Peregrinatio et Natio: The Illustrated Life of Edmund, King and Martyr

Abstract

The illustrated life of Edmund in the Morgan Library in New York (M. 736) was written and decorated ca. 1130 in the monastery of Bury St. Edmunds, the home of the relics of the saintly king. At the time of the production of the manuscript, the Bury monks were involved in the rebuilding of their church in the pilgrimage style, much enlarged, with ambulatory and radiating chapels. The alms scene in the Morgan manuscript is one striking example of a new pictorial narrative in which Bury is represented as an English center for pilgrimage comparable to Rome or Jerusalem. Recalling that "we are all strangers and pilgrims on this earth," Edmund himself is represented as a pilgrim king of a pure and pilgrim state. In this role he may be meant to serve as a model of the judicious use of power for the contemporary king, Henry I, but more importantly, he is being proposed as a candidate for national patron saint, comparable to Denis of France, a candidacy that was ultimately unsuccessful.