by Martina Pugliesi
On April 23, we celebrate Saint George, the saint who almost par excellence represents the ideal of chivalry. Although his cult is widespread and very ancient – it is in fact attested since the 4th century – the biographical information is rather uncertain.
The first source to report news about the life of the saint is the Passio sancti Georgii, very ancient, but classified among the apocryphal works already by the Decretum Gelasianum (496). According to the Passio, George was born in Cappadocia around the year 280 and was educated in the Christian religion. Having become a soldier, he suffered martyrdom under Diocletian after professing his faith before the entire court. The emperor in fact subjected him to numerous tortures, including being cut in two by a wheel full of nails and swords. The saint is said to have died and resurrected three times and, at the same time, he is said to have resurrected two people who had been dead for 460 years at the request of King Tranquillinus. Finally, he is said to have died on April 23, 303 after being beheaded.
Until the 11th century, this was the tradition that prevailed and, in fact, there is no trace of the dragon even in iconography. Saint George was in fact usually represented as a soldier-martyr intent on piercing a man, a symbol of the pagan persecutor and of heresy.
The legend that sees him as the protagonist of the killing of the dragon spread during the Crusades, more precisely at the time of the battle of Antioch. In the year 1098, during one of the most furious battles between Christians and infidels, the crusader knights and the English leaders were aided by the Genoese, who overturned the outcome of the battle and allowed the capture of the city, considered impregnable. According to legend, the martyr appeared to the Christian fighters, accompanied by splendid and dazzling celestial creatures with flags on which stood out red crosses on a white background. This story contributed to the spread of the cult of Saint George, together with the famous episode of the legend probably originating from an erroneous interpretation of an image of the Emperor Constantine, found in Constantinople, who was crushing an enormous dragon with his foot, symbol of the fight between good and evil. From there it seems that the legend then passed to Egypt, where many churches were dedicated to the martyr George, to find wide representation in medieval iconography. But the true consecration probably came with the Legenda Aurea by Jacopo da Varagine, Dominican friar and bishop of Genoa. Compiled in the second half of the thirteenth century, it was one of the most widely circulated hagiographic works: among the lives of the saints, that of Saint George is also reported and, in particular, the episode of the dragon:
«It is said that in a city called Silena, in Libya, there was a large pond, so large that it could hide a dragon, which, approaching the city, killed with its breath all the people it encountered. The inhabitants offered it two sheep a day to appease it, but when these began to run low, they were forced to offer it a sheep and a young man drawn by lot. One day the young daughter of the king was drawn. The king, terrified, offered his wealth and half of the kingdom to save her life, but the population rebelled, having seen so many of his children die. After eight days of trying, the king finally had to give in and the young girl headed towards the lake to be offered to the dragon. At that moment the young knight George passed by and, having learned of the imminent sacrifice, reassured the princess, promising her his intervention to avoid her brutal death. Then he told the princess not to be afraid, that he would help her in the name of Christ. When the dragon approached, George mounted his horse and protected himself with the cross and recommending himself to the Lord, with great audacity he faced the dragon that was coming towards him, seriously wounding it with the spear and threw it to the ground, then told the girl to wrap her belt around the dragon’s neck, who began to follow her docilely towards the city. The inhabitants were terrified to see the dragon approaching, but George reassured them, telling them not to be afraid because “God sent me to you to free you from the dragon: if you embrace faith in Christ , you will receive baptism and I will kill the monster.” Then the king and the people converted and the knight killed the dragon and had it carried out of the city, dragged by four pairs of oxen. ». [Jacopo da Varazze, Golden Legend, Einaudi, Turin 1995]
In the Middle Ages, the fight between Saint George and the dragon thus became a symbol of the eternal struggle between good and evil in which the monster, in particular, was the incarnation of paganism. It is therefore no coincidence that the saint became the patron saint of numerous orders of chivalry: Richard the Lionheart was the first to invoke the martyr as the protector of fighters. Iconography therefore gave ample space to the representation of the key episode in the life of Saint George.
In Casanatense, within the manuscript collection, we have two small miniatures that testify to the spread of the legend.
The first is found in a Missal, ms. 1906 from the second half of the fifteenth century. As evidenced by a note of ownership reported on a flyleaf, on 19 January 1536 the codex belonged to Mario Maffei (1436-1537), a member of the Volterra branch of the family, whose coat of arms appears on ff. 8r and 127v. The manuscript, however, can be ascribed to an earlier period: under the Maffei coat of arms, in fact, observing with a Wood’s lamp, traces of a previous blazon are visible. It belongs to the French prelate William of Estouteville (1412-1483), appointed cardinal in 1439 with the title of S. Martino ai Monti, who lived for a long time in Rome and who, during his life, had gathered a considerable book collection. The Missal was probably sold by Estouteville to Mario Maffei or perhaps to his father Gerardo and, in all likelihood, was then donated to Cardinal Casanate.
Membrane, written in 15th century Italian Gothic script by a single hand, the codex is richly decorated. Among the historiated initials, on c.191r there is a “P” inside which is depicted Saint George on horseback, in the act of killing the dragon with his lance, at the end of which you can see the typical flag with a white background and a red cross.
Perhaps more in keeping with the medieval imagery is the miniature found in another Missal, ms. 1909. On f. 250r, inside a historiated letter “P” in blue on a gold background, the saint is depicted once again in the act of killing the dragon. Although the scene does not differ greatly in theme from that of ms. 1906, in this Missal it takes on greater dynamism given by the movement of the horse which, gripped by the fury, also hurls itself against the dragon lying at its feet. Saint George is depicted here in all respects as a knight, equipped with armour but without a halo – present instead in ms. 1906 – but the lance is joined by a shield, on which is depicted the typical red cross on a white background. What perhaps immediately catches the eye is the presence of a woman, the princess, who is absent in the other miniature. In short, here the figure of Saint George perfectly embodies the idea of the knight who saves a princess from the dragon, which comes to us directly from medieval imagery.
This codex is one of the most precious preserved by the Casanatense Library. Written in Gothic book script on two columns of writing, it is decorated on each page with polychrome and gilded friezes. All the initials, whatever their format, are illuminated in colour and gold. Its origin, once attributed to the entourage of the Duke of Berry, a great bibliophile and patron of the highest rank, is rather dubious while it is certain that the codex was part of the collection of the Duke of Nemours, as evidenced by some initial letters on the edge of the binding of the manuscript which claim its belonging to the Duke’s library, since they are present in all his books. It is also known that it was commissioned by a clergyman, probably Jean d’Armagnac, who died in 1408, bishop of Mende, great-uncle of Jacques.