Allegory in the Middle Ages was a
vital element in the synthesis of Biblical and Classical traditions into what
would become recognizable as Medieval culture. People
of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cultural
legacies of the ancient world in shaping their institutions and ideas, and so
allegory in Medieval literature and Medieval art was a prime mover for the
synthesis and transformational continuity between the ancient world and the
"new" Christian world. People of the Middle
Ages did not see the same break between themselves and their classical forbears
that modern observers see; rather, they saw continuity with themselves and the
ancient world, using allegory as a synthesizing agent, bringing together a
whole image.
There were four categories of allegory used in the Middle Ages, which had originated with the Bible commentators of
the early Christian era. The first is simply the literal
interpretation of the events of the story for historical purposes with no
underlying meaning. The second is called typological,
which is connecting the events of the Old Testament with the New Testament;
in particular drawing allegorical connections between the events of Christ's
life with the stories of the Old Testament.
The third is moral (or tropological), which is how one should act in the present,
the "moral of the story". The fourth type of allegory is anagogical, dealing with the future events of Christian history,
heaven, hell, the last judgment; it deals with prophecies.
Thus the four types of allegory deal with past events
(literal), the connection of past events with the present (typology), present
events (moral), and the future (anagogical).
Dante describes the four meanings, or senses, of allegory in
his epistle to Can Grande della Scala.
He says the allegories of his work are not simple, but:
Rather, it
may be called "polysemous", that is, of
many senses [allegories]. A first sense derives from the letters themselves,
and a second from the things signified by the letters. We call the first sense
"literal" sense, the second the "allegorical", or
"moral" or "anagogical". To clarify this method of
treatment, consider this verse: When
Medieval allegory began as a Christian method for synthesizing the
discrepancies between the Old Testament and the New Testament. While both
testaments were studied and seen as equally divinely inspired by God, the Old
Testament contained discontinuities for Christians -- for example the Jewish
kosher laws. The Old Testament was therefore seen in relation to how it would
predict the events of the New Testament, in particular how the events of the
Old Testament related to the events of Christs life.
The events of the Old Testament were seen as part of the story, with the events
of Christ's life bringing these stories to a full conclusion. The technical
name for seeing the New Testament in the Old is called typology.
One example of typology is the story of Jonah and the whale
from the Old Testament. Medieval allegorical interpretation of this story is
that it prefigures Christ's burial, with the stomach of the whale as Christ's
tomb. Jonah was eventually freed from the whale after three days, so did Christ
rise from his tomb after three days. Thus, whenever one finds an allusion to
Jonah in Medieval art or literature, it is usually an allegory for the burial
and resurrection of Christ. Another common typological allegory is with the
four major Old testament prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and Daniel. These four prophets prefigure the four Apostles Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John. There was no end to the number of analogies that commentators
could find between stories of the Old Testament and the New.
There also existed a tradition in the Middle Ages of mythography -- the allegorical
interpretation of pagan myths. Virgil's Aeneid
and Ovid's Metamorphoses were standard textbooks throughout
the Middle Ages, and each had a long tradition of
allegorical interpretation. An illustrative example can be found in Sienna in a
painting of a Christs
crucifix (Sano di Pietro's Crucifix, 15th c). At the top of the cross can
be seen a bird pecking its own breast, blood pouring forth from the wound and
feeding its waiting chicks below. This is the pelican whose "story"
was told by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder. Thus by analogy to a "pagan"
source, Christ feeds his own children with his own blood.
Allegory was even seen in the natural world, as animals,
plants, and even non-living things were interpreted in books called bestiaries
as symbols of Biblical figures and morals. For example, in one bestiary stags
are compared to people devoted to the Church, because (according to medieval
zoology) they leave their pastures for other (heavenly) pastures, and when they
come to broad rivers (sin) they form in line and each rests its head on the
haunches of the next (supporting each other by example and good works),
speeding across the waters together.
Rauðúlfs þáttr. An Old Norse
allegory.
Before the 5th century the traditions of allegorical interpretations were
created in a time when rhetorical training was common, when the classics of
mythology were still standard teaching texts, when the Greek and Roman pantheon
of Gods were still visible forms (if not always fully recognized by the more
learned populace), and when the new religions such as Christianity adopted or
rejected pagan elements by way of allegoresis (the
study and interpretation of allegory).
It was in this period that the first pure, freestanding allegorical work was
written in about 400 AD by Prudentius called Psychomachia ("Soul-War"). The plot
consists of the personified "good" virtues of Hope, Sobriety,
Chastity, Humility, etc. fighting the personified "evil" vices of
Pride, Wrath, Paganism, Avarice, etc. It is interesting to note that all of the
personifications are women, because in Latin words for abstract concepts are in
the feminine gender; an uninformed reader of the work might take the story
literary as a tale of many angry women fighting one another, because as the
first "pure" allegory Prudentius provides
no context or explanation of the allegory.
In this same period of the early 5th century three other authors of
importance to the history of allegory emerged: Claudian,
Macrobius and Martianus Capella. Little is known of these authors, even if they
were truly Christian or not, but we do know they handed down the inclination to
express learned material in allegorical form, mainly through personification,
which later became a standard part of medieval schooling methods.
Claudian's first work In Rufinum
was an attack against the ruthless Rufinus and would
become a model for the 12th century Anticlaudianus,
a well known allegory for how to be an upstanding man. As well his Rape of Prosperpine was a litany of mythological allegories,
personifications, and cosmological allegories. Macrobius
wrote Commentary of the Dream of Scipio providing the Middle
Ages with the tradition of a favorite topic, the allegorical treatment of
dreams. Lastly Martianus wrote Marriage of
Philology and Mercury, the title referring to the allegorical union of
intelligent learning with the love of letters. It contained short treatises on
the "seven liberal arts" (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, geometry,
arithmetic, astronomy, music) and thus became a standard textbook, greatly
influencing educators and students throughout the Middle
Ages.
Lastly, perhaps the most influential author of Late Antiquity was Boethius,
in whose work Consolation of Philosophy we are first introduced to the
personified Lady Philosophy, the source of innumerable later such personified
figures (Lady Luck, etc..)
After Boethius there exists no known work of allegory literature until the
12th century, and although allegorical thinking and elements and artwork abound
during this period, not until the rise of the Medieval university
in the High Middle Ages does sustained allegorical literature appear again.
The earliest works were by Bernard Silvestris (Cosmographia, 1147), and Alanus
ab Insulis (Plaint of
Nature, 1170, and Anticlaudianus) who
pioneered the use of allegory (mainly personification) for the use of abstract
speculation on metaphysics and scientific questions.
The High and Late Midde Ages saw many allegorical
works and techniques. There were four "great" works from this period.