“Here God makes Adam sleep and takes Eve from his rib crowned by seven stars.”
At this point the Bible of Naples inverts the layout used on f. 6r. God has cast Adam into a deep sleep and pulls Eve from his side. We are told that Eve crowned with seven stars is the Church already clothed and crowned who springs from Christ’s wound as he hangs dead on the cross. She floats in the air in a praying position. Three pious laypersons kneel on the right at the foot of the cross. This second creation of man is not repeated in the two Bibles of Vienna. It is, however, found in the three-volume Bibles which, as previously, show God himself pulling the Church from Christ’s side.
It must also be said that in the same three-volume Bibles, two pairs of medallions are inserted between the creation of Eve and her being presented to Adam: one shows Adam being brought into Paradise and the other, him being ordered not to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Yves Christe
University of Geneva
Marianne Besseyre
Illuminated Manuscripts Research Center, Bibliothèque nationale de France
Fragment of the Bible moralisée of Naples commentary volume
“Here God makes Adam sleep and takes Eve from his rib crowned by seven stars.”
At this point the Bible of Naples inverts the layout used on f. 6r. God has cast Adam into a deep sleep and pulls Eve from his side. We are told that Eve crowned with seven stars is the Church already clothed and crowned who springs from Christ’s wound as he hangs dead on the cross. She floats in the air in a praying position. Three pious laypersons kneel on the right at the foot of the cross. This second creation of man is not repeated in the two Bibles of Vienna. It is, however, found in the three-volume Bibles which, as previously, show God himself pulling the Church from Christ’s side.
It must also be said that in the same three-volume Bibles, two pairs of medallions are inserted between the creation of Eve and her being presented to Adam: one shows Adam being brought into Paradise and the other, him being ordered not to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Yves Christe
University of Geneva
Marianne Besseyre
Illuminated Manuscripts Research Center, Bibliothèque nationale de France
Fragment of the Bible moralisée of Naples commentary volume
