Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Compilatio historiarum / Giovanni, da Udine
Switzerland, Basel, ca. 1476
MS M.158 fol. 36v

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Miniature, upper left: 1) Lamech: abused by Wives -- Lamech, wearing short loin cloth, hands crossed at waist is flanked by two wives (Adah and Zilla), both raising right hands, the one at left with her left hand grasping his right arm. Miniature, lower left: 2) Job: smitten by Satan and Job: with Wife -- Devil, horned, with face on abdomen and clawed feet and hands, raises scourge with left hand and with right hand grasps left arm of Job, nude, seated on hillock (dungheap?), with joined hands raised, beside his wife, veiled, gesturing toward him. Miniature, upper right: 3) Christ: crowned with Thorns -- Christ, cross-nimbed, head inclined, crown of thorns on head, raising right hand to breast and holding palm with left hand, is sitting on bench, flanked by two men, wearing hats, holding rods to His head. Miniature, lower right: 4) Darius I of Persia: Crown taken -- Darius, right hand raised, is seated on bench beside Apame, grasping her crown with her right hand. Both flanked by attendants, the man, wearing hat over hood, with knife and pouch tied to waist, holds scepter with left hand and indicates the Darius with his right hand, the woman, wearing snood, gestures. Scene in room with wooden ceiling and tiled floor. Miniatures for Bernhart Richel’s Spiegel der Menschlichen Behältnis (Basel: 1476) with biblical quotes, commentary and abbreviated extracts, in German, for Chapters 20 (Lamech: abused by Wives and Job: smitten by Satan) and 21 in the Speculum Humanae Salvationis.