Christ Finale and Sicut Lucas

Notes

A circle containing the name of Jesus Christ or a formula referring to him, and two clipei with the Sicut Lucas formula. Matching material in the Liber Genealogus G: section 36.

Christ finale

The examples above are plotted from: Plutei, the Gerona Beatus (top row), the Codex Amiatinus III and Urgell Beatus (bottom row).

Commentary

Beyond the instances above, most other manuscripts have artistic treatments where this diagrammatic scheme is abandoned and a miniature is drawn, most often depicting a Madonna and Magi.

The Plutei and Amiatinus forms appear to derive from the same vorlage, apparently a version of the Great Stemma that was taken to Italy. Urgell, often a rather untidy manuscript, is of major interest here, as its frame appears to echo the keyhole shapes around the words Sicut Lucas in the Italian manuscripts, and is generally quite close to them in arrangement.

That some of the alpha manuscripts (here exemplified by Gerona) restore the circle as a container for Christ (instead of an unframed miniature) may be nothing more than a chance mutation. Alpha generally shifts the Sicut Lucas text to two big roundels beyond the finale at the right. The editor of Roda made no attempt to draw such a grand finale, but preserves one interesting tiny detail from his Epsilon vorlage: the short section of bus line on the diagonal at the bottom right.

Roda finale

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