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- All Subjects: Geese Book
- Creators: Schleif, Corine
Description
Medieval European manuscripts contain a wealth of diverse and imaginative collections of illuminations. The margins are a perfect playground for unique, unusual and fantastic creatures, including an illuminated gradual from 1510 known as the Geese Book. In this paper, I have examined a single illumination from the book in depth. It depicts two female monsters, a wild woman and a female dragon, fighting desperately over a wild child. These two females are not only monsters and fighters, but also mothers. The unusual juxtaposition of the nurturing aspect of maternity and the brutal nature of combat is used to facilitate a discussion about women, violence, and the nature of the monstrous-feminine. The way women are presented and constructed in horror is far different than their male counterparts, as gendered expectations differ wildly. These manuscript illuminations contain combat and potentially horrific situations, but nearly always come off as humorous. I will also be discussing the importance of humor in difficult and potentially problematic situations. Comedy, particularly dark comedy, can scrutinize aspects of culture and society that may otherwise be considered improper taboo to touch upon. Unusual women behaving in an improper manner is a rare subject, and one that deserves to be discussed. By going through historical legends that also combine the usually disparate themes of maternity and violence, I attempt to both explain the image in the Geese Book and frame it in a broader context. The monstrous women from the illumination are compared to both artworks contemporary to the gradual and more modern media. By connecting representations from both the Middle Ages and today, we can better understand where feminine constructions originated and how they have changed. Today, portrayals of the monstrous-feminine have warped traditional maternal archetypes and are unafraid to lay bare the bizarre and grotesque potential of motherhood.
ContributorsMelo, Anna Isabel (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis director) / Navarro, Rudolph (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The early-16th-century manuscript commonly known as the Geese Book (New York, Morgan Library, M. 905) contains the entire Mass liturgy sung by the boys choir of the parish church of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg, Germany prior to the Reformation. This thesis addresses the location and function of the sometimes enigmatic marginalia and the decorated or historiated initials in this large two-volume gradual. The paper begins with an analytical case study of a scene within the margins in which a wild woman, wielding a club, confronts a female dragon who has taken a child. Subsequently the size, subject matter, and physical positioning of the illuminations and decorations within the book and on its pages are examined with respect to the gradual's liturgical contents. It is hoped that through such methods, new conversations may begin as to the roles that marginalia and decoration may play within the multiple organizational schemes within a musical text of this kind.
ContributorsRoode, Jessica (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis advisor) / Schier, Volker (Committee member) / Serwint, Nancy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013