THE WOOD, THE WATER, AND THE FOOT

OR, HOW THE QUEEN OF SHEBA MET UP WITH THE TRUE CROSS*

With Special Emphasis on Northern European Iconography

Und lüftete den Saum der Kleider

Mit blossen Fuss, den sie enthüllt

(Heinrich von Freiberg, 1275)

for G.

There once was a queen, and that queen was black. She came from far away, but

only for those who wished to marvel at her. For she was beautiful, clever, and

conscious of her own sexuality. That queen was the Queen of Sheba.

In medieval iconography, the Queen of Sheba appears in many forms, from black

Ethiopian to Byzantine sibyl, from reine pédauque to regina austri. She thereby

exotically spices up the mental images of faraway regions, the belief in the end of time,

and feminine prophecy. Innumerable studies had also appeared then on the queen in

various disciplines of the humanities. At this time, this article intends to contribute to the

research from a specific viewpoint: the relationship between the Queen of Sheba and the

2

wood of the cross of Christ. For the fanciful and widespread medieval legend of the

origins of the wood of the cross has led to a specific tradition of the Queen of Sheba.

Previous studies which have already made reference to this aspect of the queen could do

with some revision on the basis of new textual and iconographic material.1 Moreover,

for a long time, research has remained focused on the Italian cycles. In this article, the

iconographical traditions which spread north of the Alps are revealed. Finally, I would

like to broaden the role of the Queen of Sheba in the Legend of the Cross from both an

anthropological as well as a gender-oriented methodology. From these points of view,

this article intends to contribute to the intercultural implantation of the Queen of Sheba in

Medieval modes of thinking.

* With thanks to the Warburg Institute, London, January 2002, and the Academia Belgica, Rome, April

2003.

1 R. KÖHLER, Zur Legende von der Königin von Saba oder der Sibylla und dem Kreuzholze, in Kleinere

Schriften, 2, Berlin, 1902, p. 87 ff.; J.B. PRITCHARD (ed.), Salomon und Sheba, London, 1974; J.-L.

HERR, La reinde de Saba et le bois de la Croix, in Revue archéologique, 22, 1914; A. CHASTEL, La

rencontre de Salomon et de la reine de Saba dans l'iconographie médiévale, in Fables, Formes, Figures, 1,

1978, p. 103-122; R. BEYER, Die Königin von Saba. Engel und Dämon. Der Mythos einer Frau, Cologne,

1987.

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1. “Who the Queen of Sheba was, we find seldom written.”2

During early Christian times, a symbolic connection was already established between the

cross and the lignum vitae.3 It is the basso continuo of ideas which varied on the

synthesis between the cross and the tree of life; between Paradise and the sacrifice. It is

known that the typological exegesis gets its luxurious emanations from the 12th century

onward. The cross was now made a part of a diachronic shadow play between the Old

and New Testaments: the cross was already present in its potence in the staff of Moses,

in the Tau of Aaron, etc. The idea that the material of the Old-Testament wood would be

the effective bearer of the Messiah unfolded in narrative form in the 12th century as well.

This so-called “Legend of the Cross” received its standard form in the Legenda Aurea of

Jacobus de Voragine at the feast of 3 May.4

The meeting between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba which fits into the Legend of the

True Cross is based on the biblical meeting in 1 Kings 10:1-13. It is told how the Queen

of Sheba journeyed to Jerusalem with a procession of camels, perfumes (never before

2 Wer aber die chvnigein von Saba sey gewesen, daz vindet man selten geschrieben; 14c. Biblia Pauperum;

K.-A. WIRTH, Wer aber...chvnigein (von Saba) sey gewesen, daz vindet man selten geschriben, in

Deutsche Bibelübersetzungen des Mittelalters. Vestigia Bibliae, 9/10, Bern-Paris, 1987/1988, p. 471-533.

3 Still groundbreaking is S.J. RENO, The Sacred Tree as an Early Christian Literary Symbol. A

Phenomenological Study (Forschungen zur Anthropologie und Religionsgeschichte, 4), Saarbrucken, 1978.

4Th. GRAESSE (ed.), Jacobi a Voragine legenda aurea. Vulgo historia lombardica dicta (Osnabruck,

1969), p.303 ff .; W.G. RYAN, (ed. and transl.), Jacobus de Voragine. The Golden Legend. Reading on the

Saints, 2 vols., 5th ed. (New York, 1995), 2, p. 277-284.

4

was so much perfume imported), one hundred twenty talents of gold, and precious gems.

Once there, she expresses her admiration for the wisdom of Solomon and the valuables in

his palace and in the temple of Jaweh. Solomon is receptive to her, graces the

aforementioned places with her gifts and gives her all that she desires “besides what he

offers her on his own behalf.” Then she accepts the return trip and journeys back to her

country with her servants.

In the Legend of the True Cross, the subject of this mysterious contact, is restructured to

the prediction of the Messiah. In the legend, the Queen of Sheba is the first person who

worships the wood with supernatural knowledge of the crucifixion. Three scholastic

sources have been indicative of this complex of motifs: Johannes Belethus‟ Rationale

divinorum officiorum (c. 1170), Petrus Comestor‟s Historia scholastica (before 1178),

and Gotfried of Viterbo's Pantheon (1180).

Johannes Belethus deals with the legend in his De exaltatione sanctae crucis.5 After he

relates the miraculous power of the cross which Heraclius restored to Jerusalem, Belethus

5 JOHANNES BELETHUS, Rationale divinorum officiorum, PL 202, Paris, 1856, col. 152-153; A.R.

MILLER, German and Dutch Versions of the Legend of the Wood of the Cross. A Descriptive and

Analytical Catalogue, 2 vols., (Ph.D. diss.), Oxford, 1992, p. 100-101.- What is meant here is the Legend

of the Raising of the Cross, which developed out of the biography of Emperor Heraclius (610-641); the

continuation of which is in the Legend of the Discovery of the True Cross, in which Helena unearths the

wood of the cross on Golgotha with the help of the Jewish Judas Cyriacus. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius

had rescued the relic of the cross which had been stolen by the Persian monarch Chosroes II. When

Heraclius attempts to restore the relic in a triumphal procession to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an

5

tells how Seth receives a twig from the Tree of Life from the angel Michael, which he

must plant on Adam‟s grave.6 The tree is cut down by Solomon to use it for the temple.

angel admonishes him. Only when he was barefoot and without his imperial accoutrements, did the gate of

Jerusalem open, and he could restore the relic to its original safe place. In the Golden Legend, this legend is

recorded at 14 September, the Feast of the Raising of the Cross (Th. Graesse, op. cit., p. 303 ff.; W.G. Ryan,

op. cit., 2, p. 277-284). Literature on Heraclius: A. PERNICE, L'imperatore Eraclio. Saggio di storia bizantina,

Florence, 1905; A. FROLOW, La vraie croix et les expéditions d'Héraclius en Perse, in Revue des études

byzantines, 11, 1953, p. 88-105; O. VOLK, art. Herakleios, in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 5, Freiburg,

1960, cols. 237-238; G. OSTROGORSKY, Geschichte des byzantinischen Staates, Munich, 1963, p. 73-122;

H.M. GUATKIN (ed.), The Cambridge Medieval History, 2. The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of

the Western Empire, l, 1964, p. 184-302, p. 747-758; J.J. SAUNDERS, A History of Medieval Islam, London,

1965; V. GRUMEL, La reposition de la vraie croix à Jérusalem par Héraclius. Le jour et l'année, in Zeitschrift

für Byzantinistik, 1, 1966, p. 139-149; A.N. STRATOS, Byzantium in the Seventh Century, 1. 602-634, transl.

from Greek by M. OGILVIE-GRANT, Amsterdam, 1968; W. DURANT, Weltreiche des Glaubens,

(Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, 5), repr. 1935, Munich, 1981; J. HERRIN, The Formation of Christendom,

Princeton, 1987, p. 183-219; M. GIL, A History of Palestine. 643-1099, transl. from Hebrew by E. BROIDO,

Cambridge, 1992, p. 65-74.

6 Ibid.; "Ferunt ab Adamo Seth. Filium eius missum fuisse in paradisum, qui ramum inde sibi datum ab

angelo retulit ad patrem, qui statim illius arboris mysterium cognoscens, eam terrae inservit, in magnam

arborem procreavit". In the interpolation of the De imago mundi of Honorius Augustodunensis, preserved

in two manuscripts in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, ms. 22225 and 22387a – according to W.

Meyer dating from 1154-1159 – it is related how an angel plants a seed from the tree of life in Adam‟s

mouth. W. MEYER, Die Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus, (Abhandlungen der philosophisch-

philologischen Classe der königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 16, 2), Munich, 1882, p.

109. The meeting between the queen and Solomon would take place under this new tree of life. Solomon‟s

half brother would also appear, to whom the queen would write her prediction from her homeland; on these

exceptional motifs, see E.C. QUINN, The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life, Chicago-London, 1962, p. 74 ff.

6

However, the wood miraculously changes its size, whereby it becomes a bridge,

neglected on the outskirts of the city. It is here that the Queen of Sheba will enter the

city. In silence, she recognizes the Messianic destiny in the wood of the bridge and stops

to revere it. Thereafter, the wood is intentionally left behind in the Piscina Probatica,

where it will remain until the condemnation of Christ.

Petrus Comestor writes that the Queen of Sheba recognizes a piece of wood in the Domus

Saltus, Solomon‟s palace. When she returns home, she writes a letter to the sovereign

regarding the destiny of this wood and the danger it would mean for the Jews. Solomon

has the wood buried.7 On this spot, the Piscina Probatica develops (John 5.1-8).8 The

wood is found in the pool during the time of the Passion of Christ.9

7 Gervase of Tilbury, in his Otia Imperialia (1212), takes over an element from the temple passage in

Comestor: the wood will not fit, as it miraculously gets longer and shorter. Gervase adds to this: Et hoc

lignum asserunt esse crucem domini. According to this author, however, others also say that Adam had

secretly taken an apple out of Paradise, and that from the seeds, the cross grew. J.R. CADWELL, Gervasius

Tilburiensis. Manuscripts of Gervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperialia, in Scriptorium, 16, 1, 1962, p. 28-45; A.

DUCHESNE (transl.), J. Le GOFF, et al., Gervasius Tilburiensis. Le livre des merveilles. Divertissement

pour un empereur, Paris, 1992.

"Traditio Graecorum habet quod de arbore illa, in cuius fructus peccaviat Adam ramus fuit translatus in

Jeruzalem qui in tanteam excrevit arborem, quod de illo facta est crux domini". It is not readily apparent

which Greek source is meant here. W. MEYER, op. cit., p. 118. Here the typology of the tree of life/cross

is interchanged with the tree of good and evil. This typology, with regard to the apple tree appears more

frequently from the 12th century onward (Th.N. HALL, The Cross as Green Tree in the Vindicta Salvatoris

and the Green Rod of Moses in Exodus, in English Studies, 72, 4, 1991, p. 297-307; p. 305, note 30). Which

of the two trees of paradise is meant is not always clearly defined in the Legend of the Cross. Moreover, it

7

Gotfried of Viterbo brings his story back to Jonitus (sic).10 This astrologer11and alleged

son of Noah picks three fruits from a cyprus, a palm, and an abies, respectively. He

may refer to twigs, seeds, or even a nut. In the Apocalypse of Moses (XXIX: 4-7), a Jewish apocrypha

from the 1st century A.D. (supposedly not after 70 A.D.), there is likewise mention of paradisiacal herbs

that the first couple smuggled out. A.F.J. KLIJN, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature,

(Supplements to Novum Testamentum, 46), Leyden, 1977, p. 19.

8 PETRUS COMESTOR, Historia scholastica, PL 198, col. 1578-1579; "Cognominata Hebraice bethsaida,

quinque porticus habens, (...) in ea Nathinaei hostias lavabant. Nathinaei erant aquae bajuli in templo, quod

officium subdiacones, aquam sacerdoti ministrantes, habent". See also: J.H. MOREY, Petrus Comestor

and the Medieval Popular Bible, in Speculum, 68, 3, 1993, p. 6-35; A.R. MILLER, op. cit., p. 103-105.

Christ healed John the lame in the Piscina Probatica. For this tradition, see: B. BAERT, La Piscine

Probatique à Jérusalem. L'eau médicinale au Moyen Age, in Als Ich Can. Liber Amicorum in Memory of

Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. B. Cardon et al., Leuven, 2002, p. 91-129.

9 Ibid., "Traditur a quibusdam quod regina Saba vidit in spiritu in domo saltus, quae Nethota dicebatur,

lignum Dominicae crucis, et nuntiavit Salomoni cum iam recessisset ab eo, quod in eo moreretur quidam,

pro quo occiso perirent judaei, et perderent locum et gentem. Quod timens Salomon, defodit illud terra ubi

post facta est piscina."

10 W. MEYER, op. cit., p. 112-114; A.R. MILLER, op. cit., p. 108-114.

11 According to Scripture, Jonitus is not a son of Noah (these are Shem, Ham and Japheth [Gen. 5.32]).

Moreover, astrological knowledge in the Jewish apocryphas is generally attributed to Enosh (not to be

confused with Enoch, the son of Jared, Gen. 5:18-20) or his father Seth (Gen. 5.6). Jonitus may be a

derivative of Moniton from the Apocalypse of the Syrian treasure cave. Possibly a scribal error was

responsible for the transition from Moniton to Joniton (Latin: Jonitus). A.R. MILLER, op. cit., p. 110.

Gotfried of Viterbo's authority is: "narrat Athanasius quoniam Noe patriarch/ filiolos genuit binos egressus

ab archa;" W. MEYER, Die Geschichte, op. cit., p. 112 (note 1: "Dieser Athanasius is nicht zu

bestimmen"). A.F.J. KLIJN, op. cit., p. 64, refres to Athanasius' (295-373) Interpretatione ex vetus

8

plants them and in a miraculous event, one stem grows out of the fruits. David

recognizes the trinity in the tree. When Solomon begins the construction of the temple,

he cuts the tree down. The wood, however, changes size and therefore Solomon displays

it for worship at the temple gate. The sibyl Nikaula12 recognizes the Messiah in the

wood and due to the angst this causes, the wood is thrown in the pool of Siloam (John

9.5-7).13 Gotfried adds that when the cross of Christ was fashioned from this wood, it

still showed three different colors.

It is clear that the dust of the 12th-century Legend of the Cross has not settled. Motifs of

the wood of the cross swirl around in glosses and commentaries, perhaps also picked up

testamentus, p. 28, col. 740, who names the sons of Enosh the sons of God, sometimes also called the sons

of Seth. Moreover, Enosh is often confused with Jonitus. The obvious contamination in Gotfried of

Viterbo may have also existed on this basis.

12 According to Herodotus, Nikaula is an Egyptian-Chaldean queen. From the time of the writings of

Josephus Flavius, she is melded with the sibyl Sheba (H. THACKERAY (ed. and transl. from Greek to

English), Josephus Flavius. Antiquitates Judaicae, I, 60-65, 5 vols., London, 1958-1965: VIII, 6, 2, par.

195); S. KRAUSS, Die Königin von Saba in den byzantinischen Chroniken, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift,

11, 1902, p. 120-131, p. 128.

13 “‟As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.‟ When He had said this, he spat upon the

ground and made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the man‟s eyes saying to him, „Go wash in

the pool of Siloam (which means Sent).‟ Then he went and washed and came back able to see.” As

mentioned, the Siloam source runs into the river Kedron of Jerusalem. Still today, it is the custom to wash

children in this source, which was believed to have originated in the river Gihon in Paradise. In other

traditions, it is told that women washed their clothing in the well where the cross was found. (Vita

rythmica, 13th century; A.R. Miller, op. cit., p. 170).

9

from the oral culture; and self-willed, were fit into the church histories.14 One constant

is that from the 12th century onward, in the Legend of the True Cross, the Queen of

14 There are references to older versions. In the so-called Historia,a manuscript dating before 1150, from

Regensburg and kept in Munich, it is told how, in the time of David, a Jew finds a piece of wood with three

branches which he brings to the king. By divine inspiration, David recognizes the Messianic function of

the wood and has it gilded. Solomon also worships it. The Queen of Sheba predicts that one day a man

will hang from that particular piece of wood and that this will spell the end of the Jews. However, she does

not want to say this to Solomon, otherwise he will no longer revere the wood. But a curate relates the

pronouncement of the queen by letter to Solomon, who, fearful of this ominous message, throws the wood

into a deep well. When this piscina dries out in the time of Jesus, the wood is discovered and found useful

in making a cross. In this version, the Queen of Sheba keeps her supernatural insight secret from Solomon

because of a “crisis of conscience:” she does not want that the king -- unbeknownst to him -- loses his

reverence for the wood. Given that the queen hopes for the preservation of the wood, she becomes an adept

of the mysterious "plot" that the New Testament foretells already in the Old Testament. It is actually the

mere curate who confounds the queen‟s strategy. W. MEYER, o.c., p. 103-106, cod. lat. Monach 14442,

fol. 1; A.R. MILLER, o.c., p. 87-90. Translated into English by J. WILKINSON, Jerusalem Pilgrimage.

1099-1185, London, 1988, p. 75; A. WILMART, La légende du bois de la croix, in Revue biblique, 2,

1927, p. 226-236, brings this legend back into the Carolongian period. The Historia of Meyer appears,

among other texts, in a compilation of the uses and practices of the church: the Candela (1130-1149) of

Gerlandus. In the seventeenth book, this canon of Saint Paul in Besançon describes the legend as Ex libro

Magistri Franconis Legiensis. Thus, in the first half of the 12th century, Gerlandus copied a story which

had come from Franco, the scholastic at the St. Lambertus School in Liege from 1066 until his death after

1089. A.R. MILLER, o.c., p. 87, names the source as the Historia of Franco Leodiensis, 1040-1080.

Wilmart has a sound argument when he writes that Franco‟s version itself was not an original product but

retold, not after an oral version but a written tradition which may have gone back to the 9th century. A.S.

Napier published a Middle English prose Cross Legend, compiled in a 12th-century manuscript. According

to the author, this goes back to an original from the first half of the 11th century (Ms. Bodley 343). A.S.

10

Sheba is privileged with the insight of Christ‟s coming, and also acts accordingly. It is

she who recognizes the mystery of the wood of the cross and in all conscience leads the

wood to its destination.

Against what background has the Queen of Sheba taken over this function within the

Legend of the Cross? Which literary clues have led her to the foreground precisely in the

12th century? A primary answer lies couched in the typological interpretations which

found access during the 12th century.

Isaiah 60.6 says that a flood of camels and dromedaries, as well as gold and incense will

cover the citizens of Sheba and that they will “proclaim the praise of the Lord.” This

prediction stands in the context of the glory of the New Jerusalem and thus must be

understood eschatologically.15 With regard to a challenge from the Pharisees (“Teacher,

we wish to see a sign from you” [Mt. 12.38]), Matthew foretells, “The queen of the south

will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from

the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdon of Solomon, and see, something greater than

Solomon is here!” (Mt. 12.42; Lk. 11.31).

NAPIER, History of the Holy Rood-Tree. A Twelfth-Century Version of the Cross Legend, London, 1894,

p. IX; L. HERMODSSON (ed. and intro.), Dat Boec van den Houte. Eine mittelniederländische Dichtung

von der Herkunft des Kreuzes Christi, Uppsala-Wiesbaden, 1959, p. 15.

15 Psalm 72 (Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King [On Solomon]), For the sake of wisdom and

splendor which he enjoys, the King of Israel glorifies the people of Sheba (v. 8-14). The union of all peoples

under the glory of the tribe of Yaweh is referred to here.

11

The Regina Austri is the Queen of Sheba. She stands for the New Jerusalem and is thus

involved in the Last Judgment of Christ.16 Through the mediation of Isaiah 60.6, the

meeting of Sheba and Solomon is adopted in the context of the Second Coming of Christ

as judge and founder of the one church, the Heavenly Jerusalem. In other words, the

Queen of Sheba becomes an image for the Parousia. From the earliest church fathers,

the Queen of Sheba has been an accepted symbol of the church, a church who harvests its

fruits at the Apocalypse. The queen acts as a “queen of peace” and as a “bringer of

souls.”17

In the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Hohenbourg (1180), the passage from 1 Kings

10.1-13 is illustrated.18 The Queen of Sheba leaves on horseback with a retinue of

camels, with gifts from her homeland. Captions clarify the meaning of the illustrations:

REGINA AUSTRI ECCLESIAM GENTIUM SIGNIFICAT QUAE, AUDITIO NOMINE

16 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 192. In Psalm 72, the queen embodies all people, therefore the one unified church. In a

French Speculum Humanae Salvationis from 1465-1475, the queen appears together with John the Baptist as

witness at the Last Judgment; R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 51.

17 This epithet is found in Isidore of Seville (560-633/636), PL 83, cap. 112; According to P.F. WATSON,

The Queen of Sheba in Christian Tradition, in Salomon und Sheba, o.c., p. 115-145, p. 117, also in the

Venerable Bede, Walafried Strabo and Hrabanus Maurus. This role as witness blends with that of the gift-

bearing queen in the iconography. In a miniature from a Parisian Bible Moralisée from c.1220-30, the queen

gives a scale filled with souls (in the form of communion hosts) to Solomon. On the left, the scene is

compared with Solomon in the temple, who is placed above an image of Christ and a Gothic church. In the

lower register, Mary leads a prayer to Christ in intercession for two people.

18 Fol. 209-209v; R. GREEN, Herrad of Hohenbourg, (Studies of the Warburg Institute, 36), 2 vols.,

London, 1979, 2, p. 344-345, figs. 290-291.

12

FILII DEI, VENIT AD EUM...ET RELICTIS IDOLIS SUIS, MORATA CUM EO FIDE

PERPETUA. “The queen of the South signifies the church of the pagans; after she had

heard the name of the son of God, she came to him” (fig. 1). In the next drawing of the

meeting, the queen and Solomon are represented enthroned. The caption here says:

REGINA AUSTRI ID EST ECCLESIA VENIT AUDIRE SAPIENTIAM VERI

SALOMONIS JESUS CHRISTI. “The queen of the South,19 that is the church, comes to

hear the wisdom of the true Solomon, Christ”20 (fig. 2).

In the drawings of Herrad of Hohenbourg, the queen as personification of the church and her

role in the Last Judgment is supplemented with a third typology: the Sponsa or bride of

Christ. In Revelation 21.2, 9-10, Heavenly Jerusalem is represented as a beautiful bride. In

the Bible, the theme of the bride is developed in the Song of Songs. In the Middle Ages, the

Old Testament love poem was translated to the mystical love between Christ and His

church, the Sponsa. The Queen of Sheba is also recognized in this bride.

19 The Queen of Sheba comes from the East (Arabic continent?) one time, and from the South (Ethiopia?

Egypt?) another. As an Easterner, she is usually depicted in her pagan form, as a Southerner, in her

prefigurative role. Matthew and Luke expressly speak of a queen from the South. In 1 Kings 10, it is not

mentioned from which point of the compass she comes.

20 Translated in: A. STRAUB and G. KELLER, Herrad von Landsberg. Hortus Deliciarum, Strasbourg,

1901, p. 40-41. See also A. CHASTEL, a.c., p. 104. Black is the color of idolatry, says the author. An

enthroned Queen of Sheba and Solomon are also found on a gilt buckle from the Maasland, 1200 (New York,

The Cloisters Collection, no. 47.101.48); H. BRODERICK, Solomon and Sheba Revisited, in Gesta, 16, 1977,

p. 45-48, fig. 1.

13

Honorius Augustodunensis, in his 3rd treatise on the Song of Songs, identifies the queen of

the South with the beloved.21 Honorius describes this Regina Austri as seated in a cart and

gives her the red color of the sun and of the martyrs. In a manuscript of this treatise from

Augsburg (1154-1159), there is a drawing of the queen in a coach (fig. 3).22 On the wheels,

there are medallions featuring the symbols of the four evangelists. The captions say,

REGINA AUSTRI and APOSTOLI. Sitting in the wagon are IUDEI (Jews). Thus, the

Jews are brought to the logos of the evangelical church, which is abducted by the queen

(Solomon becomes Christ; temple becomes Ecclesia).23

As mystical bride of the eschatological church, the queen also plays a role in the

Epiphany. For, the three wise men also “came from far away” or from the East, to

admire and adore the Christ child.24 From the 6th century, they are also systematically

described as “kings.”25 This was done in the expectation that the Queen of Sheba would

be typologically linked to them, if only on the basis of the costly gifts (gold, myrrh, and

other products). The similarity between the gifts of the queen and those of the three wise

21 PL 172, col. 453.

22 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cols. 22225 and 23387a. See also note 123.

23 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 198.

24 In the Catalan world atlas of 1374-1376 (Abraham Cresques), the king and the three wise men are situated

in "Arabia Sabba"; R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 26.

25 A. WEIS, Drei Könige, in Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, 1, Vienna-Rome, 1968, col. 539-549,

col. 541.

14

men was worked out in the 9th century by Prudentius.26 However, already in the Jewish

tradition, these fine gifts were legendarily brought back from Paradise or the region of

Saba.27 These objects were repeatedly “passed on.” The connections which were so

chronologically and geographically formed deserve a deeper dimension of the history of

salvation and the Messianic expectations.28

In the 12th century, the Queen of Sheba was thus understood as the personification of the

Church of Christ, as His mystical bride, as the woman of Revelation, and as the herald of

the Epiphany. In the Legend of the Cross, she also becomes the foreteller of the

crucifixion, based on this weighty identity. Moreover, she is a sibyl.

The melding of the Queen of Sheba and the sibyl29 occurs at the earliest in the Byzantine

world chronicle of Georgios Monachos (842-887) and remains in the Byzantine

26 F. CABROL and H. LECLERCQ, Mages, in Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, 10,

Paris, col. 980-1067, col. 987.

27 A. CHASTEL, a.c., p. 163.

28 See H.E. DEL MEDICO, Zahab Parwayim. L'or fructifère dans la tradition juive, in Vetus Testamentum,

13, 1963, p. 158-186; A.F.J. KLIJN, o.c., p. 57. Important sources which associate the gifts with an origin in

Paradise or from Adam are the Revelation of Moses and the Syrian treasure cave.

29 In general, see C. DE CLERCQ, Contributions à l'iconographie des Sibylles II, in Jaarboek van het

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Antwerp, 1980, p. 7-35; W. GREBE, Sibyllen

Weissagung, Cologne, 1989; H. EISING, Die Predigt der Sibyllen, in Monasterium, 1966, p. 275-296; J.

HAFFEN, Contribution à l'étude de la Sibylle médiévale, Paris, (1984); F. HEILER, Die Frau in den

Religionen der Menschheit, Berlin-New York, 1977, p. 11-31, p. 61, p. 102-108; S. KRAUSS, a.c., p. 120-

131; A. KURFESS, Sibyllinische Weissagungen, Berlin, 1951, p. 5-23; I. NESKE, Die Spätmittelalterliche

15

chronicles handed down from Georgios Cedrenos and Michael Glykas (both 12th

century).30 Monachos mentions that he has read the identification between the sibyls

and the Ethiopian queen from the Hellenes, but that this melding was less critical.

Perhaps this author noticed this melding in Epiphanos (7th century).31 The interchange

may have happened on the basis of the supposed wisdom and the riddles which the

Queen of Sheba offers to Solomon.32 The Byzantine geographer and historian Pausanias

Deutsche Sibyllenweissagung. Untersuchung und Edition, Goppingen, 1985; E. SACKUR, Sibyllinische Texte

und Forschungen. Pseudomethodius, Adso und die Tiburtinische Sibylle, Halle, 1898; E. SCHRÖDER, Das

Mainzer Fragment vom Weltgericht. Ein Ausschnitt aus dem Deutschen Sybillenbuche, in Veröffentlichungen

der Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, V, VI, VII, Mainz, 1908, p. 8-9.

30 Georgios Monachos, ed. MURALT, Petrepoli, 1859, chap. XLIII; p. 110. It is worth noting that Johannes

Malalas (IV, 84, ed. p. 70), although he bases himself on Monachos, does not take over this identification with

the Queen of Sheba. It is also not present in the Chronicon paschale, 108 (ed. p. 201) which talks about the

twelve sibyls but not over a queen of Sheba.

31 S. KRAUSS, a.c., p. 124.

32 Riddles and sibylline predictions are not the same, but are similar to each other. Flavius Josephus (1st

century A.D.) writes in the context of the riddles (VIII, 6, 2, par. 159) about a queen of Sheba with the name

Nikaula, whom Gotfried of Viterbo handles in the context of the predictions about the wood of the cross. This

Nikaula, according to Herodotos, is a queen from Egypt (Nitocris) and none less than the wife of

Nebuchadnezzar. Flavius Josephus makes her into an Ethiopian-Egyptian queen. (S. KRAUSS, a.c., p. 128;

For more detail in connection with Nebuchadnezzar: J. HALEVY, La Légende de la reine de Saba, in Ecole

pratique des hautes études. Section des sciences historiques et philologiques, Paris, 1905, p. 8). Krauss (a.c.,

p. 129) works out the hypothesis that Monachos did not know Josephus, but a pseudo-Josephus (before 400

A.D.). In the latter, a queen of Sheba from Ethiopia associated with the name Nikaulis, but additionally, that

the Hellenes called her Sibyl and that this woman offered some children‟s riddles to Solomon.

16

(+470)33 calls a well-known Babylonian or Egyptian sibyl of old by the name “Sabba.”

This well-known source in Palestine must have called to mind the realm and the Queen of

Sheba.34

In the 12th century thus, the sibyl-queen of Sheba appears expressly and with a specific

oracle on the wood of the cross in the official church histories.35 The starting points for

the contents of her oracle were on hand. In the 6th book of the Oracula Sibyllina, the

Tiburtine sibyl celebrates the fortunate wood on which one day a God will hang whom

heaven shall behold.36 Since the church was young, the wood (to xulon) was already

understood as “the cross.”37 From this background, the Queen of Sheba may be easily

integrated into the Legend of the True Cross.

It is claimed that the earliest the queen occupied this role was in the Old Slavic tradition

from the circle of Pope Jeremiah. Apparently, this 8th-century tradition from the circle of

33 Descriptio Graeciae, X, 12, 9, ed. W. SCHUBART, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1889-1891, p. 828. Recent edition:

M.H. ROLMA-PEREIRA, Graecia descriptio, Leipzig, 1981.

34 In Suidas (after "Suda", a compilation of etymologies from c. 1000 A.D.) this Sibyl is called "Sambethe"

and the author has her descend from Noah. This name also has Biblical reminiscences in Genesis 10. 7 (“The

descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca...” and 1Chronicles 1.9; S. KRAUSS, a.c.,

p. 123.

35 The pilgrim Ernoul travels to Jerusalem c. 1230 and tells of a "Roine sibile estoit appelée"; A. CHASTEL,

a.c., p. 112.

36 A. KURFESS, o.c., p. 148.

37 Basis work: G.Q. REIJNERS, The Terminology of the Holy Cross in Early Christian Literature as

Based Upon Old Testament Typology, (Graecitas christianorum primaeva, 2), Nijmegen, 1965.

17

the Bogomils is itself the earliest example of the “narrative”path between the tree of

Paradise and the cross of Christ.38 The sect, which can be called a gnostic variant for the

sake of its dualistic teaching,39 mostly spread throughout the Balkans. It developed the

legend wherein Satanael (one of the many names for the devil) plants three trees in

Paradise: one for Adam (found in the Tigris by Lot),40 one for Eve (found by Moses in

38 Also ANASTASIUS SINAITICA (650), Anagoricorum contemplationum in hexaemeron, PG, 89, col.

944-45, constitutes a first attempt to connect the cross and the tree of life not symbolic-typologically, but

diachronically; E.C. QUINN, o.c., p. 77.

39 H.G. BECK, Bogomilen, in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1, Tubingen, 1957, col. 1345;

C.T. BERKHOUT & J.B. RUSSELL, Medieval Heresies. A Bibliography. 1960-1979, Toronto, 1981.

40 The figure of Lot is central in a Greek variant (800-1000), which was translated into Slavic around

1200. Lot finds three shoots along the Nile, which he must keep moist and care for as punishment for his

incest. Solomon finds this wood, but works it into the temple in vain. Later, the cross is made from the

same wood. In the monastery of the Holy Cross, just outside the walls of Jerusalem, it is believed that this

tree of Lot stood on the site of the monastery. The monastery was founded in the 7th century, which may

mean that the Lot legend figured earlier than the Greek variant. In the travel book of Niccolò da

Poggibonsi (1346-1350) this monastery is mentioned. The Franciscan integrates the Seth motif into this

story. It appears that the old Lot legend is interchanged with Seth. He mentions briefly that Seth‟s twig

from Paradise grew on Adam‟s grave in Hebron, and that this tree formed the length of the cross (he does

not specify the type of wood). The cross piece of the cross is made of cyprus and grew in this monastery.

A third type of wood grew in the cedar forest of Lebanon and formed the base of the cross. A fourth type

came from an olive tree – he does not mention location - and was used for the titulus. A visit to this

monastery was worth a seven-year indulgence. Fra Niccolò comes back to the wood of Hebron, as he

describes Adam‟s grave and briefly mentions that Solomon let the tree be felled for the construction of the

temple. In the northern side chapel of the church, where the cavity of the rooted tree still remains, the

legend was inscribed by a 19th-century hand. Just as in the chapel on Golgotha at the Church of the Holy

Sepulchre, it is the custom to stick one‟s hand in this cavity.

18

the bitter waters), and one for God (found by Michael for Seth).41 The tree of God shall

equivocally survive until the cross of Christ is formed from it.42 In this variant of the

Legend of the Cross a Sebila (sic) is introduced, who finds the wood in the temple and it

bursts into flames.43

This source may be an indication that the Legend of the True Cross was introduced along

a dualistic path in Western Europe,44 and moreover, that there are proto-12th-century

archetypes in the Balkans.

In a Slavonic-Bogomil Legend of the Cross from the second half of the 10th century,

Moses finds three shoots in Mara; these find their way to the temple of Solomon, where

they are recognized by a possessed woman.45 R. Nelli publishes in his Ecritures

41 See also H.E. GAYLORD, How Satanael lost his "-el", in Journal of Jewish Studies, 33, 1982, p. 303-

309.

42 This version must go back to a Greek version; M. GASTER, Ilchester Lectures on Greek-Slavonic

Literature, London, 1887, p. 23, 25, 29, 35-37; E.C. QUINN, o.c., p. 53; E. KOZAK, Bibliografische

Übersicht der biblisch-apokryphen Literatur bei den Slaven, in Jahrbuch für protestantische Theologie, 38,

1892, p. 127-158, p. 142: "Historia de ligno crucis".

43 A.R. MILLER, o.c., p. 52.

44 J.R. SMEETS, Joden en catharen. Hun invloed op de Franse rijmbijbels uit de twaalfde en dertiende

eeuw, Tilburg, 1966, p. 3-16; D. ANGELOV, Le mouvement bogomile dans les pays balkaniques et son

influence en Europe occidentale, in Actes du colloque international de civilisations balkaniques (Sinai, July

1962), p. 173-183; E. BOZOKY, Le livre secret des cathares. Interrogatio Iohannis. Apocryphe d'origine

bogomile. Edition critique, traduction, commentaire, Paris, 1980 (with foreword by E. TURDEANU).

45 A.R. MILLER, o.c., p. 47.

19

cathares46 and his Le phénomène cathare47 a Cathar version from the Interrogatio

Johannis of 119048 which strongly resembles the above-mentioned Bogomil version and

which also makes Moses the main character. The author otherwise postulates a 9th-

century Bogomil origin.49 Moses himself tells that “Sathanas” came to earth to give him

a twig, on which Christ would be crucified.50

Further interdisciplinary unlocking of texts from the Balkans and their influence in a

westerly direction must offer insight into a possible ground of origin of the Legend of the

Cross within a dualistic environment in the future. There has already been a step in this

direction by literature historians. In the last decades, scholars have slowly been gaining

46 R. NELLI, Ecritures cathares, Paris, 1968, p. 54-57, in French translation.

47 R. NELLI, Le phénomène cathare, lst ed., 1967, p. 142-149, with citations from the Latin text.

48 See also J. IVANOV, Livres et légendes bogomiles. (Aux sources du catharisme), Paris, 1976.

49 This legend is still kept in two copies: Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, fonds Doat; and

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. 36, fol. 26v-35. This is a fund kept in the archives from the Inquisition

against the Cathars. On the manuscript is written: "hoc est secretum hereticorum de Concoretio portatum

de Bulgaria Nazaria suo episcopo [plenum erroribus]" (fol. 35r). Nazarius (1150-1235) is the man who was

sent to Bulgaria to find clarity in the questions of belief; R. NELLI, Le phénomène, o.c., p. 147. In the

Paris text it reads: "Et tunc cum cognovisset Sathanas quia descendi de coelo in mundum, misit angelum et

accepit de tribus lignis et dedit ea ad crucifigendum me Moysi, quae nunc mihi servantur sic" (fol. 30v). In

the text from Vienna it reads: "cum autem cognovisset Sathanas quod descenderem in hunc mundum, misit

angelum suum et accepit de tribus arboris et dedit (ea) Moysi prophetae ad crucifigendum me: quae lignum

mihi custodiuntur usque nunc"; R. NELLI, Le phénomène, o.c., respectively p. 144 and p. 145.

50 Moses belonged to the Cathars to the "negative zone." He led the Israelites out of Egypt in service to

the angry God; R. NELLI, Le phènomène, o.c., p. 146, note 24. Moses disappears from the scene in the

patristic Legend of the True Cross of Belethus, Comestor, Gervase, and Jacobus de Voragine.

20

an understanding of the Northern European literary tradition, the so-called “Legenda

group.”51 This probably preceded the implantation of the subject in the official church

histories, which contextually fits with the above-mentioned Balkan motifs, such as the

presence of Moses and the melding of the Sibyl with the Queen of Sheba. This Legenda

group has kept close to the standard form of the Legenda Aurea. In the following section,

this group of Legends of the Cross is tested against the visual tradition, which leads to the

unlocking of a lesser known and much more “popular” iconography.

2. “When Adam in 930 years old...” and the miniature from a French Book of Hours

(1480-1490)

When Adam is 930 years old, he calls his wife and his sons together to

prepare them that he will soon succumb to his pains and worries.52 Seth wishes

to go to the earthly paradise for fruit, but Adam only wishes for the oil of mercy

and explains the way to paradise carefully to Seth, which is easy to follow, along

the withered footsteps of his elders. Seth hears from the angel Michael, however,

that the oil can only be handed over to him after 5,228 years, for Christ will then

let Adam out of hell and baptize him. The angel asks Seth to look into the earthly

paradise. He sees a source which divides itself into four streams which flow over

the entire world. Above the source is a bare tree, which suddenly grows out and

51 Term comes from W. Meyer, o.c., passim.

52 The summary is based on the edition in Meyer (o.c., p. 131-149). The author used two manuscripts

from Munich, Clm 3433, 15th century from the monastery Au and Clm 11601, fol. 200.

21

grows fresh, green foliage. At the top of this enormous tree, a child is enthroned,

the Son of God. In the roots, Seth sees the soul of his brother, Abel. Finally,

Michael gives Seth three seeds from the apple from the tree where Adam and Eve

sinned, with the order that they should be planted in Adam‟s mouth when he is

dead. From the first seed, a cedar will grow; from the second a cyprus; and from

the third a pine tree. The angel says that the cyprus symbolizes the Father

because this tree is so universal and grows so high; the cedar refers to the Son

because it blooms so sweetly; and the pine tree is reminiscent of the Holy Spirit

due to its large number of needles and seeds.53 Everything happens as foretold:

the trees grown on Adam‟s grave in the Hebron valley and remain there until

Moses arrives.

One morning Moses sees the trees standing and greets them in the name of

the trinity. As he tears them out, the air is filled with a pleasant scent, which

power made water flow from a rock. Right before his death, Moses plants the

53 In the Liber floridus of Lambertus of St. Omers (c. 1120), reference is made to these trees and the palm:

A. DEROLEZ (ed.), Lamberti S. Audomari Canonici Liber Floridus. Codex autographus Bibliothecae

Universitatis Gandavensis, Gent, 1968, p. 282-283, fol. 139v-140: "arbor significantes beatitudinum

ordines"; IDEM, Lambertus qui librum fecit. Een codicologische studie van de Liber Floridus-autograaf

(Gent, Universitaire bibliotheek, ms. 92), Brussels, 1978, p. 230. Eight trees are systematically represented

with inscriptions which refer to their origins and to their symbolic significance. The cedar tree refers to

Lebanon ("Lybanus") and to humility; it forms the "beatitudo prima." The cypress is found on Zion

("Syon") and refers to piety; it forms the "beatitudo secunda." The palm tree refers to knowledge and

wisdom and forms the third beatitude. It is found in Cadiz. The rose bush is found in Jericho and stands for

strength and justice. On the page alongside, the olive tree is connected with mercy, the plane tree with

intelligence, the terebinth tree with wisdom and peace-loving, and the grapevine with perfection

22

branches on Mount Tabor. David finds them there and takes them to Jerusalem.

On the way there, he cures three Ethiopians, a leper, and a hermit with the wood.

At home, the king places the shoots in a well, hoping to plant them in the garden

the next day. In the morning, however, they are deeply rooted and David has to

expand the wall around the shoots. Shortly thereafter, the branches grow together

into one tree and every year there is a silver ring beaten into the trunk to track its

growth (other versions: a chain). Under this tree, David composes his psalms,

laments his sins, and begins on the temple. According to God‟s will, only

Solomon may finish the construction. The workers are one tree short and so

decide to cut down the one from David‟s garden. Its size miraculously keeps

changing, however, and so it is set up inside the temple (other versions: built

across the door frame for veneration). A woman, Maximilla, sits upon the wood

and while her clothing catches fire, she calls the name Jesus, her God. The Jews

stone her outside the city because of her blasphemy and bury the “offensive”

wood in a pool. An angel comes to stir this water and gives it healing powers.

The Jews therefore haul the wood out and let it serve as a bridge over the water.

At the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the latter will not tread on

the bridge, but wades through the water and foretells the sacrificial death of

Christ. Still the wood lies there dishonorably until the Jews fashion a cross out of

it.

The Legenda group distinguishes itself through a very early and diversified dissemination

in the vernacular languages of Europe. The most significant research results were

23

recorded by H. Suchier, M. Lazar, and more recently by A.R. Miller and A.M.L.

Prangsma-Hajenius. H. Suchier and M. Lazar discovered a very reliable Anglo-Norman

translation in two 13th-century codices.54 Lazar dates the translation between 1243 and

1254.55 According to the information from several authors, it would appear that the

versions in the origin language actually predated the Latin texts.56 A Middle English

prose narration, The Holy Rood Tree, from a 12th-century mansucript, according to

Napier, goes back to an 11th-century prototype.57 However, Seth is (still?) not present

here. The legend hinges on Moses. Is the Legend of the True Cross in its archaic form

developed from the Moses typology, as it clearly was in the Balkans? One is inclined to

accept a twofold development: the legends which begin with Adam (Post peccatum

Adae) and those which begin with Moses (Rood Tree).58

The Legenda type was widespread in monastic milieus and likewise may be recognized

in the following texts:59 an Old French prose work by a certain monk Andrius from the

13th century;60 a Middle English text in 860 verses, the Story of the Holy Rood, in the

54 London, British Library, Ms. Royal 8 E XVII, fol. 121a; and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Ms.

66, fol. 221-224; H. SUCHIER, o.c., p. 165-200.

55 M. LAZAR, a.c., p. 42. Editions in Latin, p. 44-52; Anglo-Norman edition, p. 53-63.

56 On the role and evolution of the use of the origin language, see the overview by B.B. PRICE, Medieval

Thought. An Introduction, Cambridge, 1992, p. 92-118.

57 Full text is in A.S. NAPIER, o.c., p. 1-40.

58 A.R. MILLER, o.c., passim.

59 This data is taken from L. HERMODSSON, o.c., p. 16, and A.S. NAPIER, o.c., p. XII. Both authors

offer incomplete or no information on locations and dating of the texts.

60 Full text in A.S. NAPIER, o.c., p. 40 ff.

24

14th-century Harley Ms. 4196 in the British Library, London;61 a French version in a

manuscript from the 14th century (fol. 267-277) in Paris, BN ms. fr. 763;62 a Legend of

the Cross inserted in the compilation entitled Cursor Mundi (1320);63 the Boec van den

Houte or Van den drie Gaerden (1290-1330); from this poem a Low German translation

(1404) and a Middle Dutch prose version from a 15th-century manuscript.64

61 Full text in R. MORRIS, o.c., p. 62-86.

62 Extracts from the text in A.S. NAPIER, o.c., p. 64-67.

63 R. MORRIS, Cursor Mundi (the Cursor of the World). A Northumbrian Poem of the XIVth Century in

Four Versions, Two of Them Midland, (Early English Text Society, 1, 3), London, 1874-1877, p. 79-90, p.

364-371, p. 460-477, p. 504-517.

64 This legend existed through the 18th century (L. HERMODSSON, o.c., p. 30-32). J. TIDEMAN, Dboec

van den houte, door Jacob van Maerlant, (Werken uitgegeven door de Vereeniging ter bevordering der

oude Nederlandsche letterkunde, 1, 2), Leyden, 1844, p. XVI-XIX, discovered a German translation in the

Hartebock (1404) which belonged to the Hamburg Flanderfahrer, a brotherhood founded in 1392 to honor

H. Leichnams zu S. Johannis. The dating was done on the basis of philology; see: J.F.A. KINDERLING,

Geschichte der nieder-sächsischen oder sogenannten plattdeutschen Sprache vornehmlich bis auf Luthers

Zeiten nebst einer Musterung der vornehmsten Denkmahle dieses Mundart, Maagdenburg, 1800, p. 299-

304; K.F.A. SCHELLER, Bücherkunde der sächsisch-nederdeutschen Sprache, hauptsächlich nach den

Schrift denkmälern der Herzogl. Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel, Braunschweig, 1826, p. 55-56. The Hartebock

is a compilation of seven spiritual and profane poems translated from Dutch to Low German, in which the

second poem appears under the name Vom deme Holte des hilligen Krützes. Tideman included this very

reliable translation of Van den drie Gaerden from a publication by C. SCHRÖDER, Vom deme Holte des

hilligen Cruzes, Erlangen, 1869, in his Appendix B (p. 59-84). Later C. Schröder finds another Low

German version: IDEM, Vom Holze des heiligen Kreuzes, in Jahrbuch des Vereins für niederdeutsche

Sprachforschung, 2, Bremen, 1876, p. 88-113.

25

We can establish that in this group, the Queen of Sheba coincides with her generic name,

Sibilla. In some cases, there are even two prophetesses. Another notable variant is the

fact that the queen wades through the water on purpose and to Solomon‟s consternation,

thereby admits that she feels that the wood is too precious to step on with her feet. That

wood is sometimes shown at the doorway of the temple.

A predominantly Northern European orientation of these contents does not only appear in

literary history. Research shows that there is a specific visual life of the material itself as

well in the North. What follows is a description of an unpublished miniature, now in a

private collection auctioned at Sotheby‟s London, 10 December 1996.

On a full-page miniature from a French Book of Hours (possibly Lyon, 1480-1490), in

the right and lower margins, there is a cycle of a total of six scenes from the Legend of

the True Cross (fig. 4).65 They reveal a portrait of the evangelist Mark, although the

verso of the folio contains the gospel of Matthew. Mark sits in an atrium with a winged

bull on his left side. Rays of light fall directly on a text which the evangelist points to in

his open book. Below this is written, IN ILLO TEMPORE CUM NATUS ESSET IHSUS,

which is actually a quote from the gospel of Matthew (Mt. 2.1). In the left hand corner is a

blooming twig.

65 14.8x10.3 cm.; The late Prof. M. Smeyers brought this miniature to my attendion. Western Manuscripts

and Miniatures. 10 December 1996, London, 1996, nr. 29, p. 33, no. 29.

26

The iconography of the six scenes is contaminated and reveals a somewhat conflicting

reading direction. At the top, Solomon, with scepter and crown, orders a workman to task

with some planks, a scene which is connected with the commencement of the construction

of the temple. Below that, still under the supervision of Solomon and an advisor, a man

saws a thick beam in two. Following that, a narrow plank is fixed across a triple gate. In the

foreground lies an ax. In the fourth scene, in the lower right corner of the text page,

Solomon shows this plank to the Queen of Sheba and her companions. In the two remaining

scenes in the lower margin, there is first (next to the scene in the right corner of the page) a

conversation between Solomon and Sheba represented. In the distance, there is a city.

Finally, in the lower left corner, the queen wades through the water under the shocked gaze

of Solomon and his entourage, who wait for her on the other (left) side.

The miniature combines the episode in which the wood is worked into the temple, but

considered unuseable, and when it is instead exhibited at the entrance of the temple. This is

told by Gotfried of Viterbo and in a Middle English Legenda text, the Story of the Holy

Rood from the 14th century.66 In the other versions of the Legenda group, the “neglected”

wood comes directly to the temple. Only in Maerlant‟s poem Van den drie Gaerden (1290-

1330), is it added that Solomon himself revered the wood in the temple. The motivation for

this homage, namely because the wood could miraculously change its dimensions, is not

apparent in the scenes of the miniature.67

66 "Two pilers of the kirk betwene": full text in R. MORRIS, o.c., p. 62-86.

67 Already in the Early Middle Ages, it was common to show relics or to cement them into a door of the

church. A 7th-century pilgrim‟s journal tells us that the Holy Lance was to be found "in porticus illius

27

In the above-mentioned traditions, the reverence precedes the meeting with the Queen of

Sheba. The sibyl recognizes the destination of the wood: either on the temple gate

(Gotfried of Viterbo) or “degraded” to a footbridge from angst over the ecstatic woman

bursting into flame calling the name of Christ. In the fourth scene of this miniature, the

queen was already informed about the “door relic,” only to come in contact with the Holy

Wood a second time at the bridge. This is an iconographical unicum, and because this

specific aspect is absent in the literary sources, also an anomaly.

The sequence of the two bridge scenes is equally distorted. The meeting on the bridge,

which follows the temple gate, occurs on the left bank of the river; while in the last scene,

the queen wades through the water toward the left bank. Perhaps the reading direction

should rather run in reverse, so that the meeting at the bridge serves as the censure after the

recognition rather than the prediction itself. Then the reading direction of the bridge scenes

(left to right) seems to clash with that of the working of the Holy Wood for the temple (from

top to bottom and then right to left).

One can assume from this that the miniaturist conscisouly wanted to present two different

versions. In his Golden Legend, Jacobus de Voragine mentions Johannes Belethus and

Constantini Basilice"; Itinera Hierosolymitana saeculi IV-VIII, ed. P. GEYER, Leipzig, 1898, p. 235 and p.

305.

28

Petrus Comestor as authorities, in which the episode at the bridge (after Belethus) is

confronted with the episode in the temple (after Comestor).68

The conflicting literary background makes a connection between the full-page miniature

and the incunable, Boec van den Houte. The 64 woodcuts which were printed in 1484 by

Johan Veldener in Culemborg form the most developed cycle with our subject.69 The

incunable is the accumulation of graphic material which previously functioned as a block

book.70 Beside the incunable is Van den drie Gaerden, a 13th-century variant from the

Legenda group. The six scenes in the French miniature seem to be “snapshots” from the

twelve woodcuts which were taken from the episode of Solomon and the Queen of

Sheba.71 After Solomon had the tree cut down, two woodcuts are dedicated to the

working of the wood into the temple, which looks like a contemporary construction site

(woodcuts 19 and 20) (figs. 5-6). After the episode where the woman sits on the wood in

the temple (three scenes), it is shown how the wood is laid over the river (woodcut 24) (fig.

7). Thereafter, the queen wades through the water, in the same direction as the French

miniature (woodcut 25) (fig. 8). Two girlfriends stand on the right bank and two advisors

68 W.G. RYAN, o.c., p. 68.

69 Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, INC A 1582; B. BAERT, Het "Boec van den Houte",

Brussels, 1995. What follows is new research in the context of this monograph.

70 Conway points out that the woodcuts in the Boec successively comprise 32 pairs with the same dimensions.

Although each caption verbally refers to the image above (except for eight: Hier...), it cannot be said for certain

whether the quatrains in the incunable provide the typographical setting of the original texts in the block book.

W.M. CONWAY, The Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century, Cambridge,1884, p. 13-14.

71 B. BAERT, o.c., p. 18-29, p. 60-66.

29

and a surprised Solomon find themselves on the left side of the river. Afterward, she

reprimands Solomon in the one scene (the river is not represented) (woodcut 26) ( fig. 9),

and lets him dispose of the wood in the following scene (woodcut 27) (fig. 10). It is this last

moment that is represented in the French miniature. In both examples, the queen gestures

toward the bridge, and meanwhile looks at Solomon, both of them standing on the left side

of the bank. Only in the incunable, the wood is already cleared away by the workers.

In the Boec van den Houte, the homage is represented in the form of a door relic. Workmen

carry it first to the temple (woodcut 28) (fig. 11) where it is subsequently gilded and hung

across the doorway (woodcut 29) (fig. 12). Later Abyas will take this wood away, a motif

uniquely reserved for the Boec and the Van den drie Gaerden, and therefore an important

argument for the relationship between the two traditions.

It appears that the miniaturist drew on material from an expanded Legend of the True Cross,

such as the Boec, but from there, narratively speaking, made a rather awkward combination.

There may also have been a diffuse circulation of the literary background in the French

atelier. Nevertheless, the symbolic meaning of the scenes is worked out with some insight.

The blooming wood in the inscription refers to the fruit-bearing withered tree; to the

deliverance of the cross as the new tree of life. Clearly, the message is that Christ is already

present in the wood from the Old Testament. Here the logos is expressed in a material

which carries fruitful nerves.

30

That there is a direct relationship between the miniature and the incunable is possible. The

dating allows this, the scenes are closely related to the woodcuts, and fruitful exchange

between book printing and miniature painting in the last quarter of the 15th century are

known. Yet a direct relationship is not probable, given that as far as we know, the Boec may

have known a Northern Netherlandish market and perhaps was even made specifically for

Culemborg and its cross relic devotion.72 Had the woodcuts already traveled around as a

block book? However difficult this question may be to answer, there are more and more

new clues which have come to light in connection with a graphic Legend of the Cross

circuit.73

In the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, a xylographic print is kept from 1460: a

page with the signature „G‟ containting six scenes spread over two levels with Latin

inscriptions. The style is reminiscent of the Southern Netherlands. The organization of the

text page is typological: the upper register is the Old Testament typus for the lower register.

Above:

1. Hic regina arguit Salomonem quod dimisit illud lignum jacere super solum et prophetauit

quod xpistus

moreretur in eo

72 R.G. CALKINS, Parallels between Incunabula and Manuscripts from the Circle of the Master of

Catherine of Cleves, in Oud Holland, 92, 1978, p. 137-160.

73 What follows are results of research which were not yet published in B. Baert, Het “ Boec,” o.c.,

passim.

31

2. Hic fecerunt Salomon et regina illud sanctum lignum eleuari et circumuestiri auro et

argento

3. Hic fecit salomon illud lignum ordinare in ianua templi ut sic virtutem quisque honoraret

Below:

4. Hic venerunt joseph et nycodemus deponentes corpus xpi a cruce et crux mansit ibi stans

5. Hic apostoli medicaver... populum cum cruce et multi iudei crediderunt

6. Multus populus liberatur a demone et ab aliis infirmitatibus ante crucem benedictam.74

The removal of the bridge corresponds to the Descent from the Cross; the decoration of the

wood of the cross prefigures the preachings of the apostles; the working of the wood into the

temple door (Gotfried of Viterbo) so that everyone may revere it, is an image for the

delivery from evil through the cross of Golgotha.

All of the scenes, except for the Descent from the Cross and the preaching of the apostles

correspond to the woodcuts in the Boec van den Houte (woodcuts 26, 27, 29, 37

respectively) (figs. *-*).

In the Municipal Archives of Bruges, there is a second Latin fragment with a different

watermark from the lost block book Historia sanctae crucis, here with the signature “f” (c.

1480) (fig. 13). One hypothesisis that the fragments were made for a “poster” and thus they

were not handed down in book form. The signatures should form instructions for the order

74 Taken out of A.R. MILLER, loc. cit. The captions are also published by J.D. PASSAVANT, Le peintre-

graveur, 1, New York, 1860, p. 50.

32

and the place of the scenes.75 Such “posters” refer to the pilgrim milieu. They were a form

of “iconographic exhibition” as was the ostentio of the relics.

***

This new information lies at the basis of the unlocking of the Legend of the Cross material

and the Queen of Sheba in a so-called “lower” and wilder circuit, and nuances in an

important way the monopolization which the Italian Franciscan cycles have received in the

research. It is well known that the cycle by Agnolo Gaddi in the church of Santa Croce in

Florence, where the legend (after the Golden Legend) was first realized in the choir,76

embodied the exemplum for similar cycles in Volterra (1410)77 and Empoli (1425).78

75 Correspondence of 11 October 1999 with Professor Nigel Palmer, Oxford; Archiefleven. Nieuwsbrief

van het Stadsarchief van Brugge, 1, 2, 1994, p. 4 and fig. p. 5.

76 A testament of Alberto di Lapo degli Alberti from 1348 (during the plague) demonstrates the earliest

contacts between the family and the Franciscan monastery with certainty (Florence, Archivio di Stato,

Diplomatico S. Croce); B. Cole, Agnolo Gaddi, Oxford, 1977, p. 79 ff.; BLUME 1983, D. Blume,

Wandmalerei als Ordenspropaganda. Bildprogramma im Chorbereich franziskaner Konvente Italiens bis zur

Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts, Worms, 1983, p. 90-91; R. SALVINI , „Agnolo Gaddi‟, in Santa Croce, publ. C.

Nardini, Florence, 1989, p. 185-215. See also M.G. Rosito, Santa Croce nel solco della Storia, Florence,

1996.

77 M.A. LAVIN, The Place of Narrative. Mural Decoration in Italian Churches, 431-1600, Chicago-

London, 1990, p. 117-118;Volterra. La capella della croce in san Francesco, Volterra, 1991; F.

PORRETTI, Volterra magica e Misteriosa, Pisa, 1992, p. 89, p. 236-239; E. CARLI, Volterra nel medievo

e nel rinascimento, Pisa, 1978.

33

From an archival document from Montepulciano, we know that the Compagnia della santa

Croce subsidized a trip to Florence in 1415 for Nanni (Giovanni) di Caccia to draw over

Gaddi‟s frescoes in the Santa Croce. Moreover, the cycle of Piero della Francesca in Arezzo

(before 1466) has also been overwhelmingly studied.79

Turning our attention to the purpose of this article and the public for whom it is written, it

will be assumed that the reader has already had sufficient contact with the Italian Legends of

the True Cross.80 From the foregoing, it may appear that Northern European miniatures,

78 G. POGGI, Masolino e la Compagnia della Croce in Empoli, in Rivista d'arte, 3 (1905), p. 46-53, P.

PROTO & C. Rosanna, „La chiesa di Santo Stefano degli Agostiniani‟, in Masolino a Empoli, (exh. cat.),

Empoli, 1987, p. 35-46; P. JOANNIDES, Masaccio and Masolino. A Complete Catalogue, London, 1993;

P.L. ROBERTS, Masolino da Panicale, Oxford-Clarendon, 1993; B. BAERT, Twilight Between Tradition

and Innovation. The Iconography of the Cross-Legend in the Sinopie of Masolino da Panicale at Empoli, in

Storia dell‟ arte, 99, 2000, p. 5-16; See also LAVIN, o.c., p. 117-118.

79 A select list of references: L. SCHNEIDER, The Iconography of Piero della Francesca's Frescoes

Illustrating the Legend of the True Cross in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, in The Art Quaterly,

32, 1969, p. 23-48; C. GINZBURG, Enquête sur Piero della Francesca. Le Baptême, le cycle d'Arezzo, la

Flagellation d'Urbino, Paris, 1981, p. 33-63; M.A. LAVIN, Piero della Francesca and His Legacy, (Studies

in the History of Art 48), Hannover-London, 1995; IDEM, Piero della Francesca: San Francesco, Arezzo-

Paris, 1995.

80 A study which treats the Tuscan cycle exclusively is S. Pfleger, Eine Legende und ihre Erzählformen.

Studien zur Rezeption der Kreuzlegenden in der italienischen Monumentalmalerei des Tre- und

Quattrocento, (Europäische Hochschulschriften, 18. Kunstgeschichte, 214), Frankfurt-Vienna, 1994. From

the recently discovered cycle in Lanciano, Abruzzi (c. 1330), I have dealt extensively with the Tuscan

Legend of the Cross cycles and their supposed role in a “standard iconography” in the Italian tre- and

quattrocento. The identification of the Queen of Sheba is rather controversial, so I shall not deal with this

34

graphics, and block books brought the medieval citizen in close contact with the mystery of

the wood of the cross.81 The production of these texts and images demonstrates just how

much this “wood” as a fifth natural element, as a quintessence, was integrated into medieval

thinking. The medieval yearning for knowledge about the wood of the cross was poured

forth in the greater understanding of the Queen of Sheba. She acquires that knowledge and

understanding on the basis of her path from a deep and matriarchal history. Further support

of the “entry” of the queen in the Legend of the True Cross from anthropological and

gender-based research follows.

3. The anthropological cluster: wood-water-foot

The Queen of Sheba not only belongs to Christendom. She is Jewish, Arabic, and Assyrian.

Comparative cultural history contributes to her specific profile in the Legend of the True

Cross.

important site here; B. BAERT, The Wall Paintings in the Campanile of the Church of St. Nicola in

Lanciano (ca. 1330-1400). Reading an Unknown Legend of the Cross in the Abruzzi, Italy, in

Iconographica, 2, 2003 (at press).

81 B. BAERT, „Totten paradise soe sult ghi gaen‟. De verbeelding omtrent de herkomst van het kruishout, in

B. BAERT and V. FRAETERS (eds.), Aan de vruchten kent men de boom. De boom in tekst en beeld in de

middeleeuwse Nederlanden, Leuven, 2001, p. 19-47, p. 32-36: with emphasis on a Cross Legend cycle c. 1450

in Wiedenest, near Cologne, with figs.

35

The talmud does not add much to the Biblical passage in 1 Kings 10.1-13. Rabbi Jochanan

even proposes in his treatise “Bawa Bathra,” that “queen” should be read as “kingdom.”82

With regard to the Book of Esther – more specifically a banquet at the house of Xerxes – the

Targum Scheni, an Armeniam translation from Hebrew (controversial date, no later than

11th century), expands upon the figure of Solomon.83 The king commands several subjects

to journey to the region of Sheba – a region which is compared to Paradise in the text - 84 to

summon the wonderous queen to his palace. There, the streams are covered with glass.

When the queen pulls up her dress with the intention of having to wade through the water, to

everyone‟s surprise, she betrays a hirsute foot. The Alphabeticum Siracidis, a book of fairy

tales from the 11th century, promptly gives her a completely hirsute body.85 In the

Alphabeticum, the queen sleeps with Solomon thereafter, but her lover requires her to use a

certain cosmetic to remove her hair. The child which is born from this union is none less

than Nebuchadnezzar. The ambiguity between “male,” female,” and “animal” suggest a

supernatural (and thus “demonic”) origin. It is this magical-religious echo which is taken as

negative in the Hebrew tradition and which may have led to controversial traditions

surrounding the queen.

82 L.H. SILBERMANN, The Queen of Sheba in Judaic Tradition, in Salomon und Sheba, publ. by J.B.

PRITCHARD, London, 1974, p. 65-84, p. 67 ff.

83 M. GRÜNBAUM, Neue Beiträge zur Semitische Sagenkunde, Leyden, 1893, p. 211 ff. For commentary,

see R. BEYER, o.c., p. 28 ff.; L.H. SILBERMANN, a.c., p. 65; and R.G. STIEGNER, Die Königin von Saba

in ihren Namen, (Ph.D. diss.), Graz, 1977, p. 20.

84 For Sheba as Paradise, see: (editors), art. Paradies, in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 5,

Tubingen, 1961, col. 95-100, col. 95.

85 For the editions, see L.H. SILBERMANN, a.c., p. 71.

36

The minor positive adjustment of the Jews is possibly related to the urge to erase the proto-

Hebrew demonic memories of the queen. It is not improbable that in her character are found

couched layers of Lilith, half woman, half demon, which Jewish supersition in its turn had

taken over from a 2000-year-old Sumerian myth.86 Gilgamesh must drive out a demon and

a snake from a tree. Lilith the demon is driven by force by the hero to a region where there

is only desert.87 In Sumerian art, this Lilith is represented with wings, her lower body that

of a bird (terracotta, area of Hammurabis [1792-1750 B.C.]) (fig. 14).88

The motif of the desert may be carried over to the queen. In a Jewish commentary on the

Book of Job, the female leader of the so-called Sabeans is called “Queen Lilith.”89 The

Alphabeticum Siracidis tells about this Lilith that she was the first wife of Adam.90

Stubborn and set on her freedom, she leaves her husband. In vain, Adam begs for her

return. God has compassion for him and sends a more willing Eve. Lilith, although

unfeminine in her disregard for the man, is nevertheless feminine in her jealousy. In

order to punish Adam and Eve, she hands the forbidden apple to Eve. Here she is placed

back into her “Sumerian abode,” the tree, and is further identified with the snake from the

86 G. SCH(OLEM), art. Lilith, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2, Jerusalem, 1971, col. 245-249.

87 A. SCHOTT (ed. and transl.), Das Gilgameshepos, Stuttgart, 1958, p. 118.

88 Image from: A. PARROT, Sumer, (Univers des formes), lst ed., 1960, no. 376.

89 W. BACHER, Lilith Königin von Smaragd, in Monatschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des

Judentums, 19, 1870, p. 187 ff. The emerald is also connected to the Queen of Sheba; R. BEYER, o.c., p. 34.

90 G. SCHOLEM, a.c., p. 246.

37

passage in Gilgamesh.91 This feminine snake demon also appears in Christian

iconography of the Fall of Man. In a woodcut from Augsburg (1470), a crowned and

winged Lilith leads Eve to the apple.92 There are also numerous examples of the snake

which are represented with a female torso and head, as in the stained glass window in the

Saint Elizabeth Church in Marburg from the 13th century (fig. 15).93

Islam, too, adopted the Queen of Sheba. The 34th sura (chapter) of the Koran deals with

the realm of Sheba. Supplemented with some oral tradition, the 27th sura speaks of a

nameless queen who displays all of the identifying marks from the Bible passage in

which the queen and Solomon meet each other.94 The queen offers the riddles and,

convinced of the wisdom of Solomon, she goes the way of Allah. The “glass rivers”

(Targum Scheni) are also present, but the connection, namely the unveiling of the

demonic foot, is made vague. Moreover, there are no more demonic characteristics

attributed to her; the queen is a bringer of peace and a convert to Islam.

91 In Jewish popular belief, she lives further as a tormenter of men and a kidnapper of children, but also as

a protector of children. R. BEYER, o.c., pl. 6-7, shows a silver amulet with Lilith; on her body is a

cryptogram of Yaweh. The author also refers to a parchment amulet with the figure of Lilith against

diphtheria in small children.

92 R. BEYER, o.c., fig. p. 41; H. MODE, Démons et animaux fantastiques, Paris, 1977, s.p.

93 R. BEYER, o.c., pl. 5.

94 J. HALEVY, a.c., p. 5-24, p. 10.

38

Her name, Bilqis, first appears with the history writer at-Tabari (893-923).95 Here, the

queen has a donkey‟s hoof. Solomon does not take any offense to the foot, and even

laments that this foot was betrayed in a cowardly manner by the other demons out of

envy at the court.96 Thus, in Islam, the queen is withdrawn from a negative light as

much as possible. Besides Bilqis, she also appears in Arabic texts under the name

“Balmaqua.” “Almaqua” stands for a virgin Venus god from Yemen.97 The old sun cult

95 Edition: E. SCHABINGER, Salomon in der arabischen Literatur, in Augsburger Postzeitung, 1895, p.

229, ff., this passage p. 238. See also: G. CANOVA (ed.), Storia do Bilqis regina di saba, Marseille, 2000.

96 The mirror diagnostic is a favorite iconographic theme at the court of Shah Abbas (1588-1629); R.

BEYER, o.c., p. 54-55 and figs. 13, 25, 26. On the reception of Persian miniatures in the West (e.g. erotic),

see G.E. von GRUNEBAUM, Der Islam II. Die Islamischen Reiche nach dem Fall von Konstantinopel,

Frankfurt, 1990 (repr. 1971), p. 167; on the illuminations themselves, see I. STOUKINE, Les peintures des

manuscrits Safavis de 1502-1587, Paris, 1959; B.W. ROBINSON, A Descriptive Catalogue of Persian

Paintings in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1958; T.W. ARNOLD, Painting in Islam. A Study of the Place of

Pictorial Art in Muslim Culture, Oxford, 1928; N. BROSH and R. MILSTEIN, Biblical Stories in Islamic

Painting, Jerusalem, 1991, figs. 38, 39.

97 R.G. STIEGNER, o.c., p. 50. There existed a kingdom called Sheba in present-day North Yemen, Ethiopia,

which in some traditions, was also named the location of the Garden of Paradise and where people

worshipped the sun and the moon. See P. WALD, Der Jemen, Cologne, 1980; G. MANDEL, Das Reich der

Königin von Saba, Bern-Munich, 1976; W. PHILIPS, Kataba und Saba. Entdeckung der verschollenen

Königreiche an den biblischen Gewürzstassen Arabiens, Frankfurt, 1955. On the history of Ethiopia in the

context of the Queen of Sheba, see "Makeda, Die Äthioperin", chapters 10-13 in R. BEYER, o.c., p. 127-180.

In the 4th century, Ethiopia was converted; previously Jewish colonies already called themselves

"Solomonides," and descendants of the Queen of Sheba; Ibidem, p. 130 ff. The legend itself goes that David

brought the kingdom of Jerusalem to Ethiopia (Abyssinia). This goes together with the intended transfer of

the ark to that country. E.A.W. BUDGE, The Queen of Sheba and her Only Son Menyelek, Oxford-London,

39

goddess of Islam is transposed onto the Queen of Sheba and becomes a pious Muslim

woman.98 The name Bilqis is possibly derived from pilgesh, Hebrew for intercourse.99

In his Kasideh, an Arabic saga from the 12th century, Nashwan ibn-Said writes about a

number of Bilqis‟ family members, who all went back to animal forefathers. The

genealogical tree begins with the snake.100 According to the Ethiopian legends, the

Queen of Sheba is also born from the snake queen.101 These old animal cults were

never fully pushed aside, either in Christendom or in Islam. The boundary between man

and animal remains vaguely balanced when it came to the mind in terms of instinct,

swiftness, (super)naturalness, and sexuality.

A common factor between the Jewish and Arabic world is the outspoken shrewdness of

the Queen of Sheba. In the Bible, the emphasis is on her eagerness to learn (we never

learn about Solomon‟s answers to the riddles), as in the Koran, where this eagerness

flows into her conversion to Islam. In the midrash Mischle, a collection of Jewish

prayers and tales from the 10th-11th century,102 so-called “children‟s riddles” are

1932, p. XLVI-XLIX. The written evidence of a Queen of Sheba legend in Ethiopia dates to the 14th century,

the so-called Kebra Nagast; A. CAQUOT, La reine de Saba et le bois de la croix selon une tradition

éthiopienne, in Annales d'Ethiopie, 1955, 1, p. 137-147, p. 137-138. Solomon and the Queen of Sheba are

today still frequently present in Ethiopian iconography; M. RODINSON, Comment un roi israélite est devenu

un magicien universel, in Le roi Salomon et les maîtres du regard, (exh. cat.), Brussels, 1992, p. 132-135.

98 R.G. STIEGNER, o.c., p. 42.

99 R.G. STIEGNER, o.c., p. 128.

100 Edition: G. MANDEL, Das Reich der Königin von Saba, Bern-Munich, 1976, p. 58 ff.

101 A. CAQUOT, a.c., p. 141-142.

102 Edition: A. WÜNSCHE, Die Rätselweisheit bei den Hebräern, Leipzig, 1883, p. 15.

40

worked out.103 The midrash Ha-Hefiz from the 14th century does the same but in more

detail.104 The queen asks Solomon about the most thirst-quenching water that may be

called neither heavenly nor earthly. The queen knows that this must be the sweat of a

steed. Horses who mate or compete would prick through each other‟s coat and drink the

moisture under the epidermis – which is very sweet.105 Clearly, illusions to fertility and

eroticism play a role here.106

The Queen of Sheba may be connected to yet another woman. In Assyrian written

histories, there is mention of Semiramis, the consort of King Sausiadad V (824-810).

This woman received a prominent place on the commemorative pillars of the kings of

Assyria.107 Not only did men believe that this Assyrian ruler had a demonic

background, but also that her way of life revealed many similarities with that of the

Queen of Sheba. Semiramis is an ardent Amazon fighter. She marched out against the

Medes (810) and the Armenians (806/7), to name but two. The Queen of Sheba is also

profiled as a “connoisseur” of horses in the legends.108 Both are enthusiastic

103 On the riddles in the medieval West, see S. KRAUSS, a.c., p. 127.

104 Edition: L. GINZBERG, The Legends of the Jews, 6 vols., Philadelphia, 1913-1928, vol. 4, p. 147 and

vol. 6, p. 290.

105 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 102.

106 In the Targum Scheni (supra) as well, the riddles had to do with the daily activities of a woman, e.g.,

putting on make-up. In the dialogues between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, patriarchal and matriarchal

cultures come in contact with each other; R. BEYER, o.c., p. 103-109.

107 W. EILERS, Semiramis, (Sitzungsberichte der österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Philologisch-historische Klasse, 274, 2), Vienna, 1971, p. 37.

108 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 123.

41

connoisseurs of hydraulic laws and mechanics. Semiramis is supposed to have diverted

the Euphrates – what was almost considered impossible. Arabic sources connect the

Queen of Sheba with the dam of Marib.109 In their love lives, they are very adept and

sexually active. Moreover, Semiramis is supposed to have been the wife of

Nebuchadnezzar.110 As Nebuchadnezzar was the son of the Queen of Sheba, according

to the Alphabeticum Siracidis, then Semiramis would be her daughter-in-law. The hybrid

appearance of the Ethiopian queen holds true for Semiramis as well. The Arabic

historian Diodorus tells how she veiled her femininity with her clothing.111 Finally, the

Queen of Sheba is a convert; Semiramis too converts to belief in Nebo, the God of

Assyria.112

From comparative cultural history, it may appear that the Queen of Sheba in her various

incarnations carries with her archetypes which are related to the sexual supremacy of the

feminine, an insight into the mysteries of and around women, a supernatural involvement

with the element of water, and the demonization of the foot. She is also an active

109 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 124.

110 L. GINZBERG, o.c., 1, p. 300, 6, p. 389.

111 J.F. WURNM (ed. and transl.), Diodor's von Sizilien Historische Bibliothek, 2, Stuttgart, 1827, p. 166.

112 "Mit der Semiramis ist der Menschheitserinnerung ein Archetyp geglückt, dem auch die kaum weniger

faszinierenden Gestalten einer Bilqis (Königin von Saba), einer Kleopatra, einer Zenobia, aber wohl auch der

Judith und Salome zuzurechnen sind - unvergessliche Erscheinungsbilder, im Typus durchaus

wirklichkeitsnah und anziehend auch dort noch, wo moralischen Urteil sie mit recht verdammt"; W. EILERS,

o.c., p. 68-69.

42

“threshold figure” with connections to the great shifts in the world religions. These

archetypes have remained present and transformed in the Christian Queen of Sheba.

In the Legend of the True Cross, the wood takes the form of a bridge.113 In the Legenda

Aurea, the queen reveres the bridge, but in the Legenda group in the Book of the Sibyls

(infra), the queen will wade through the water. This recalls the Jewish and Arabic ruse of

the “glass river.” A. Chastel proposes that it is not inconceivable that the variant in the

Legend of the True Cross existed on the basis of this motif. From the 12th century, the

Christian West was often influenced by Persian ateliers. Perhaps the motif was first taken

up in the atelier circuit – as in the examples in the Legenda group – and thereafter, even very

late, it reached the image.114 The earliest iconographical response to the wading of the

Queen of Sheba is the Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves (1442-1445) (fol. 216) (fig.

16).115 From here one can assume that the miniaturist was not solely inspired by the rigid

version of the Legenda Aurea.

113 H. BÄCHTOLD-STÄUBLI, art. Brücke, in Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, vol. 1,

Berlin-Leipzig, 1927, col. 1659-1665; R. HÜNNENKOPF, art. Fluss, in Handwörterbuch des deutschen

Aberglaubens, vol. 2, Berlin-Leipzig, 1927, col. 1681-1694; M. LURKER, art. Brücke, in Wörterbuch der

Symbolik, Stuttgart, 1991, p. 114.

114 A. CHASTEL, a.c., p. 105-108.

115 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 917; F. GORISSEN, Das Stundenbuch der Katharina von Kleve.

Analyse und Kommentar, Berlin, 1973, p. 105, p. 494-525, p. 959-961 and p. 999-1001; J. PLUMMER, Die

Miniaturen aus dem Stundenbuch der Katharina von Kleve, Berlin, 1966, nos. 79-87.

43

There is even an example known where the queen crosses the water as an Amazon. In the

cycle of the Legend of the True Cross in Montegiorgio (1430, attributed to Alberto da

Ferrara), the queen wades through the water on horseback (fig. 17).116 An Anglo-Norman

source of the Legenda type was found, in which it is expressly describes that the queen

approaches the bridge on horseback and moreover, that she rides toward Solomon, after she

has revered the wood. Once she reaches Solomon, they talk “about things in which nothing

written is handed down.”117 Perhaps here there is mention of a distant recollection of the

“connoisseur of horses, ” but it was adopted in the Montegiorgio cycle in a courtly, context.

The involvement of the Queen of Sheba with the element of water in medieval Europe was

further established with regard to her demonic foot. In Western Europe, she will namely

don the goose foot.

An etymological connection may be drawn between the piede d‟oca (Italian for goose foot)

and the reine Pédauque, a French corruption of „goose queen.‟ This queen with the goose

116 B. BAERT, La cappella Farfense in Montegiorgio. Una leggende della vera croce nelle Marche (ca

1425), in Arte cristiana, 804, 2001, p. 219-233.

117 Mid-13th century, made in England, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, ms. 66. H.H. HILTON, Seth.

An Anglo-Norman Poem, (Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 3), 1941, p. 57, v 390-404:

"De son cheval descent en aire;/ pus ses soulers fist terer/ E nu pé l'ewe passa,/ E al seint tref se genula/ E

devoutement se enclina/ Cum cele ke Deu mult ama./ pus est son cheval munté/ E al rei Salomun est alé./ E

kaunt eus ensemble vindrent/ Grant conseil ensemble tindrent;/ De plusurs choses unt parlé/ Ke en escrit ne

sunt pas trové. Quant assez unt cunseilé,/ La dame en son païs est retourné/ En vele manere fu le tref

remis".

44

foot appears mostly in Burgundy and the region of Toulouse. A female portal figure on the

west side of the cloister church of Saint Bénigne in Dijon (c. 1160) had been the reason for a

search for the origin of this particular mutation of nature (fig.18).118 Jean Mabillon (1703)

sees in this feminine figure (she stands on the far right of Moses, Solomon, and Peter) with a

crown and a left foot that looks like a hirsute paw, a Merovingian compatriot, Queen

Clothilde, who by the sake of her vigilance, may have received the attribute of the goose

foot.119 One of the main beneficiaries of the cloister in Dijon was Robert the Capetian

(866-923). His marriage to Bertha was not blessed by the church, given that they were

distant relatives four times removed. The son of their union supposedly had the head of a

goose.120 Later, this Bertha is interchanged with the mother of Charlemagne, Berthe au

grand pied.121 Finally, J. Lebeuf (1756) sees in this portal figure the Queen of Sheba.122

118 R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 8: original drawing of the destroyed portal in Dijon; see also fig. 10: drawing of one

of the portals of the former abbey church in Nesle-la Reposte/Marne (Champagne), c. 1160.

119 J. MABILLON, Annales ordinis Benedicti, vol. 1, Paris, 1703, col. 227, also states that a similar portal

figure is found in: 1) Saint Pierre of Nevers: M. ANFRAY, La cathédrale de Nevers et les églises gothiques

du Nivernis, Paris, 1964; J.N. MORRELET e.a., Le Novernois. Album historique et pittoresque, Nevers, 1838-

1840, p. 124; and 2) Saint Pourcain sur Soule, Auvergne. Both were destroyed during the French Revolution.

See also R. BEYER, o.c., p. 42-43 and J. VANUXEM, The Theories of Mabillon and Montfoucon on French

Sculpture of the Twelfth Century, in The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 20, 1952, p. 45-58.

120 J.B. BULLET, Dissertations sur la mythologie française et sur plusieurs points curieux de l'histoire de

France, Paris, 1771, passim.

121 She appears already in the Floire et Blancheflor of c. 1160. It is at least noteworthy that all of these

related types all appear around the same period; J. DEVIGNE, Les légendaires des provinces françaises à

travers notre folklore, Paris, 1978; A. VAN GIJSEN, art. Berte met de brede voeten, in Van Aiol tot de

Zwaanridder. Personages uit de middeleeuwse verhaalkunst en hun voortleven in literatuur, theater en

45

The queen is also included on church portals as a personification of the church and as a

witness at the Last Judgment.

Around same period as these portal sculptures, we can read in a copy of the De imagine

Mundi (c. 1160) by Honorius Augustodunensis the following addition: Saba quoque

Ethiopissa et regina quoque Sibilla habens pedes aserinos et oculos lucentes ut stellae.123

beeldende kunsten, publ. by W.P. GERRITSEN and A.G. van MELLE, Nijmegen, 1993; H. BÄCHTOLD-

STÄUBLI, art. Fuss, in Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, 3, Berlin-Leipzig, 1930-1931, col.

224-236, col. 225.

122 J. LEBEUF, Conjectures sur la reine Pédauque. Où l'on recherche quelle pouvait être cette reine,

(Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres, 23), 1756, p. 227 ff. See also P. QUARRE,

L'abbé Lebeuf et l'interprétation du portail de Saint-Bénigne de Dijon, in L'abbé Lebeuf et le jansénisme,

Auxerre, 1962. In the northern portal of Notre Dame in Amiens (1220-1236) dedicated to Mary, the Queen of

Sheba is placed under Mary and next to Solomon. She holds a crown in one hand as a symbol of humility.

No one has noticed the conspicuous “raised” foot under her garment. Does her clothing veil a hoof (donkey

hoof)? The Queen of Sheba next to Solomon in Notre Dame at Chartres (portal dedicated to St. Anne, 1200-

1220) does wear a crown. It appears that she awkwardly hitches up her garment. One of her feet is covered.

Does her garment undulate over this foot in the form of fleece? The intentional covering of the queen‟s feet

appears more often. The other figures from the Notre Dame portal wear clothing which reaches the ankles,

thereby allowing their feet to be visible.

123 Citation from the manuscript in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, ms. lat. 22225 and 22387a, after W.

HERTZ, Die Rätsel der Königin von Saba, in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, 27, 1883, p. 1-33, p. 23 and

R. BEYER, o.c., p. 43. What we have here is an interpolation into the original text (De imagine Mundi, PL

172). The additions must date from c. 1154-1159 (cf. note *). See I. NESKE, o.c., p. 30 ff. Her eyes

sparkled like stars: according to Beyer, that refers to her feminine beauty, her attention to her outer

46

The goose foot is clearly associated with the queen here.124 That there was something

wrong with her foot could be recuperated from Jewish or Arabic sources, but a goose foot is

very different from a hirsute foot or a donkey‟s hoof.

Perhaps there is a superstition or a popular belief in place here, such as the myth around

Bertha: her name means “enlightened one.”125 Yet it is still not clear how a goose foot

appearance, and cosmetics, as we have seen in the Jewish and Arabic sources; R. BEYER, o.c., p. 103 ff.

However, the sparkling of the eyes of course also points to her supernatural qualities as a seer.

124 In Toulouse as well, various legends around the reine Pédauque are still prevalent. On a city map of

Jouvin de Rochefort (1672), there is a bridge named the Reine Pédauque. This bridge (a remnant of a Roman

aqueduct) was supposed to have been so narrow that only goose feet could walk on it. As we have seen, the

element of water and the bridge fill a significant field of meaning around the Queen of Sheba; A. COUTET,

Toulouse. Ville artistique, plaisante et curieuse, Toulouse, 1926, p. 142; G. BACCRABERE, L'aqueduc de la

Reine Pédauque à Toulouse, in Mémoires de la Société archéologique du Midi de la France, 30, 1964, p. 59

ff. In the la Daurade cloister in Toulouse, there is a sarcophagus from the 5th century which displays two

giant goose feet (R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 9). This is popularly referred to as the grave of the reine pédauque; A.

COUTET, o.c., p. 143; J. de LAHONDES, La reine Pédauque, in Express du Midi, 12, 1909. In Toulouse it

was the custom to swear to the truth by la reine (a judicial connotation); H. LECLERCQ, art. La Reine

Pédauque, in Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, 13, 1938, col. 2929-2930, col. 2927.

125 V.I.J. FLINT, Anti-Jewish Literature and Attitudes in the Twelfth Century, in Ideas in the Medieval West.

Texts and their Contexts, (variorum reprints), London, 1988, p. 39-57, p. 50-52. On the symbolism of the

foot, see M. LURKER, art. Fuss, in Wörterbuch der Symbolik; W. SPEYER, Die Segenskraft des göttliches

Fusses, in Festschrift für J.H. Waszink, Amsterdam, 1973, s.p.; G. Wolf, Verehrte Füsse. Prolegomena zur

Geschichte eines Körperteils, in Körperteile. Eine kulturelle Anatomie, ed. C. Bentien and C. Wulf,

Hamburg, 2001, p. 500-523; The goose: A. TAYLOR, art. Gänsefussig, in Handwörterbuch des deutschen

47

was grafted to the personage of the Queen of Sheba.126 In Honorius‟ text, W. Hertz

proposes that there is a scribal error in which anserinos (of a goose) must have replaced

asinos (of a donkey).127 In this case, the link with an Arabic past may be made, and a

trickling from Spain (or from other Arabic communities in Southern Italy or North Africa)

towards the north may be detected.128 The goose foot appears at the same time however, in

portal sculpture: scribal error or not, the motif was immediately incorporated into visual art!

Therefore, it is the opinion of the present author that the Queen of Sheba consciously

appears with the goose foot, referring to an important native symbolism in Northern Europe.

The foot is the part of the body which puts us in contact with the ground, yet at the same

time, it is the farthest from our gaze. Thus is defined the distant relationship with our body

and the environment. For these reasons, the foot is often the symbolic object of shame,129

fertility, and sexuality.130 In ancient matriarchal cultures, one foot was bared to ensure the

earth‟s power.131 As a rule, it was the left foot, the feminine pole.132 The ritual was

mainly a function of competition, but also of purification and marriage, i.e., where borders

Aberglaubens, 3, 1930-1931, kol. 297-298: "der Gans- bzw. Tierfuss eine Erinnerung an eine ursprungliche

Skelettgestalt des Dämons festhält".

126 I. NESKE, o.c., p. 33.

127 W. HERTZ, a.c., p. 1-33, p. 27.

128 This path also informed the hypothesis of A. BERLINGER, Van deme holte des hilligen cruzes, in

Theologisches Literaturblatt, 6, 1871, p. 101-110, p. 107.

129 C.W.M. VERHOEVEN, Symboliek van de voet, (Ph.D. diss.), Assen, 1956, p. 166 ff.

130 Ibidem, p. 19.

131 Macrobius, Sat. V, 18; J.J. BACHOFEN, Das Mutterrecht, Stuttgart, 1861, p. 159.

132 C.W.M. VERHOEVEN, o.c., p. 69.

48

and transitional stages were concerned.133 Often a bride was asked to reveal her foot, as a

sign of “transition,”134 but at the same time, it was also a sign of posesssion.135 The

Queen of Sheba also revealed her foot for Solomon in the Arabic and Jewish apocryphas.

There, it went together with the feeling of shame and ended up in sexual union.

In the Legend of the True Cross, we still encounter traces of this. In a rhymed German

legend of Heinrich von Freiburg from 1275 we read: Da beugte sich die Herrscherin,/

kniefällig betend fiel sie hin,/ und Lüftete den Saum der Kleider/ mit blossem Fuss, den sie

enthüllt/. Darauf sprach sie, vom Geist erfüllt,/ demütlich das haupt gesenkt,/ und zu sich

selbst dazs Wort gelenkt:/Das Zeichen des Gerichtes ward vor meinem Blicken

offenbart.136 The “unveiling” of the foot is immediately followed by the “fulfillment” of

insight. In a subtle manner, the author links the mysterious disclosure of the foot with

humility and divine revelation. The eroticization of the gesture is replaced by another

important “transition” from Christendom: namely Christ, the mystery itself.

The Queen of Sheba has more than a “bare foot.” The animal abnormality of the foot points

to “depersonalization” – demonization.137 The cosmo- and anthropogenetic myths tell us

that the foot and the leg were the last parts to be created. The beings who were left to hang

133 Vergil, Aenead IV, 518: Dido and Aeneas; C.W.M. VERHOEVEN, o.c., p. 70-71.

134 Ibidem, p. 74; Aenead, IV, 518: "In sacris nihil solat esse religatum". The bearing of the foot sometimes

went together with letting down hair and undoing girdles or belts.

135 C.W.M. VERHOEVEN, o.c., p. 230.

136 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 242.

137 C.W.M. VERHOEVEN, o.c., p. 19.

49

between chaos and order (gods as well as demons) were also typified by their

Schlangenfüszen oder auch in andere tierische Fuszformen.138 Therefore, mutations or

metamorphoses always begin at the foot and the element in which the metamorphosis is

generated or undone is frequently water.139 Because mutated feet and water sources are

elements of the same symbolic apparatus, with certain demons then too, we see a fleecy

foot, like the goose‟s.140

The goose played an important role in various myths and sagas. In Indian as well as

Egyptian cosmogony, creation began with a goose egg warmed by the sun.141 The

Egyptian god Amun was represented as a goose at Karnak.142 The Greeks and Romans

used the goose as an omen and offered it up for sacrifice.143 In Germanic mythology,

138 D. AIGREMONT, Fusz- und Schuh-Symbolik und Erotik. Folkloristische und sexualwissenschaftliche

Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1909, p. 21.

139 "Primaque de tota tenuissima quaeque liquescunt;/ caeruli crines digitique et cura pedesque;/ nam brevis

in gelidas membris exilibus undas/transitus est"; Ovid, Metamorphosis, V, 431-434.

140 The horse hoof is also a sexual/fertility symbol. The natural power of which can be transferred to the

rider (Semiramis).

141 H.W. HAUSSIG, art. Weltschöpfung, in Wörterbuch der Mythologie, 1. Die Alten Kulturvölker, 6. Götter

und Mythen im Vorderen Orient, Stuttgart, 1965, p. 405.

142 H.W. HAUSSIG, art. Amun, in Wörterbuch der Mythologie, 1. Die Alten Kulturvölker, 1. Götter und

Mythen im Vorderen Orient, Stuttgart, 1965, p. 331-333.

143 A. TAYLOR, art. Gans, in Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, 3, Berlin-Leipzig, 1930-1931,

col. 290-295.

50

dwarves and water/wood fairies display goose feet.144 This characteristic was carried over

to lady Holle/Holda and to Bertha, the spinster with the wide, flat feet. From the 15th

century, spinning wheels were known to have goose feet as decoration. In Germanic

Europe, the goose also played a role as omen in finding a suitable man and whether the

marriage was a success (bridal symbolism).145 The reminiscence of the demonic aspect of

the Queen of Sheba has conventionally directed attention to her foot, but supplemented with

an individual Western European topos. Her role as seer has linked her with Bertha. Bertha

spins destiny and she can also look into the future.

Not all Legends of the True Cross mention the goose foot of the queen.146 In a German

Book of Sibyls (1321-1346) from which several 15th- and 16th-century traditions are

known, we are rather expressly informed of a goose foot (v215-217): dy frawe was schone

und rich/ und hatte ein fus, der stont glich / als er ein gense fus were.147 In 15th-century

144 H. BÄCHTOLD-STÄUBLI, art. Fuss, in Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, 3, Berlin-

Leipzig, 1930-1931, col. 225.

145 A. TAYLOR, a.c., col. 293.

146 In the 12th-century legend The Story of the Holy Rood (Harley, ms. 4196, fol. 76v), the Queen of Sheba

goes barefoot over the bridge: "And bare fete went scho ouer the brig" (v. 759-760) (R. MORRIS, o.c., p. 83).

On the symbolism of walking bare feet in the Middle Ages, see W.M. GRAUWERS, De betekenis van het

blootsvoets lopen in de middeleeuwen, voornamelijk in de 12de eeuw, in Archief- en bibliotheekwezen in

België, 42, 1971, p. 141-155.

147 A.R. MILLER, o.c., p. 221; I. NESKE, o.c., p. 41 for the dating and p. 45 for the various traditions. We

are dealing here with Sybillen Weissagungen, which is a compilation of different legends, e.g. the Antichrist

Legend and the Legend of the True Cross. The future predictions are strongly politicized (the original text

was made for Charles IV). The Legend of the True Cross is interrupted precisely after the meeting of the

51

offshoots of the original text, the information is supplemented: it is supposed that Sibylla

(sic) has two goose feet; according to others, also goose “hands.”148 From the 16th

century, the first sources are known in which wading through the river miraculously changes

the goose foot into a human foot; although the Queen of Sheba already mentioned healing

powers in the 1321 edition: Si sprach: "du bist unwise,/da von so la din vragen sin;/ von

deme holze werdent siechen vil gesunt,/die ie mer ewicckliche muesten liden ungemach.” In

the Cologne printing of the Book of Sibyls (1525), the following is added: Über dieser

Ehrbezeugung willen wurde durch göttliche Kraft der verunstaltete Gänsefuss in einen

Menschenfuss verwandelt, wie der andere. Darüber freute sich sibylle.149 The healing

function of the water in this context has already become anecdotal.150

A healing of a goat‟s hoof by touching the wood, or even the floor of the temple, is reported

in the Coptic Legend of the True Cross. Given that these traditions largely depend on

stories being handed down orally, the path of influence is difficult to trace. The Ethiopian

Kebra Nagast was written in the 14th century and did not yet contain this detail.151 Yet it

Queen of Sheba and Solomon (v. 128-672) by moralizing interpolations and the Last Judgment, to be

followed by the history of the wood after Solomon (v. 749-892). The role of this Queen of Sheba/sibyl is

spread widely. On the occasion of the meeting with Solomon, the wood is asked after, but she gives five

prophets regarding the kingdom of Christ (v. 227-672).

148 I. NESKE, o.c., p. 32-33, for the versions, compare p. 6 and p. 45.

149 W. GREBE, o.c., p. 110-111; R. BEYER, o.c., p. 244; W. HERTZ, o.c., p. 24.

150 R. BEYER, o.c., p. 246 and R. KÖHLER, o.c., p. 93, refers to a 17th-century aftereffect of this legend in

Danish.

151 Also see note *.

52

is assumed that the motif of the “healing of the foot of the queen” was first developed very

early in Ethiopia and in Coptic areas.152 It is noteworthy that the healing wood was already

an integral piece in the Legenda group: besides lepers and a hermit, Ethiopians are “healed”

of their black color as well.153

During my research on the goose foot queen, I have never come across the Queen of Sheba

with a goose foot in the visual iconography of the Legend of the True Cross.154

Nevertheless, there is one indication on hand.

In a 15th-century source from the convent of the Poor Clares of Nuremberg, iconographical

instructions are indicated for painting a scene of the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of

152 A. CAQUOT, a.c., p. 138.

153 Here we have a symbolic integration of Ethiopia into the white culture of the wood of the cross; in other

words, it is a metaphor for christening. In the Hortus deliciarum, the baptism of an Ethiopian by Paul is

represented (fol. 199). In the same Hortus deliciarum (fol. 238v), it is explained what the purification of the

leper, the purification of sins and heresy means for the Last Judgment; R. GREEN, o.c., 2, p. 400 and p. 208

and no. 305.

154 In the iconography of the Legend of the True Cross, as far as is known, the Queen of Sheba does not have

a mutated foot in the wall paintings at Kuttenberg from c. 1490 (Kutná Hora, Czech Republic). It appears not

to be a goose foot but rather a bird‟s foot; there is namely no fleece present. R. BEYER, o.c., p. 219, fig. 48;

R. KÖHLER, a.c., p. 87 ff.; J. KULICH, Kutná Hora, transl. to English by J. TURNER-KADECKOVÁ,

Libice, 1995, p. 15. The wall paintings are found in the burial chapel of the merchant Michal Smísek. A

representation of the Cumean sibyl is also found in the chapel, along with a Crucifixion and the Judgment of

Trajan. In the Middle Ages, the city owed its wealth to the silvermines. The Church of Saint Barbara was

dedicated c. 1485 during the Jagiello dynasty.

53

Sheba in the context of the True Cross.155 In all probability, these were formulated by the

nuns themselves.

Und mal, das da pey steh der chonig Salaman in seiner kron mit etwe dinern hinder

ym, und wie er mit dem finger auf den pavmaen czaig, den vmb cze hawen; und

mach auch, wie yen werkmann mit seiner akst in den pavm etwe fil hew gethan hab

und den gar er nyder hwaen wölle ....156 Item und mal den kunigk Salaman, wie der

mit etwe sein dineren an dem steg ste und hin über gern wöll; un mal, wie das Sibilla

unterhalb des chunigs sich aufgeschürczt hab, und als ob sie durch den pach waten

woll, und nicht uber den steg gen wöll, und mal yr auch eyn gensfuss. Item und mal

den kunigk und Sibilla, wie das sie paide mit den henden poren, als ob sie mit

eynander reden von des stegs und des holcz herlikeit.157

155 Municipal Archive, City of Nuremberg, Convent of the Poor Clares, Kreuzstamm, Akten no. 12/1; J.R.H.

Moorman, Medieval Franciscan Houses, Binghamton, 1983; H. Fürst, „Das ehemalige St. Klarakloster in

Nürnberg, in Franziskanische Studien, 35, 1953, p. 323-333; G. Pickel, Geschichte des Klaraklosters in

Nürnberg, in Beiträge zur bayerischen Kirchengeschichte 19, 1, 1912, p. 155-212. Previous findings are

published in B. BAERT, "Und mal yr auch eyn gensfuss". The Queen of Sheba's Goose-foot in Medieval

Literature and Art, in Authority in the Medieval West ed. M. Gosman e.a., (Mediaevalia Groningana), 1999, p.

174-192.

156 This passage corresponds to woodcut 18 from the Boec van den Houte (Culemborg, 1483, Johan

Veldener); B. BAERT, o.c., fig. 18.

157 R. KÖHLER, o.c., p. 90; cited in modern German by R. BEYER, o.c., p. 244 and in the original language

by I. NESKE, o.c., p. 34; integrally recorded in J. BAADER, Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte Nürnbergs,

Nürnberg, 1862, p. 62.

54

The cloister may have come into contact with the motif of the goose foot in the German

Book of Sibyls. Today, there are three copies of the Book of Sibyls in Nuremberg: two

in the municipal library158 and one in the Germanic National Library.159 They were all

made in the Convent of St. Catherine in the same city. Thus, the material circulated in

convent milieus. Moreover, in the second half of the 15th century, the motif spread into

pilgrim literature. Martin Kezel of Augsburg (1476) writes: daselbst der Bach Cedron zu

seinem Zeiten flüst, daselbst ist das Holz zu aim Steg ubergelegen, daraus das haylig Creutz

gemacht ist worden, daran unser her Jesus Christus gestorben ist, wan Sibilla darvon

geweissagt hett, und pey Kung salomons Zeiten nit darüber gan wolt, und sy durch den

Bach gien, und ain gensfus, den sy hett, ward ir ain Menschenfus.160 This source is an

indication that the goose foot did not remain specific to the Book of Sibyls, but that it also

floated around in travel literature.

Why do we encounter interest for the motif specifically in Nuremberg with the Poor Clares?

Religious as well as profane aspects of life in Nuremberg were directly associated with the

material of the Legend of the True Cross. At the beginning of the 15th century, state

insignias, among them the relic of the cross, came from Prague to Nuremberg. The relic

created a particular concentration of the theme,161 and stimulated its dissipation from

158 K. SSCHNEIDER and H. ZIRNBAUER, Die Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg

(Wiesbaden, 1965), p. 119: Cent. VI, 43°; p. 240: Cent. VI, 91.

159 No. 1610; I. NESKE, o.c., p. 51.

160 R. KÖHLER, o.c., p. 54; R. BEYER, o.c., p. 243.

161 A. WENDEHORST, Die Reichsstadt Nürnberg von den Anfängen bis zum Ende ihrer grossen Zeit, in

Nürnberg 1300-1550. Kunst der Gotik und Renaissance, (exh. cat.), Munich, 1986, p. 11-25. Nuremberg,

55

Southern Germany and the Danube tributaries.162 The Poor Clares could further call upon

the specialized association between the mendicant orders and the Legend of the Cross

material which had developed in Tuscany. As female clerics, perhaps they were extra

sensitive for the remarkable detail of the goose foot – this strange imprint from an extinct

matriarchal world where women unveiled strange feet and what‟s more, were extraordinary

seers into the future.

4. By way of conclusion. The meeting between a man and a woman

The significance of the Queen of Sheba in the Legend of the True Cross is unmistakably

about a field of tension between man and woman; between a patriarchal and a matriarchal

world. In this last section, several observations will be formulated regarding this contact

between Solomon and the queen. The visualization of the dialogue between both genders

will be emphasized as well as the fact that the queen is a black woman, and the question to

what extent both elements have penetrated the Legend of the True Cross theme.

Friedenskirche: Vierzehn Nothelferaltar, Altar of the Holy Cross – altar of the pilgrims‟ hospital in Nuremberg,

c. 1430 (Discovery of the Cross-Raising of the Cross); Germanisches Nationalmuseum: tapestry, antependium,

1430-1440, inv. no. gew 3715 (Discovery of the Cross); Sankt Lorenz: atelier of Michaël Wohlgemut,

Kaiserfenster (central choir window), c. 1477 (Discovery of the Cross-Raising of the Cross cycle); Michaël

Wohlgemut, Memminger-Altar, c. 1485 (Discovery of the Cross-Raising of the Cross); Sankt Sebaldkirche:

Adam Kraft, timpanum south portal on west façade, c. 1455/60-1509 (Discovery of the Cross-Raising of the

Cross).

162 Helen enjoyed a specific devotion in Southern Germany and the Alps as patroness of ore mining.

Helen is the proctector of "treasure hunters" and watches over mountain climbers. G. SCHREIBER, St.

Helena als Inhaberin von Erzgruben, in Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, 53, 1956-1957, p. 65-76.

56

In the 11th-century Catalan Roda Bible, the meeting between the Queen of Sheba and

Solomon is described with much splendor (fig.19).163 The queen is at the head of a

procession of camels and guides. Solomon takes her hand, which she reaches up to him.

Her crown is not on her head; it is being carried by one of her servants. The setting and the

gestures refer to the immixtio manum: a use in feudal society of the Early Middle Ages in

which the vassal deferentially submits himself by giving his hands to those of the lord.

There is clearly mention of the queen as subject. Moreover, she stands on a lower plane.

From the 12th century, there is a change. In the hortus deliciarum mentioned earlier,

Solomon and the queen occupy the throne together. It is the period where a typology of

Christ and his bride, the Church, is read into the meeting. Within the Song of Songs, the

relationship between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba came under the influence of the

mystery of the bride and her visual conventions. From the 14th century, biblical themes and

the meeting with Solomon appeared to be favorite subjects for the decoration of cassoni or

hope chests.164 Here also, the compositions mostly represent both characters standing

across from one another, holding hands.165 Lorenzo Ghiberti also interpreted this Bible

163 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. lat. 6, vol. II, fol. 129v; S. Moraléjo-Alvarez, La rencontre de

Salomon et de la reine de Saba. De la bible de Roda aux portails gothiques, in Les cahiers de Saint-Michel

de Cuxa, 12, 1981, p. 79-108.

164 J. MIZIOLEK, o.c., p. 6-23, with many examples; R. BEYER, o.c., figs. 52-56.

165 See 1) New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Appolonio di Giovanni, Cassone (hope chest), c. 1460

(R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 52). They both reach for each other‟s hand before an alter; 2) matrimonial tablet with

57

passage from the same conventions on the bronze doors of the Baptisterium in Florence

(1425) (fig.20).

According to the Bible and its apocryphas, the queen posed riddles to Solomon. This is an

intellectual trial, a dialogue under tension, and that lends itself to the iconography. On the

altar of Nicholas of Verdun (before 1181), the queen has small chests with her, the contents

of which makes us suspect all kinds of treasures (fig.21).166 She is portrayed as somewhat

dominant, with her index finger pointing in the direction of a surprised, even insensed

Solomon. The queen‟s index finger is the finger of the magister and of the artes liberalis.

the Queen of Sheba and Solomon before the temple, Umbria, 1475, Boston, Museum Fine Arts (Ibidem, fig.

54).

166 R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 34; note the inscriptions misericordia above Solomon and timor above the queen.

This is the earliest example of a black queen. R. BEYER, ibidem, clarifies the inscription "fear" as the shyness

of the pagans in light of the wise king; Pliny, Historia naturalis; (H. RACKHAM (ed. and transl.), Pliny. The

Natural History, Cambridge-London, 1961) ascribes to the Ethiopians a four-fold angst: angst for God, the

world, nature, and the carnal. According to the Gesta Romanorum (English Franciscan milieu, 1342), which

is naturally dated later than the altar, the Ethiopians are as beautiful as cranes and righteous due to their

scrupulous angst. Indeed if they would be judges in Europe, there would seldom be unkind words spoken

about them; H. OESTERLEY (ed.), Gesta Romanorum, repr., Hildesheim, 1963, p. 576. On the crane: in a

12th-century floor mosaic in Otranto, the queen is portrayed with the inscription REGINA AUSTRIA and

GRIS, perhaps after gru, crane, symbol of wisdom; W. HAUG, Das Mosaik von Otranto. Darstellung,

Deutung und Bilddokumentation, Wiesbaden, 1977; G. GIANFREDA, Basilica Cattedrale di Otranto.

Architettura e mosaico pavimentale, Galatina, 1975; A. SCHULTE, Das Mosaik von Otranto und ein

Vergleich mit dem Mosaik von Teurnia, in Flect- und Knotenornamentik, Klagenfurt, 1972, p. 155 ff.

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The queen is represented as black. Thus she is typologically connected with the three kings,

of whom Casper was also black.167 Contemporary typological literature also connects the

black queen with the three kings. Adam de Saint-Victor (12th century), at the cathedral

school of the same name in Paris, composed the following sequences for the mass of the

Three Kings: “Here has come the queen from the East/Solomon‟s divine wisdom/she

notices. Black is she, but lovely,/blackened by myrrh and incense,/a black maiden.”168

The Latin text sets the rhymes precisely on formosa (lovely) and fumosa (black); on

sapientia and pigmentaria.169 Black, but lovely (nigra sum, sed formosa) are the words

the bride uses to describe herself in the Song of Songs (1.5). The black of the Queen of

Sheba is thus likewise an “attribute” of the bride metaphor. In the cathedral of Brixen

167 On this black Ethiopian king, see J.B. FRIEDMAN, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought,

Cambridge-London, 1981, p. 171-173, and J. DEVISSE, The Image of the Black Man in Western Art, 2, New

York, 1980. The legend of the three wise men was mostly worked out from the middle of the 13th century by

the exegete Hugo of Sint-Cher. He gave them the names Balthazar, Melchior and Casper, and gives them the

three sons of Noah as ancestors. Ham is the "unfaithful" ancestor of the "righteous" Casper (pseudo-Jerome,

8th or 9th century: Expositio quatuor evangeliorum, PL 30, col. 537). Casper is "black" for the first time in a

homily by Sedatius Scottus (9th century) on the Ephiphany: "In eo, qoud ad christum primum Aethiopes, id

est gentiles ingrediuntur." Here, Casper and quality as black thus are anchored in paganism; J.B.

FRIEDMAN, o.c., note 27, p. 251. See also A. WILMART, Une homélie de Sedatius, in Revue bénédictine,

35, 1923, p. 5-6.

168 Translated and taken from H. BUSCHHAUSEN, Der Verduner Altar. Das Emailwerk des Nikolaus von

Verdun im Stift Klosterneuburg, Vienna, 1980, p. 120.

169 H. BUSCHHAUSEN, Ibidem, and R. BEYER, o.c., p. 202-203 recognize in this text the direct inspiration

for Nicholas of Verdun.

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(1220) in a fresco she is black. There she personifies wisdom, together with the other

daughters of Jerusalem.170

The Bellifortis, a military science manuscript from 1405 written by Konrad Keyser

contains all kinds of tips in the waging of war and weaponry, but also names exemplary

rulers and strategists. In it there is a passage dedicated to the black Queen of Sheba

(fig.22).171 She holds the orb and the scepter and stands self-consciously between rulers

such as Alexander the Great and Caesar. It has been thought that Konrad Keyser met the

black female ruler (in the virtual sense) during his experiences in the crusade against

Islam of 1396. We know that the Islamic queen of Sheba has a more military profile as

the liberation and conversion queen. Yet her iconography in the Bellifortis has a double

meaning. The crowned woman may also indicate the bride of the apocalypse. The

accompanying text by Keyser also refers to the sensuality of the queen.

Beautiful am I, and chaste, here stands my effigy, born of an artist. The young

men may see in my image what they will. And if you, timid, are wounded by her

gaze, then she will equally timidly hide behind a bellows and blow the black away

with the air. When she returns, her skin color will return to what it was before.

(Translated from the Latin)

170 R. BEYER, o.c., fig. 29.

171 IDEM, o.c., p. 64.

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The elements of the Song of Songs are apparent, such as the beauty of the blackness and

the wounding gaze; however, now there is mention of an interchangeability between

white and black. The bellows and the cosmetics have been interpreted as a western

reluctance to accept a black model of beauty. In light of the power of the gaze described

here, this interpretation seems to me to be too superficial. There is mention of an

absorbing, phantasmagorical impact on the man. The wounding of the gaze takes its

power from apotropaic means: the devouring by and in the blackness of her skin tone

makes the Queen of Sheba an archetype herself of the prima matrix.172

If we consider the Queen of Sheba in the context of the Legend of the True Cross, then

her feminine image is based on the “instruction” with relation to the prediction of the

True Cross, the explanation of this to Solomon, and her devotion for the wood of the

cross. Mostly in the more popular versions, the feminine intellectual domination is

tangible. The Boec says “ze berispete” – she reprimands. The accompanying woodcut

has her point frankly to a dismayed Solomon (fig.9). Wading through the river is also

psychologized in the iconography as a very “unconventional” deed of a noble lady.

Holding up the skirt which goes along with this may possibly also be an erotic

reminiscence for people in the Middle Ages. In other words, Solomon becomes the man

who must listen or acts bewildered at this strange woman taking so much initiative.

The more dominant representation of the queen seems to coincide with the northern

regions where the influence of the Book of Sibyls and the Sheba-sibyl of the Legenda

172 Crucial for more: A.A. BARB, Diva Matrix, in The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,

16, 1953, p. 193-238.

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group was stronger. In a virtually unknown cycle of the Legend of the True Cross in the

Holy Cross Church in Loffenau (unknown master from the Black Forest, late 15th

century) discovered in 1842 in the southwest chapel, the Queen of Sheba is portrayed as a

contemporary woman with the name SYBELLA (sic).173 In a “text cloud” it shows a

wooden plank and from the middle of this plank a cross grows in a light shaft (fig. 23).

The Italian cycles rely on the Queen of Sheba who is humble and pays homage to the

wood, after the Legenda Aurea. Agnolo Gaddi has her kneel before the wood of the cross

(fig.24). She reveres the bridge. The queen wears a crown; she is the regina austri.

Court ladies accompany her. This is not a queen who speaks, reprimands. She is more

introverted and devoted. Piero della Francesca added a representation in Arezzo of the

Biblical meeting, in which the queen even bows before Solomon (fig.25).

From a gender perspective, there is a remarkable differentiation between north and south

of the Alps. In the former case, she is more the pedantic sibyl, archaic-matriarchal; she is

the wading queen (exceptional also in Montegiorgio), and according the literary sources,

still tied to the aqueous (foot) demonology of the goose. In the latter case, she is

recorded in humble service. In all probability, this Mediterranean profile was influenced

by the Franciscan idiom of humilitas and reverence for the cross. In the Franciscan

cycles, the queen therefore must lose due to her exuberance with respect to her profane

counterpart on the Italian cassoni (fig. 26).

173 F. PIEL, Handbuch der Deutsche Kunstdenkmäler. Baden-Württemberg, vol. l., 1964, p. 287.

62

Nevertheless, the queen of the wood of the cross experiences her swansong in the North –

in the choir of the pilgrimage church in Wiesendangen on the Boden sea (Zurich).174

Hans Haggenberg probably did not know that he would paint the theme for the last time

in its widest iconographical development (fig.26). He combines the legend with the

credo of the prophets and the apostles on the arches. Hugo von Hohenlandenberg, from

Wiesendangen, had been bishop of Konstanz since 1496 and had commissioned the

program in connection with his position. The cycle also tied in with the credo on the

choir stalls (1470)175 and the cult of the Holy Sepulchre in the Swiss city.176

Remarkable detail: in none of the Legends of the Cross is the Queen of Sheba depicted

as a black woman. Although, Piero della Francesca does add Afro-ethnic details in the

clothing of the retinue of the queen. Will Christendom only leave the secret of the true

cross in the hands of a white woman?

174 Chr. and D. EGGENBERGER, Malerei des Mittelalters (Ars Helvetica, 5. Die visuelle Kultur des

Schweiz), Bern, 1989, p. 162-167; J. MICHLER, Gotische Wandmalerei am Bodensee, Friedrichshafen, 1992,

p. 134-150, with schematic wall paintings no. 469. See also the painted windows in the Holy Cross Church of

Eriskirch, Bodensee (1408) as ex voto for the duke of Montfort-Tettnag. Only the Legend of the Discovery of

te Cross is discussed; R. BECKSMANN, Die Glasmalereien, in Die Pfarrkirche Eriskirch. Spätgotik am

Bodensee, publ. by E.L. KUHN, et al., Friedrichshafen, 1988 (2nd ed.), p. 51-66 and figs.

175 P. LACROIX and A. RENON, Apôtres et prophètes au Credo. Un thème iconographique entre le

rayonnement et l‟oubli, in Pensée, image et communication en Europe médiévale. A propos des stalles de

Saint-Claude, Besançon, 1993, p. 83-100, p. 96.

176 P. KURMANN, Das heilige Grab, in Neue Züricher Zeitung, december, 1972, s.p.