Alfred Jewel is one of the most famous works of Anglo-Saxon jewelry , a golden enamelled product of an incomprehensible purpose, dated to the end of the 9th century. The product is associated with the name of King Alfred the Great , as evidenced by an inscription in Old English : "AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" (that is, "Alfred ordered me to do").
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| Jewel of Alfred . end of IX century | ||
| English Alfred jewel | ||
| gold, quartz , cloisonne enamel , filigree , blackening | ||
| Ashmolean Museum , Oxford | ||
| ( inv. ) | ||
Description
The jewel consists of a drop-shaped enamel insert with a picture of a person - probably Jesus Christ - and a gold frame. The enamel plate, the most complicated for its time, is covered with transparent quartz and placed on a gold substrate. The golden frame looks like the face of a fantastic animal , which is generally typical of the so-called barbaric art; here is the influence of the Vikings . A floral ornament is engraved on the back of the gold substrate, combining Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian styles. The image of Christ is typically Anglo-Saxon, characteristic of the illustrated manuscripts of that period. The objects that Christ holds in their hands are similar to plants with long stems; this can be an allegorical depiction of vision as one of the senses, as is done on the Fuller brooch , belonging to the same period.
The inscription is on the gold rim of the frame, decorated with blackening. The text in Old English is made by the letters of the canonical capital letter , has ligatures (for example, M and E in the word MEC ), there are no spaces between words.
Purpose
The purpose of the jewel is not known for certain. The product has a narrow bell at the bottom, into which, apparently, a narrow handle was inserted. According to the most likely version, the product is the so-called Елstel (елstel) - a device in the form of a pointer, used in the Middle Ages when reading books.
In the preface to the translation of the Responsibilities of Pastor Gregory the Great, King Alfred wrote:
After I read it, I translated it into English - the way I understood it and how clearly I managed to retell it. Now I want to send a copy of the book to every episcopal department in my kingdom, each has an “estelle” of fifty mancus . And I command in the name of God that no one should take this “estelle” out of the book and take the book out of the cathedral - it is not known how long the scholarly bishops will be here, which now, thanks to God, will be.
Estelle could play the role of bookmarks and pointers at the same time, with which they followed the lines. Later, several more similar objects were discovered. Indirectly confirms the connection of the jewel with books and the allegorical image of the sensory organ responsible for reading - vision.
See also
- Brooch from Machen
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 British Library Alfred Jewel
- ↑ 1 2 3 Ashmolean Museum Alfred Jewel
Literature
- David M. Wilson. Anglo-Saxons. Conquerors of Celtic Britain , chapter 5
- Brown, Alan K., Old Irish astal, Old English æstel: the common etymology , Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 24, 1992, pp 75–92.
- Hinton, DA, A Catalog of the Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700-1100 in the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum , Oxford, 1974. pp. 29–48.
- Hinton, DA, The Alfred Jewel: and Other Late Anglo-Saxon Decorated Metalwork , Oxford, 2008
- Webster, Leslie, Anglo-Saxon Art , 2012, British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2809-2