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(Let this story serve as a warning to politicians who want to put a price tag on education.) However, the eighth-century Northumbrian monk and scholar St Bede, in his commentary on Genesis, rather more conventionally insists that the snake was possessed by the spirit of the devil:
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For the snake, knowledge isn’t something to work patiently for, but something that can be achieved instantly. 373), whom we have met before in this blog, apparently once theorised that, if Adam and Eve had just cooled it and waited a while, God would have let them have the knowledge of good and evil later on.
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Genesis 3:1-5, Vulgate and Douay-Rheims, Unbound Bible And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?Īnd the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat:īut of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.Īnd the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death.įor God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God made. Scit enim Deus quod in quocumque die comederitis ex eo, aperientur oculi vestri, et eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum”. Qui dixit ad mulierem: “Verene praecepit vobis Deus, ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi?”.Ĭui respondit mulier: “De fructu lignorum, quae sunt in paradiso, vescimur ĭe fructu vero ligni, quod est in medio paradisi, praecepit nobis Deus, ne comederemus et ne tangeremus illud, ne moriamur”.ĭixit autem serpens ad mulierem: “Nequaquam morte moriemini! So let’s return to the Edenic snake first of all:Įt serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus agri, quae fecerat Dominus Deus. Christopher de Hamel’s engaging text is accompanied by a glossary of key technical terms relating to manuscripts and illumination, providing an invaluable introduction for anyone interested in studying medieval manuscripts today.I recently wrote a blogpost about fruit in Anglo-Saxon England, including the fruit in the Garden of Eden, and that got me thinking: whose idea was it to eat the fruit in the first place? Snakes are abundant in medieval manuscripts if you know where to look – tempting Eve, biting people, generally causing a nuisance – and so are solutions to the problems which they caused. Each stage of production is described in detail, from the preparation of the parchment, pens, paints, and inks to the writing of the scripts and the final decoration of the manuscript. But who were the skilled craftsmen who made these exquisite books? What precisely is parchment? How were medieval manuscripts designed and executed? What were the inks and pigments, and how were they applied? Examining the work of scribes, illuminators, and bookbinders, this lavishly illustrated account tells the story of manuscript production from the early Middle Ages through to the high Renaissance. Many beautiful illuminated manuscripts survive from the Middle Ages and can be seen in libraries and museums throughout Europe.