File:Speculum virginum.jpg

English: single parchment leaf (13.5 cm x 19.6 cm) from a Jungfrauenspiegel (Speculum virginum) ms. dated to c. 1200 (the "Trier Jungfrauenspiegel", Trier episcopal library no. 132 ; on the reverse side of the leaf are 17 lines of text in Carolino-Gothica.); this ms. was stripped of its miniatures in the 19th century. This leaf is now kept in Kestner-Museum, Hanover Inv.-Nr. 3984; others survive in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (Nrs. 15326-28).

The miniature shown here measures 12.5 x 17.8 cm; it is the upper part of an original conception of a two-part illustration (the lower part of the page being left empty). The background consists of a blue rectangle with a green border, which is in turn given a red border (partly cut off in this reproduction).

Two pairs of fighting knights wearing full-body mail suits, sleeveless surcoats, great helms, and Norman shields (kite shields) suspended from a shoulder strap. The fight scenes are unusually dynamic for the period. The fighters are intended as allegories, showing two virtues defeating two vices. The context of the miniature is chapter 4 of the Speculum Virginum “On Pride”, which is usually (in other manuscripts) illustrated with a single allegorical scene of humility defeating pride. This was presumably the subject planned for the lower part of the page. The tradition of virtues and vices depicted allegorically as knights in combat goes back to Prudentius' Psychomachia.

The fighter on the left is raising his sword for a two-handed finishing blow, while his collapsing and bleeding opponent manages to cleave his helmet. The heraldic design shown on one shield (three monks' heads) is a later addition. The fighter on the right is attacking with a one-handed blow from a high guard, but his opponent uses stops the attack by blocking the attacker’s elbow with his left hand while simultaneously stabbing him in the abdomen, apparently closing the distance by stepping with his left leg in front of the attackers right leg.

Literature: Helmar Härtel (ed.), Handschriften Des Kestner-Museums Zu Hannover, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1999, p. 104.