The Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture. With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle’ ed. by Lisa H. Cooper, and Andrea Denny-Brown (review)

While the instruments of Christ’s Passion have been a familiar motif in Christian art since late antiquity, the presentation of these objects in isolation seems to have developed in the late medieval period. Images of these objects appear in a variety of contexts and media, including ivory tablets, tombs, paintings, and manuscripts. The mid-fourteenth-century Arma Christi from James le Palmer’s Omne Bonum, reproduced on the cover of this collection, gives an encyclopaedic sequence of thirty-eight images, including the crucifixion and the Man of Sorrows motif. It also shows a cock, thirty pieces of silver, scourges, and other images that might otherwise defy explanation, such as the wound from Christ’s side, a pelican plucking blood from her breast to feed her offspring, and the Mocking of Christ, represented by a single figure spitting on a haloed Christ figure. These images are, however, part of a much richer complex of writings and devotional practices, that can be further fleshed out by examining not only the history of the individual objects but also shifts in their cultural meanings. It is also useful to remember that at the time of the creation of these works, the objects themselves were believed still to exist, preserved as precious relics.

This collection contains ten essays that look at this theme from a variety of different periods, beginning with late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, focusing mainly on the late medieval period, but also including its post-Reformation history. While most of the studies look to England, there is one essay on Ireland, and two continental discussions looking at works by Michelangelo and Hieronymous Bosch (though these latter two sit somewhat uneasily within the general frame of the collection, which is not to criticise Suzanne Verderber’s skilled discussion of Bosch’s difficult iconography). In addition, the final section consists of a critical edition of the Middle English poem ‘O Vernicle’ edited by Ann Eljenhom Nichols, highlighting too the importance of the theme to literary scholars. It is a pity that the focus on British evidence has meant that the important European Early Modern context has been left out, making the references to Bosch and Michelangelo, in particular, seem exceptional.

One of the real strengths of this collection is the variety of different angles and approaches taken by each of the contributors. As an art historian, I was particularly taken by the discussions of the early fifteenth-century Arma Christi rolls and the use of the idea of the virtual pilgrimage. The interaction between private devotional practices, texts, and images was particularly fascinating, giving a convincing account of the practicalities of using the roll-format, which an older tradition saw as a form of public display. Both Richard Newhauser and Arthur Russell’s and Nichols’s essays are models of careful and nuanced scholarship. I was also impressed by Mary Agnes Edsall’s discussion of early Christian and medieval representations of the instruments of the Passion, bringing in not only the Utrecht Psalter, but also early Christian sermons and other writings on the Passion. The use of rhetorical devices like ekphrasis by figures such as Chromatius, who created vivid memory images of place and object was, for me, thought provoking. As the editors, Lisa Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown, point out in their Introduction, there is a real shift over time from the use of these instruments as trophies and symbols of triumph to their transformation into representations of suffering in later images.

The collection traces the shifts in devotional practices in the later medieval period through this single theme. It is also an excellent example of the role an interest in material culture can play in opening up new...