Books by Pippa Salonius
Trees as Symbol and Metaphor in the Middle Ages: Comparative Contexts, 2024
Forests, with their interlacing networks of trees and secret patterns of communication, are power... more Forests, with their interlacing networks of trees and secret patterns of communication, are powerful entities for thinking-with. A majestic terrestrial community of arboreal others, their presence echoes, entangles, and resonates deeply with the human world.
The chapters interrogate the pre-Anthropocene environment, reflecting on trees as metaphors for kinship and knowledge as they appear in literary, historical, art-historical, and philosophical sources. They examine images of trees and trees in-themselves across a range of environmental, material, and intellectual contexts, and consider how humans used arboreal and rhizomatic forms to negotiate bodies of knowledge and processes of transition. Looking beyond medieval Europe, they include discussion of parallel developments in the Islamic world and that of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
As a vital image of life, the Tree has a longstanding tradition as a polyvalent metaphor, symbol,... more As a vital image of life, the Tree has a longstanding tradition as a polyvalent metaphor, symbol, and allegorical subject. Its progressive expansion from seed to maturity is unique in the natural world, it is grounded in the earth and reaches for the sky. Its growth is a process of differentiation: roots, trunk, branches, twigs, leaves and fruit, which makes the tree a perfect image for representing complex content in a structured allegory. From the twelfth century onwards it is increasingly used as a diagrammatic device for the visual systematisation of knowledge in art. This collection of essays presents a series of case studies analysing different manifestations of trees in art and thought from the eleventh through to the fifteenth century. Using a broad range of methodological strategies and examining diverse materials, the contributions in this volume examine how these trees functioned in their original framework. Illuminated manuscripts, wall paintings, stained glass and sculpture all feature as media for the motif, which is explored both for its crucial role in the story of human salvation, and as a visual model for genealogical and historical structures. Presented as a single volume, these essays successfully illustrate the complex network of meaning behind medieval imagery, and provide new insight to our understanding of both message and audience in the Middle Ages.
Articles and Contributions in Edited Volumes by Pippa Salonius
Trees as Symbol and Metaphor in the Middle Ages, 2024
Forests, with their interlacing networks of trees and secret patterns of communication, are power... more Forests, with their interlacing networks of trees and secret patterns of communication, are powerful entities for thinking-with. A majestic terrestrial community of arboreal others, their presence echoes, entangles, and resonates deeply with the human world. The essays collected here aim to highlight human encounters with the forest and its trees at the time of the European Middle Ages, when, whether symbol and metaphor, or actual, their lofty boughs were weighted with meaning.
The chapters interrogate the pre-Anthropocene environment reflecting on trees as metaphors for kinship and knowledge as they appear in literary, historical, art-historical and philosophical sources. They examine images of trees and trees in-themselves across a range of environmental, material, and intellectual contexts, and consider how humans used arboreal and rhizomatic forms to negotiate bodies of knowledge and processes of transition. Looking beyond medieval Europe, they include discussion of parallel developments in the Islamic world and that of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
Per Cognitionem Visualem: The Visualization of Natural Processes in the Middle Ages, 2023
In the second half of the thirteenth century the papal court regularly took up
residence in Orvie... more In the second half of the thirteenth century the papal court regularly took up
residence in Orvieto, swelling the city population and transforming it. With the pope present, the city became the capital of Christendom. Rulers met there, kings and queens visited from afar, international petitions and pleas were heard and decided in its courts. Ritual and ceremony mattered, the tenuous balance of earthly power was often held within its walls. It was in this milieu, where the presence of the pope,Vicar of Christ and his companions breathed life, energy, money and power into the town, that the personalities and exceptional careers of two local prelates were formed. My paper follows the movements of bishop Francesco of Bagnoregio and cardinal Theoderic of Orvieto as they navigated their way through the administrative apparatus of the medieval Church. Their seals are considered crucial expressions of their identity both as members of the Church and followers of Christ, in the footsteps of the apostles. Analysis of bishop Francesco’s seals raises new questions regarding his identity as a member of the Monaldeschi family.The rediscovery of Theoderic’s seal as bishop elect of Palermo, published here for the first time, presents an exciting new iconographic version of the Calling of Saint Andrew. Within the Church, these prelates associated with men of similar legal and administrative formation, common experience as tax collectors, and these networks are visible in the shared patronage of artists like the Sienese goldsmith Guccio di Mannaia for their seals.
The Tree: Symbol, Allegory and Mnemonic Device in Medieval Art and Thought, eds. Pippa Salonius and Andrea Worm, IMR 20, Jun 2014
Visible Exports/Imports. New Research on Medieval and Renaissance European Art and Culture, eds. E. J. Anderson, J. Farquhar and J. Richards (Cambridge Scholars, 2012), 2012
Encyclopedia of Sculpture, ed. Antonia Böstrom, 3 vols. Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004
Book Reviews by Pippa Salonius
Journal of Iconography, 2017
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Books by Pippa Salonius
The chapters interrogate the pre-Anthropocene environment, reflecting on trees as metaphors for kinship and knowledge as they appear in literary, historical, art-historical, and philosophical sources. They examine images of trees and trees in-themselves across a range of environmental, material, and intellectual contexts, and consider how humans used arboreal and rhizomatic forms to negotiate bodies of knowledge and processes of transition. Looking beyond medieval Europe, they include discussion of parallel developments in the Islamic world and that of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
Articles and Contributions in Edited Volumes by Pippa Salonius
The chapters interrogate the pre-Anthropocene environment reflecting on trees as metaphors for kinship and knowledge as they appear in literary, historical, art-historical and philosophical sources. They examine images of trees and trees in-themselves across a range of environmental, material, and intellectual contexts, and consider how humans used arboreal and rhizomatic forms to negotiate bodies of knowledge and processes of transition. Looking beyond medieval Europe, they include discussion of parallel developments in the Islamic world and that of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
residence in Orvieto, swelling the city population and transforming it. With the pope present, the city became the capital of Christendom. Rulers met there, kings and queens visited from afar, international petitions and pleas were heard and decided in its courts. Ritual and ceremony mattered, the tenuous balance of earthly power was often held within its walls. It was in this milieu, where the presence of the pope,Vicar of Christ and his companions breathed life, energy, money and power into the town, that the personalities and exceptional careers of two local prelates were formed. My paper follows the movements of bishop Francesco of Bagnoregio and cardinal Theoderic of Orvieto as they navigated their way through the administrative apparatus of the medieval Church. Their seals are considered crucial expressions of their identity both as members of the Church and followers of Christ, in the footsteps of the apostles. Analysis of bishop Francesco’s seals raises new questions regarding his identity as a member of the Monaldeschi family.The rediscovery of Theoderic’s seal as bishop elect of Palermo, published here for the first time, presents an exciting new iconographic version of the Calling of Saint Andrew. Within the Church, these prelates associated with men of similar legal and administrative formation, common experience as tax collectors, and these networks are visible in the shared patronage of artists like the Sienese goldsmith Guccio di Mannaia for their seals.
Book Reviews by Pippa Salonius
The chapters interrogate the pre-Anthropocene environment, reflecting on trees as metaphors for kinship and knowledge as they appear in literary, historical, art-historical, and philosophical sources. They examine images of trees and trees in-themselves across a range of environmental, material, and intellectual contexts, and consider how humans used arboreal and rhizomatic forms to negotiate bodies of knowledge and processes of transition. Looking beyond medieval Europe, they include discussion of parallel developments in the Islamic world and that of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
The chapters interrogate the pre-Anthropocene environment reflecting on trees as metaphors for kinship and knowledge as they appear in literary, historical, art-historical and philosophical sources. They examine images of trees and trees in-themselves across a range of environmental, material, and intellectual contexts, and consider how humans used arboreal and rhizomatic forms to negotiate bodies of knowledge and processes of transition. Looking beyond medieval Europe, they include discussion of parallel developments in the Islamic world and that of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
residence in Orvieto, swelling the city population and transforming it. With the pope present, the city became the capital of Christendom. Rulers met there, kings and queens visited from afar, international petitions and pleas were heard and decided in its courts. Ritual and ceremony mattered, the tenuous balance of earthly power was often held within its walls. It was in this milieu, where the presence of the pope,Vicar of Christ and his companions breathed life, energy, money and power into the town, that the personalities and exceptional careers of two local prelates were formed. My paper follows the movements of bishop Francesco of Bagnoregio and cardinal Theoderic of Orvieto as they navigated their way through the administrative apparatus of the medieval Church. Their seals are considered crucial expressions of their identity both as members of the Church and followers of Christ, in the footsteps of the apostles. Analysis of bishop Francesco’s seals raises new questions regarding his identity as a member of the Monaldeschi family.The rediscovery of Theoderic’s seal as bishop elect of Palermo, published here for the first time, presents an exciting new iconographic version of the Calling of Saint Andrew. Within the Church, these prelates associated with men of similar legal and administrative formation, common experience as tax collectors, and these networks are visible in the shared patronage of artists like the Sienese goldsmith Guccio di Mannaia for their seals.
Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome, 3-4 November 2016
Nacional de Portugal Lisbon, 25-27 February 2016
The period under examination intentionally ranges beyond the boundaries of the Renaissance in order to highlight patterns of change and continuity against the backdrop of differences between the authority of printed books and manuscripts. Our enquiry is deliberately expansive, including discussion of art, culture and literature. It focuses on the figure of the author as a creative source of imagining and images, so leading to parallels with divine authority and the work of the Creator. The terms ‘image’ and ‘artist’ are considered in their broadest sense, so as to include, without bias, both textual and visual communication. Nature and the natural world are often used as authoritative images, an association and underlying theme which we hope will be explored in this session.
audience in the form of four great sculpted trees. Complementing the arboreal
framework, botanically accurate representations of fruit and foliage, interspersed with
geometric designs, provide a running commentary to the primary narrative. My paper will
discuss these representations of nature and the natural world in relation to the
environment of scientific enquiry at the papal court in Orvieto.
A favored residence of the papal court throughout the thirteenth century, Orvieto was a
crucial site of encounter, where Kings, Princes and their consorts, Cardinals and Bishops,
together with some of the greatest scholars of their time gathered about the Pope. The
mendicant doctors of the Church Albertus Magnus, his pupil Thomas Aquinas, and their
Franciscan counterpart Bonaventure, all sojourned in the city during the residency of
Urban IV (1261-1264). Simon of Genoa, medicus capellanus at the court of Nicholas
IV(1288-1292), encyclopaedist, scholar of Greek, Arabic and Latin texts, author,
compiler and translator of the glossary of medical terms Clavis sanationis, and botanical
explorer, had most certainly resided in the city. As did the Franciscan author of the
encyclopaedic Liber de moralitatibus, Marcus of Orvieto, who dedicated the work to his
patron, cardinal Benedict Caetani. My presentation will draw attention to the erudite
spheres of learning present in the peripheral cities of the Patrimony of Saint Peter during
periods of papal residency, where, local memory of true civic grandeur is recorded in
images."
Knowledge of Girolamo d’Ascoli’s travels to the Byzantine Imperial Court and the Dalmatian Coast is crucial to understanding the façade iconography on the Orvieto cathedral. Moreover, two of the cathedral’s greatest donors, popes Nicholas IV and Boniface VIII, had both spent significant periods of time in Paris earlier in their ecclesiastic careers. This may account for the unusual expanse of relief sculpture on the cathedral façade, which in its choice of material and technique, imitates French façade decoration. Theodoric, the Orvietan cardinal and papal chamberlain to Boniface VIII, whose seals demonstrate him an innovative and discerning patron of the arts, also travelled extensively on papal business in northern Europe. Travels within the Italian peninsula on the other hand seem to have influenced Bishop Francesco, who was the major personality and driving force behind two of Italy’s most splendid Gothic cathedrals: those of Orvieto and Florence. His papal embassies to both Venice and Genoa probably inspired the combination of mosaic, bronze and relief-work at Orvieto, common to the façade programmes of the major churches in all three cities.
A Symposium Hosted by Medieval Ecocriticisms and N/EMICS
“Place and Displacement: The Spacing of History” has been chosen as the main theme for the aforementioned meeting. Within this framework, Trames Arborescentes has decided to participate by proposing a panel that will gather several speakers around the subject “Branches of Time. Thinking and Representing History through the Arboreal Motif”.
Proposals containing personal information (including academic affiliation), an abstract (up to 300 words), and a short bio are welcome for this panel. Documents may be submitted to our email address [email protected] before January 14, 2018.
«Unity and Disunity» has been chosen as the main theme for the aforementioned meeting. Within this framework, Trames Arborescentes has decided to participate by proposing a commented panel that will gather four speakers around the subject «Sacred Science: Learning from the Tree».
Proposals containing personal information (including academic affiliation), an abstract, and a short bio are welcome for this panel. The document may be submitted to our email address [email protected] before December 12.
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) e Roberto Lambertini (Università di Macerata)
with the SISMEL has gathered high-level scholars of theology and political anthropology
to deepen the topics about the relationship between Christ and power, which
is at the center of medieval and modern political theology, at least starting from the
studies of Ernst H. Kantorowicz on Laudes regiae forwards. The meeting has compared
the modes – conceptual, metaphorical, ritual, as well as political and institutional –
that have induced the various medieval sovereignties to refer to Christ «King of the
kings and Lord of lords» (Ap 19, 16).
To undertake the various strategies based on this complex Christomimesis, starting
with studies that can be considered representative, special attention has been given
to universal sovereignties (Byzantium, Empire, Papacy), to some kingdoms (Norman,
France, England, Naples, Portugal, Castile), to the ducal courts of Burgundy and
Savoy, as well as to historical-artistic aspects linked with cultural and political events
of the Orvietan cathedral
We have reunited papers that explore the use of arboreal imagery to convey concepts of lineage, genealogy and descent. Tree diagrams were used in the Middle Ages to organise ethics and knowledge. They express hierarchy and classify categories and sub-categories visually. They rendered difficult intellectual concepts accessible to the wider audience and helped scholars put complex issues in order. In both cases, trees were performative and carried their own significance. As mnemonic devices, their branching nature hints at the possibility of infinite multiplication and growth, urging viewers to engage with the data they contain. In the medieval West a renewed interest in mnemotechnic treatises and artefacts, together with a growing tendency for listing processes, increased the use of arboreal imagery in the twelfth century. From the thirteenth century, the use of tree structures together with the translation and dissemination of treatises on the art of memory and the development of vast encyclopaedic projects, constituted an important part of monastic, mendicant and university education. By the fifteenth century the tree had become the most common method for mapping knowledge in medieval Europe.
Tree diagrams are not static in time, but reach across it. Not only do they present knowledge, but with the possibility of endless ramification and growth, they encourage its future development and generation. Neither were they geographically confined. Trees flourished in the imaginary of many cultures as memory stimulators and storage. The world trees in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, Māori purakau (stemming from rakau, the root word for tree), tales told for didactic purposes, represent but a few examples. We seek to identify and explore both the similarities and differences in this nexus between living trees, lineage and memory across cultures. In the interest of establishing an interdisciplinary global platform, we encouraged proposals that examine arboreal frameworks of lineage and memory across medieval cultures, throughout Christendom and beyond, to include the indigenous cultures of America, Asia and the Pacific. ‘Arboreal’ and ‘imagery’ are used in the broadest sense of the terms in order to encourage interdisciplinary enquiry into the full range of associated motifs, conjured up by words, movement and/or sound.
Our topics and perspectives include but are not limited to:
Metaphors of knowledge: Seeds, trees and ideas.
Links between human ancestry, natural history and botany: Arbor consanguinitatis, Arbor affinitatis?
Arboreal imagery as a pedagogical device.
Songlines: Arboreal frameworks for memory and mapping.
Medieval Music and the Tree.
Sacred Trees and Human History.
The transitory nature of death in the Middle Ages: The tree as intermediary between the world of the living and that of the dead.
Trees in Juridical Thought: Authority, Jurisdiction, Prohibition.
Arboreal imagery in architecture: columns and pilasters, decoration and structure.
Trees and the art of memory. Tree diagrams.
Trees and world order.
Materiality: The meaning of wood, bark and foliage in (ceremonial) dress and gifts.
The Tree at the centre.
The Tree of Life (‘Gunungan’ in Javanese shadow puppet plays, in the Jewish/Christian Tradition, etc.)
Family Trees.