), 56-57, n. 70. 63 In large part because Hincmar's patronage of the S. Paolo Bible must remain speculative, I do not think it is fruitful to attempt to connect the

production of the Bible with his specific political concerns at a particular moment during the decade in which the Bible might have been made. Although we are well informed (primarily through the archbishop's own writings) as to Hincmar's attitudes toward Charles the Bald, these changed so often as to be bewildering to an interpreter more than a millennium later, who is faced with the prospect of trying to associate Hincmar's texts with the images in the S. Paolo Bible. For just such an

attempt to associate another work of art made for Charles the Bald with Hincmar and with a specific historical moment, see Nees, 147-301. 64 M. G. H. Poetae, III, 258. Arnaldi also noted the relatively impersonal character of the verses relating to Charles in the S. Paolo Bible, but he

explicitly refused to draw the conclusion that Charles was not the

manuscript's initial audience; Arnaldi, 28-29. 65 I have excluded the Throne of Peter from consideration as part of this "control group"; as a throne, rather than a manuscript, it could not contain the kind of verbal evidence usually required to provide precise historical information about an audience.



CHARLES THE BALD IN THE S. PAOLO BIBLE 17

he was the manuscript's intended audience. Prayers in the Munich Prayer Book, asking God to "free me, our wife, and children," lead to the same conclusion. Likewise, in the Paris Psalter, there are references to "our wife" and "our children" as well as first-person requests from Charles to God. Of the other manuscripts containing ruler images of Charles, only the Munich Codex aureus lacks such explicit evidence that the book was meant for the king's use.66

By contrast, not only does the S. Paolo Bible contain no direct evidence that Charles was the intended audience, but it contains positive proof that someone other than the king was meant to see the book. The Bible's long-standing Roman

provenance (traceable to the eleventh century)67 has led most scholars to assume that, whatever the circumstances under which it was made, Charles gave the manuscript to the

pope at the king's imperial coronation in 875. But it is

important to recognize that Rome was not just where the Bible happened to land after it had rested in the royal collection for some number of years. According to the verses from the Bible cited above, the manuscript was intended from the first to be given away: to Christ. These verses, almost entirely ignored by scholars, together with the

manuscript's Roman provenance, make it likely that the Bible was originally meant for the Lateran, known in the ninth century as the baszlica Salvatoris, by far the most

important Roman church dedicated to Christ.68 The Lateran would certainly have been an appropriate destination for a

gift meant to curry the favor of the pope, since that church was the site of both the papal cathedra and palace.

It is difficult to determine which of the three pontiffs who ruled during the years in which the S. Paolo Bible was made

might have been the manuscript's original recipient. The Bible is usually associated with Charles's 875 imperial coronation by John VIII (and a number of ninth-century sources record gifts made by Charles at that occasion, although no books are mentioned), but Charles gave presents to the

Papacy at other times as well. Gifts were made to John VIII

again in 877, and John's predecessors Nicholas I (at two different times) and Hadrian II also benefited from Charles's

largesse.69 The S. Paolo Bible could have been transferred from ruler to pope at any of these times, or at some other occasion not preserved in the historical record. Since the Bible was probably made between 866 and 875, Nicholas I (ruled 858-867) is the least likely recipient. Although Charles's attitude toward that pope was friendly (witness the gifts noted above), he died in 867, only one year after the Bible's approximate terminus post quem. By contrast, Charles's relationship with Nicholas's successor, Hadrian II (ruled 867-872), was generally cool. Hadrian protested Charles's 869 coronation as king of Lotharingia; in 870, the two were in dispute over Charles's treatment of his son, Carloman (although this did not keep Charles from presenting the pope with an altar frontal and two chandeliers for St. Peter's in that year); in 871, Charles was denounced by Hadrian over both the Carloman issue and for his position in the dispute between Hincmar of Reims and Hincmar of Laon. In 872, however, the year of his death, Hadrian gave favor to Charles and promised him the imperial title, a promise fulfilled by Hadrian's successor, John VIII (ruled 872-882), in 875. Thus, the Bible was most probably des- tined either for Hadrian in the last year of his reign or for John VIII, a strong supporter of Charles. (Not only did John crown Charles emperor, but he rallied support for the new

emperor at a synod held in Ravenna in 876.)70 If we imagine the pope (rather than the king himself) as

the audience for the ruler portrait of Charles the Bald in the S. Paolo Bible, the meaning of that image changes. No

longer is it part of a visual and verbal speculum principis, perhaps created by Hincmar to keep the king pointed in the

right direction. Instead, the image becomes more like another common ninth-century literary genre, the verse panegyric. The reaction of the high Roman clergy to the miniatures in the Bible can be supposed. They would have been struck

by the visual connections between Charles and the great kings of the Old Testament. The famous Carolingian royal typologies were familiar to the popes in verbal form from their contacts with Charles the Bald and his ancestors (it was, after all, Pope Stephen II who had called the first Carolin-

gian king, Pippin the Short, a "new David and a new Moses"71), but the pontiff may well never have seen these

66 Vivian Bible: M. G. H. Poetae, III, 243, 248-250. Munich Prayer Book: Koehler and Mfitherich, 80; the Prayer Book also contains an explicit statement of Charles's patronage; Koehler and Mfitherich, 79. On the Prayer Book, see Koehler and Mfitherich, 75-87. Paris Psalter: Koehler and Miitherich, 132; C. Cahier, "Ivoires sculptes du livre de prieres de Charles-le-Chauve," Milanges d'archeologze, d'histozre et de lhttirature, ed. C. Cahier and A. Martin, Paris, 1947-49, I, 29. On the Psalter, see Koehler and Miitherich, 132-143.

In contrast to the S. Paolo Bible, Charles zs explicitly named twice as the patron of the Munich Codex aureus and is mentioned three other times in poems accompanying the manuscript's miniatures; M. G. H. Poetae, III, 252-254. 67 Two 11 th-century Roman Bibles copy verses from the S. Paolo Bible, which itself bears a 1080 oath of fealty by Robert Guiscard to Pope Gregory VII written in an 1 ith-century hand; L. Ayres, "An Italian Romanesque Manuscript of Hrabanus Maurus' De laudzbus Sanctae Cruczs and the Gregorian Reform," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XLI, 1987, 25-26, and Gaehde, II, 3-6. 68 I owe this important suggestion to Michael McCormick. Arnaldi has argued that "you and yours" in the Bible's opening poem refers to Christ and the Apostles and that the destination of the Bible was therefore papal and Roman; he did not, however, connect the manuscript with the Lateran; Arnaldi, 29. Durrieu, the only other scholar to take note in print of the Bible's opening verses, suggested that they meant simply that the manuscript was to be donated to a church; P. Durrieu, "Ingobert: Un Grand Calligraphe du IXe siecle," Milanges offerts a M. Emzle Chatelazn, Paris, 1910, 3.

69 Charles's gifts in 875 to John VIII are reported in the Carolingian Annals of St. Bertin (Annales de Saznt-Bertzn, 200), Fulda (M. G. H. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, 1891, 85), and St. Vaast (M. G. H. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, 1909, 40), as well as in later sources, including the chronicle of Regino of Prfim (M. G. H. Scriptores rerum Germanzcarum, 1890, 110). These sources are collected in Diebold, 493-494. Probably in return, John VIII gave gifts to Charles the Bald in 876; Annales de Saint-Bertin, 204. For Charles's gifts in 877 to John VIII, see Annales de Saznt-Bertzn, 216; M. G. H. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, 1909, 42; and M. G. H., Scriptores, xIII, 622.

For the gifts to Nicholas I, see M. G. H., Epistolae Karolzni aevz, Iv, Berlin, 1925, 387; Lzberpontzficalzs, II, ed. L. Duchesne, Paris, 1955, 161; M. G. H. Poetae, III, 687-688. The gifts to Hadrian II are reported in Annales de Saznt-Bertin, 177-178. 70 For Charles's relations with the Papacy in this period, see G. Arnaldi, "Natale 875. Politica, ecclesiologia, cultura del papato altomedievale," Rzcherche di storza sociale e relzgiosa, xxxvI, 1989, 7-29, and J.L. Nelson, Charles the Bald, London, 1992, 215-253. 71 M. G. H., Epzstolae Karolinz aevz, I, Berlin, 1892, 540, 552.




comparisons between Old Testament and Carolingian monarchs expressed visually. The pope would also have been interested by the emphasis in the ruler image upon the virtuous nature of the newly minted (or soon to be minted) emperor. In this sense, the miniature would have indicated that the Papacy chose its emperor wisely; Charles's half- brother Louis the German had also assiduously courted the

imperial title. In this Roman context the many connections noted above between the iconographic programs of the Throne of Peter and the S. Paolo Bible are particularly germane. Charles was surely anxious to demonstrate his

virtue, the divine and earthly protection it afforded him, and the benefits that virtue would bring the Church, in order to convince the pope that he had done well for himself by naming Charles emperor. Accordingly, Charles gave the Throne and the Bible, two works of extreme iconographic inventiveness, as royal gifts to his papal benefactor.

This article has tried to place the S. Paolo Bible's ruler

portrait of Charles the Bald in various ninth-century con-

texts, and to show that these are essential to understanding the meaning of the image. The lines beneath the image explain much in the ruler portrait, but the miniature is far more than just an illustration of the poem, since the image provides information about Charles the Bald and Carolin-

gian rulership not contained in the accompanying text. The ruler portrait also expresses ideas about the good ruler that

correspond to those in a characteristic form of Carolingian literature, the speculum principis. Another context for the ruler portrait was its setting in the manuscript itself; in

looking at the crucial significance of the physical relationship of the image of Charles the Bald to the other miniatures and texts in the Bible, the necessity of considering this kind of

physical context was made clear. Finally, in examining three

possible audiences for the S. Paolo Bible's ruler image, the

patron (Hincmar?), the first recipient (Charles the Bald?), and the ultimate ninth-century destination (the pope), such

changes in context, broadly defined, were shown to affect

meaning in vital ways. In the case of the ruler portrait in the S. Paolo Bible, for example, this change in audience drasti-

cally altered the genre of the image from speculum principis to

panegyric, simultaneously changing its meaning.

Wzlliam Diebold received his doctorate from The Johns Hopkins University wzth a dissertation on the artzstic patronage of Charles the Bald. He has published articles in Word & Image and the Archiv fuir Kulturgeschichte and is currently at work on a book entitled The Carolingian Language of Art [Reed College, 3203 Southeast Woodstock Blvd., Portland, Ore. 97202-8199].

Frequently Cited Sources

Annales de Saznt-Bertzn, ed. F. Grat, J. Vielliard, and S. Clemencet, Paris, 1964.

Anton, H.H., Furstenspiegel und Herrscherethos zn der Karolzngerzezt (Bon- ner historische Forschungen, xxxII), Bonn, 1968.

Arnaldi, G., "In margine al prologo della Bibbia di S. Paolo," Cultura e soczetd nell'Italza medievale (Studi storicz, CLXXXIV), Rome, 1988, 27-39.

La bzbbza di S. Paolo fuorz le mura, ed. V. Jemolo and M. Morelli, Rome, 1981.

La cattedra lzgnea dz S. Pzetro in Vatzcano (Attz della Pontzficza Accademza Romana dz Archeologia, Memorze, x), Vatican City, 1971.

Devisse, J., HzncmarArchevique de Rezms, 845-882, Geneva, 1975-76.

Diebold, W.J., "The Artistic Patronage of Charles the Bald," Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1989.

Gaehde, J.E., "The Painters of the Carolingian Bible Manuscript of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome," Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1963.

Herlihy, D., ed., The Hzstory of Feudalzsm, New York, 1970.

Hincmar, De ordzne palatzz (M.G.H., Fontesjurzs Germanzcz antzquz zn usum scholarum separatzm edztz, III), ed. and trans. T. Gross and R. Schieffer, Hannover, 1980.

Katzenellenbogen, A., Allegorzes of the Vzrtues and Vzces zn Medzaeval Art, London, 1939.

Kessler, H.L., The Illustrated Bzbles from Tours (Studzes zn Manuscrzpt Illumznatzon, viI), Princeton, 1977.

Koehler, W., and F. Mfitherich, Dze Hofschule Karls des Kahlen (Dze karolzngzschen Minzaturen, v), Berlin, 1982.

Mihl, S., Quadrzga Vzrtutum. Dze Kardznaltugenden zn der Gezstesgeschzchte der Karolzngerzezt, Cologne, 1969.

M.G.H. Poetae = Monumenta Germanzae hzstorzca, Poetae Latznz aevz Carolznz, Berlin, 1881ff.

M.G.H. Scrzptores rerum Germanzcarum = Monumenta Germanzae historzca, Scrzptores rerum Germanzcarum zn usum scholarum, Berlin and Hannover, 1871ff.

Nees, L., A Taznted Mantle: Hercules and the Classzcal Tradztzon at the

Carolzngzan Court, Philadelphia, 1991.

Schade, H., 1959 and 1960, "Studien zu der karolingischen Bilderbibel aus St. Paul vor den Mauern zu Rom," Wallraf-Rzchartz Jahrbuch, xxi, 1959, 9-40, and xxII, 1960, 13-48.

Schramm, P.E., Dze deutschen Kaiser und Konzge zn Bzldern zhrer Zezt, 2nd ed., ed. F. Miutherich, Munich, 1983.

Sedulius Scottus, 1906, De rectorzbus Chrnstzanzs, ed. S. Hellmann, Sedulzus Scottus (Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateznzschen Philologze des Mzttelal- ters, I), Munich, 1906, 19-91.

, 1983, On Chrzstzan Rulers and The Poems, trans. E.G. Doyle (Medzeval & Renazssance Texts & Studzes, xvII), Binghamton, 1983.



The Ruler Portrait of Charles the Bald in the S, Paolo Bible

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