The Dynastic in the Monastic: King Robert of Anjou
Denva Gallant
The Murray Seminar Series at Birbeck
Online and In-Person Lecture
Wed, 16 November 2022, 17:00 – 18:30 GMT (12:00-1:30 ET)
Birkbeck, University of London, 43, Gordon Sq. Keynes Library London WC1H 0PD United Kingdom
The fourteenth century in western Europe witnessed a surge of monastic and lay interest in imitating the practices of the sainted desert hermits known to later generations as the Desert Fathers and Mothers. With 272 illustrations narrating the lives of desert fathers and mothers, NY, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. M.626 represents an outstanding and rare witness to this moment of eremitic adulation. This talk argues that the manuscript was also part of a broad campaign of identity construction at the court of King Robert of Anjou (r. 1309–1343). On folio 60v of the manuscript, a crypto-portrait, a disguised representation of King Robert as Emperor Theodosius, suggests that Robert was one of the intended readers of Morgan MS. M.626. It is well known that Robert endeavoured to present himself as a pious ruler throughout his reign. The Morgan manuscript sheds light on one such way the sovereign endeavoured to do so—by embodying and performing a sacred rulership through his readings of the Lives of the Desert Fathers.
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The Murray Seminars on Medieval and Renaissance Art present current research by emerging and established scholars. Seminars are held three times a term and take place at 5.00pm in the History of Art Department (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in The Keynes Library (Room 114), unless stated otherwise.
Talks finish by 5.50pm to allow those with other commitments to leave, and are then followed by discussion and refreshments. These talks are supported by the Murray Bequest in memory of the department's founder Peter Murray, and are open to all. Please follow booking links to register online if you wish to attend. If you wish to join our mailing list, please contact Laura Jacobus.