Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial


Create an Amazon Business Account

Exultet Roll from Fondi, Campania, Italy, 1136AD

Pharaon poursuivant les Hébreux. Pharaoh's army pursues the Hebrews.


Passage de la Mer Rouge. Crossing the Red Sea.

<
Crucifixion of Jesus.

<
Arrestation du Christ. Betrayal and arrest of Jesus

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Division occidentale
Cote : Nouvelle acquisition latine 710
Auteur/Titre : exultet
Nom de pays : italie
Origine : fondi
Siècle : 12ème siècle
Date : 1136
Source: BnF mandragore

---

Referenced on pp.263-4, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350, Western Europe and the Crusader States by David Nicolle

700A-G Exultet Roll from Fondi, Campania, early 12th century
(Bib, Nat,. Ms. Nouv. Acq. 710, Paris, France)
A - Betrayal; B-F - Pharaoh's army; G - Crucifixion. This Roll comprises a mixture of archaism, stylised convention and current reality. The soldier at the Betrayal (A) wears a simplified lamellar cuirass of Byzantine inspiration which is unlikely to have been widely used in 12th century southern Italy, unless a few such armours survived from earlier Byzantine times. His headgear might represent a cap or a simple conical helmet with a rim-piece. The 'infidel' character of Pharaoh's army as it tries to cross the Red Sea is indicated solely by very stylised turbans (C and D). The rest of its equipment consisting of long-sleeved mail hauberks with coifs covering the lower part of the face (C and D), probably large kite-shaped shields (C), spears (B), couched lances (C) and heraldic gonfanons (E and F) - would be among the standard equipment of Italo-Norman cavalry. A pointed helmet with a decorative finial (G) seems to recall certain 11th century sources and may reflect an earlier, or Byzantine, type of helmet.