The Jew, the cathedral and the medieval city : Synagoga and Ecclesia in the thirteenth century / Nina Rowe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rowe, Nina.

Contributor:

Benjamin Franklin Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ecclesia (Christian art).

Synagoga (Christian art).

Sculpture, Medieval--Themes, motives.

Sculpture, Medieval.

Art and society--Europe--History--To 1500.

Art and society.

Judaism--Relations--Christianity--History--To 1500.

Judaism.

Christianity and other religions--Judaism--History--To 1500.

Christianity and other religions.

History.

Relations.

Christianity.

Europe.

Physical Description:

xvii, 326 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Summary:

"In the thirteenth century, sculptures of Synagoga and Ecclesia - paired female personifications of the Synagogue defeated and the Church triumphant - became a favored motif on cathedral façades in France and Germany. Throughout the centuries leading up to this era, the Jews of northern Europe prospered financially and intellectually, a trend that ran counter to the long-standing Christian conception of Jews as relics of the pre-history of the Church. In The Jew, the Cathedral and the Medieval City, Nina Rowe examines the sculptures as defining elements in the urban Jewish-Christian encounter. She locates the roots of the Synagoga-Ecclesia motif in antiquity and explores the theme's public manifestations at the cathedrals of Reims, Bamberg, and Strasbourg, considering each example in relation to local politics and culture. Ultimately, she demonstrates that royal and ecclesiastical policies to restrain the religious, social, and economic lives of Jews in the early thirteenth century found a material analog in lovely renderings of a downtrodden Synagoga, placed in the public arena of the city square"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: the Jew, the cathedral and the city

Part I. Imagining Jews and Judaism in Life and Art: 1. The Jew in a Christian world: denunciation and restraint in the age of cathedrals; 2. Ecclesia and Synagoga: the life of a motif

Part II. Art and Life on the Ecclesiastical Stage - Three Case Studies: Introduction to Part II: nature, antiquity and sculpture in the early thirteenth century; 3. Reims: 'our Jews' and the royal sphere; 4. Bamberg: the empire, the Jews and earthly order; 5. Strasbourg: clerics, burghers and Jews in the medieval city

Epilogue: the afterlife of an image.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-320) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Benjamin Franklin Library Fund.

ISBN:

9780521197441

0521197449

OCLC:

610830800

Online:

Cover image