The Lacerated Body of the Book

Bloody Animation of the Passion in a 15th Century Devotional Book

Bibliographic Data

ID4314530
AuthorsLaura Katrine Skinnebach (0000-0002-5094-5956, Aarhus University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume13
Issue11
Pages1102
Publication date2022-11-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel13111102
OpenAlexW4309213300
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited25

The body and blood of Christ are essential to Christian liturgy and passion devotion. In medieval devotional books, this came to the fore in an overtly material way. The skin of the pages, the red ink, the words, and the images constituted more than a symbolic representation of the body of Christ. The corpus of the book was experienced as the Corpus Christi, the living Savior. This is particularly evident in one specific manuscript from the British Library, BL MS Egerton 1821, in which the skin of several folios was covered with red ink almost as if the pages have seeped in the blood from Christ's wounds. The article investigates the material, fluid, hyperreal, and mechanical strategies that animated the body of Christ in the hands of the owner, focusing in particular on blood and milk as the substances of life

Animation · Art · Bloody · Literature · Passion · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Medieval Literature and History · Psychology · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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