Substances, Signs, and Resemblances: Truth and Mediality in Late Medieval Interpretations of the Eucharist

Heike Schlie (Universität Salzburg)

The avant-garde role of Art in Exegesis: Eucharistic Typology in the Middle Ages

The typology of the Old and New Testaments was an important subject of exegesis in the Christian Middle Ages, serving to highlight the coherence of God's plan of salvation. Systematic catalogues of classifications were developed, such as those compiled in the Biblia Pauperum in the late Middle Ages. In the High Middle Ages, however, the first comprehensive systematic typologies were of an Eucharistic nature, because there was a great need to prove the predestination of the sacrament of the altar in the plan of salvation. The fact that many of these typologies were developed not only in writing but also in the medium of the material image is particularly evident in its implementation in the Eucharistic or sacramental context. We encounter this typology in hymns, but above all on Eucharistic vessels and altarpieces. The prefigurations of the Old Testament are already genuine images (figura, umbra) of things to come, which are iconically elaborated in art using specific pictorial strategies. By these images, the Old Testament prefigurations are not only related to their New Testament antitypes, but above all to the medieval liturgy, which is thus - from the Christian perspective - compellingly anchored in the plan of salvation.

Suggested readings:

• Bruno Reudenbach, ”Salvation History, Typology, and the End of Time in the Biblia Pauperum” in Eva Frojmovic, ed., Visualising the Middle Ages, Leiden, 2015, pp. 217-232.

Ueli Zahnd (Université de Genève)

A Very Late Medieval View on the Eucharist: John Mair (1467-1550) on Truth and Mediality

The Scottish theologian John Mair was one of these scholastics of the ending Middle Ages who attempted to creatively combine their own solutions to theological issues with the numerous responses offered by the rich scholastic tradition. His works (which he mostly published in the form of commentaries) provide thus a helpful starting point for the study of Late Medieval theology. Focusing in particular on the question of the veneration of the host – is Christ really present in the host in a way that obliges believers to adore it? – my contribution will examine both Mair's commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences (1509/1521) and on the Gospel of Matthew and John (1518/1529).

Suggested readings:

• Stephen E. Lahey, "Late Medieval Eucharistic Theology", in Ian C. Levy, Gary Macy and Kristen van Ausdall (eds.), A Companion to the Eucharist in the Middle Ages, Leiden 2012, pp. 499-539
• Ueli Zahnd, "Terms, Signs, Sacraments: The Correlation between Logic and Theology and the Philosophical Context of Book IV of Mair’s Sentences Commentary", in John T. Slotemaker and Jeffrey C. Witt (eds.), A Companion to the Theology of John Mair, Leiden 2015, pp. 241-287.