YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

94 LUMINITA FLOREA
open buds comfortably nesting Jesse’s descendants, including King David with a
harp and the Virgin Mary with the Child at the center. Tree-shaped schemes showing
the genealogy of Christ accompany commentaries to both the Old and the New
Testament – such as the illuminated copy possibly produced in Italy around 1450 of
the Postilla litteralis in Vetus Testamentum by Nicholas of Lyra, now The Hague,
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS MMW 10 C22. 58
The ‘point of departure’ in a genealogical tree may be found in the head of a
family’s common ancestor – the great-great-grandfather (abavus) – as is the case in
medieval canon law treatises on consanguinity. Sometimes the idea of a tree is only
suggested in illustrations such as the one on folio 3v in New York, The Union
Theological Seminary, MS 08: there are no visible branches here, just words designating
the types of kinship within the family, all emanating from the abavus and abava
(mother of a great-grandfather or of a great-grandmother), all under papal approval
and blessing. 59
At other times, the approach is more naturalistic, as a whole group of characters
related through blood perch like birds on the branches of a tree of consanguinity
drawn on folio 15v of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS f.fr. 202. 60
Drawings of arbors of virtues are common in tracts on moral philosophy, where
humilitas generates hope (spes), charity (caritas), faith (fides), and joy (gaudium),
or in florilegia assembled for the use of some religious order – such as the Franciscan
compilation found in Berkeley, Robbins Collection, MS 88, which includes trees of
spiritual love and contemplative virtues on folio 404r (see figure 2). 61 Furthermore,
trees of spiritual knowledge frequently and freely commix with trees of consanguinity
and affinity, as the principles needing demonstration are similar. 62 And then, of course,
there is the Biblical tree of knowledge, bearing the forbidden apple, the tempting
fruit, a vehicle – if not source – of man’s original sin and cause for eternal tears and
guilt. Every illuminated Bible includes one.
Whether one looks at an aerial root or at one firmly affixed into the soil, it is
from this point of origin that all other components of the tree-system sprout; as the
secondary branches evolve and multiply, so do the elements affixed to them: buds,
58 See The Hague, Handschriften.
59 Three images from the manuscript, showing a tree of consanguinity, one of affinity, and one of spiritual
cognition, respectively, have been digitized as part of the Digital scriptorium database; they can
be seen at .
60 See H. SCHADT, Die Darstellungen der Arbores Consanguinitatis und der Arbores Affinitatis: Bildschemata
in juristischen Handschriften, Tübingen, 1982, plate 158.
61 For a catalogue description, see L. FLOREA, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Robbins Collection,
School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, .
For a digital reproduction of the illustration, see Digital scriptorium,
.
62 See, for instance, New York, The Union Theological Seminary, MS 08, fols. 7v and 10v, respectively;
for a digital image, see .