Heather Coffey Presents at the 2016 Offit Symposium
Friday, February 5, 2016 - 5:00am
Heather Coffey presents Contesting Sanctity and Suspending (Dis)Belief in Noël de Fribois’ Mirouer historial abregié de France at the Offit Symposium held at Johns Hopkins University.
The Mirouer historial abregié de France (ca. 1451 CE) attributed to Noël de Fribois—notary, secretary, and counselor to Charles VII of France (r. 1422-1461 CE)—offers a narrative history of France from its Trojan origins to the year 1380 CE. The sole copy of its second recension, MS Bodley 968, dedicated to Charles d’Anjou, Count of Maine, contains fifteen lavishly illuminated folios for which there are no known prototypes. Interpolated among the manuscript’s exposition of history and its pictorial rendition of French kings is a section of text devoted to Islam and the curious claim therein that “le sepulcher de Mahommet est de fer et se tient en l’air.” This spurious legend is the product of the circulation and imbrication of innumerable texts by Christian authors confronting the nature of Islam throughout the Mediterranean from the eighth century onward. This paper explores how the inclusion of the polemical anecdote not only inspired new intra-confessional iconography but also, in its attempt to undermine the credibility of Islam, affirmed the perceived inviolability of the Valois dynasty against the threat of territorial encroachment and theological infringement.
http://www.offitsymposium.com/
Heather Coffey presents Contesting Sanctity and Suspending (Dis)Belief in Noël de Fribois’ Mirouer historial abregié de France at the Offit Symposium held at Johns Hopkins University.
The Mirouer historial abregié de France (ca. 1451 CE) attributed to Noël de Fribois—notary, secretary, and counselor to Charles VII of France (r. 1422-1461 CE)—offers a narrative history of France from its Trojan origins to the year 1380 CE. The sole copy of its second recension, MS Bodley 968, dedicated to Charles d’Anjou, Count of Maine, contains fifteen lavishly illuminated folios for which there are no known prototypes. Interpolated among the manuscript’s exposition of history and its pictorial rendition of French kings is a section of text devoted to Islam and the curious claim therein that “le sepulcher de Mahommet est de fer et se tient en l’air.” This spurious legend is the product of the circulation and imbrication of innumerable texts by Christian authors confronting the nature of Islam throughout the Mediterranean from the eighth century onward. This paper explores how the inclusion of the polemical anecdote not only inspired new intra-confessional iconography but also, in its attempt to undermine the credibility of Islam, affirmed the perceived inviolability of the Valois dynasty against the threat of territorial encroachment and theological infringement.
http://www.offitsymposium.com/