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Illustrations of Anglo-Saxons in

Prudentius' Psychomachia
“Conflict Of The Soul”
British Library, MS Cotton Cleopatra C VIII, c.1000

ff.7v-10r. Chastity and Lust in Prudentius' Psychomachia, British Library, MS Cotton Cleopatra C VIII, c.1000

Source: British Library, MS Cotton Cleopatra C VIII

Prudentius (born in 348 in northern Spain, died after 405) spent most of his life following worldly pursuits, but later turned to writing, in which he aimed to glorify God and atone for his earlier sins. One of his most popular works is a poem called Psychomachia (Conflict of the Soul), which describes the battles between female personifications of human virtues and vices. Instead of being a dry theological treatise, the poem has the qualities of an exciting narrative filled with high drama, with lots of bloodshed and violence. The descriptions of the women, including their clothes, armour, and details of their conflicts, lend themselves to illustration. This copy was apparently written by a scribe of Christ Church, Canterbury.

Referenced on p. 314 Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages by Edward Lewes Cutts
The subjects are chiefly illustrations of Scripture history or of allegorical fable; but, thanks to the custom which prevailed throughout the Middle Ages of representing all such subjects in contemporary costume, and according to contemporary manners and customs, the Jewish patriarchs and their servants afford us perfectly correct representations of Saxon thanes and their cheorls; Goliath, a perfect picture of a Saxon warrior, armed cap-à-pied; and Pharaoh and his nobles of a Saxon Basileus and his witan.