Emma, Emperor and Evangelist: The Production of Authority in the Frontispiece to British Library, MS Additional 33241

Abstract

The Encomium Emmae reginae is a narrative history centered on the praise of Queen Emma, widow of both Æthelred and Cnut. After the death of Cnut, Emma commissioned the Encomium while she ruled England jointly with her sons Edward and Harthacnut.1 The frontispiece of the earliest extant manuscript portrays Emma enthroned in state with her two sons standing at her side (London, British Library Additional MS 33241, f.1v, henceforward BL Additional 33241; see Figure 1). This manuscript appears to have been produced either in 1041 or 1042, before the death of Harthacnut in 1042 when Edward became king, banishing Emma to Winchester and seizing her property.2 The Encomium text diverges from other contemporary sources, placing Emma and her two sons by different fathers as the natural heirs to a Danish dynasty and celebrating Emma's role as a bringer of peace.3 The Encomium Emmae reginae frontispiece validates the text's version of events by projecting Emma's authority, separating her out from her sons as ruler in her own right. Using the iconography of Evangelist author portraits and book donation portraits, the image presents Emma, and the Encomium itself, as authoritative carriers of truth. The grammar of authority in the Encomium frontispiece activates specific iconographical reference points from the manuscript tradition centered on the abbey of St.-Bertin to convey Emma's power and support the Encomium's narrative of events, placing BL Additional 33241 within the artistic exchange between Flanders and England throughout the early Middle Ages.Extensive scholarship on the Encomium Emmae reginae text has demonstrated its careful construction of a usable history for Emma, showing how it edits historical events to place Emma in the best light.4 As Emily Butler puts it, “the project of this text is precisely to shift perceptions of events of recent, familiar history.”5 Pauline Stafford shows how the text uses the titles queen, mother, and lady to negotiate Emma's position, ending with a depiction of Emma ruling jointly and lovingly with her sons Edward and Harthacnut. She notes that this image “does not simply describe reality, it was designed to conjure it.”6 Elizabeth Tyler situates the Encomium's production within the Anglo-Danish court of Harthacnut, showing how the use of Latin and complex allusions to Virgil function to create a foundation legend for the Danish dynasty.7 The Encomium text was commissioned by Emma and designed to intervene directly in contemporary politics.I argue here that the frontispiece of the Encomium makes a truth claim for the Encomium text's contested narrative of recent events by using a specific grammar of authority taken from a tradition of manuscript production between Flanders and England. The iconography used in the frontispiece conveys Emma's authority by depicting her as an Evangelist figure, as well as an imperial ruler. In particular, the use of imagery taken from Evangelist portraits and donor portraits suggests the illuminator had links to St.-Bertin and the frontispiece should be interpreted through this connection.8There is extensive evidence for a close relationship between England and Flanders in the early Middle Ages, often expressed through artistic collaboration and exchange in manuscript production. By the time the Encomium was produced in the mid-eleventh century, the English-Flemish relationship was a longstanding one, already evident in the early ninth century with an English abbot at St.-Bertin and Grimbald of St.-Bertin invited to England by King Alfred in 886 or 887.9 Flemish monasteries depended on English patronage in the tenth century, there was an ongoing exchange of people between England and Flanders (both scholars and mercenaries), and the Continent was an important source for Latin learning throughout the period.10 This relationship between England and Flanders continues into the later Middle Ages, with recent scholarship demonstrating longstanding Anglo-Dutch links.11 In the earlier period the connections between the abbey of St.-Bertin and England were particularly strong, with St. Bertin venerated in England in the eleventh century and a number of illuminators from England working at St.-Bertin under the direction of Abbot Odbert.12 Elisabeth van Houts demonstrates the key importance of Flemish biographers in England, many of whom were monks of St.-Bertin, throughout the eleventh century.13 The compilation manuscript Saint-Omer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 202 demonstrates the links between St.-Bertin and England particularly well, as it was copied and annotated at St.-Bertin in the late ninth century, spent at least some of the eleventh century in England, and was back in the library of St.-Bertin by the fourteenth century at the latest.14 Recognizing the portrayal of Emma in the frontispiece as indebted to the iconography of Evangelist figures and book donor images with links to St.-Bertin places BL Additional 33241 within this cross-Channel exchange.In this article, I trace the iconographical traditions that the Encomium artist activates in the frontispiece to convey Emma's authority and make a claim for the truth value of the Encomium's version of events, and show how these make meaning in relation to manuscripts produced at or with links to St.-Bertin. Section one demonstrates that the image uses Evangelist imagery to depict Emma as truth-teller, stemming from artistic exchanges between St.-Bertin and England. The second section analyzes early medieval uses of Evangelist imagery to depict female figures, showing that the Encomium's use relates to the tradition of manuscript illumination at St.-Bertin. Finally, I suggest that the centrality of the book in the Encomium frontispiece perhaps takes inspiration from St.-Bertin donation imagery depicting monks of the abbey proffering books to the Abbey's patron saint.Emma accesses authority in the Encomium frontispiece by assuming the iconographical trappings of a continental ruler, which separate her out from her sons, suggesting their right to rule stems from her. Catherine Karkov's work has traced the iconographical similarities of the Encomium frontispiece to earlier Carolingian forms of depicting imperial authority, and she also makes an argument for the Encomium image as a fusion of ruler portraits with images of the Adoration of the Magi, with Emma as Mary holding the book as baby on her knee.15 The image projected by the frontispiece (of Emma enthroned alone with her sons standing by) has also been compared to the description of the trio as sharers of rule at the end of the Encomium text.16 What has not been identified in previous scholarship, however, is the frontispiece's reliance on the iconography of the Evangelist portrait to convey Emma's power. The artist of BL Additional 33241 draws on a tradition of Evangelist portraiture centered on St.-Bertin and Canterbury, using particular touchpoints (the arched frame, the hanging curtains, the book) to present Emma as an authoritative carrier of truth and validate the Encomium's version of events.Elements of the Encomium frontispiece clearly parallel earlier depictions of royal figures. Notably, the floral motif on Emma's crown echoes the crowns of earlier imperial rulers.17 Emma's assumption of the foliate crown in the frontispiece could be seen as a deliberate statement about her royal power and her ability to convey it to her sons. Karkov notes that the figure in the late ninth-century Alfred Jewel holds a flowering branch that may have signified ruling power by echoing the floral motifs on regalia associated with the Carolingian kings.18 In the BL Cotton Tiberius A iii frontispiece (f. 2v), King Edgar's crown also includes floral elements demonstrating that in the mid-eleventh century in England the floral crown continued to signify kingship.19 As well as the foliate decoration signifying kingly power, Karkov notes that the arches of Emma's crown here are paralleled in the depictions of Roman personifications of cities, which emphasize imperial domination over land.20 Harthacnut and Edward's crowns in the frontispiece are smaller versions of their mother's crown, with the architectural detailing resembling arches, but without the foliate motif. This disparity in crown size and ornamentation is present in the only other extant image of Emma, in the New Minster Liber Vitae, where she stands alongside her husband Cnut. Cnut is wearing a crown with the foliate decoration symbolizing rulership, similar to Emma's crown in the frontispiece; but here, Emma wears a simple circlet with no floral motifs. It is clear in the New Minster image that Emma's authority stems from Cnut's position as king. Similarly, in the frontispiece, Harthacnut and Edward's less elaborate crowns may suggest that their authority depends on Emma's role as queen and they both look up to her in the image. The echo of Emma's crown in theirs suggests their kinship ties to her and perhaps reflects how their right to the throne emanates from her.Emma's position seated alone on a throne is unusual for English manuscripts and this highlights her authority using Continental models of royal power. Catherine Karkov notes that Emma is enthroned “like a Carolingian emperor” in this image.21 Early medieval English rulers were not ordinarily depicted enthroned. There are five extant manuscript portraits of rulers in early medieval England (including the Encomium). Emma in the Encomium frontispiece is the only ruler portrayed enthroned alone; Edgar is also portrayed enthroned in the mid-eleventh-century frontispiece to the Regularis Concordia (London, British Library Cotton MS Tiberius A.iii, f 2v), but he is flanked by Æthelwold and Dunstan.22 As Robert Deshman notes, as well as this image of Edgar co-enthroned with Æthelwold and Dunstan, there is an early medieval English iconographical precedent for depicting the persons of the Godhead as synthronoi, “to manifest their equality and joint rulership.”23 This iconographical tradition would seem to express the ending to the Encomium in which the Encomiast claims that Emma, Harthacnut and Edward are happy ruling jointly: “hic fides habetur regni sotiis, hic inuiolabile uiget faedus materni fraternique amoris” (here there is loyalty among sharers of rule, here the bond of motherly and brotherly love is of strength indestructible).24 However, Edward and Harthacnut are not coenthroned with their mother in the frontispiece; they are literally in the margins of the image, overlapping the framing column. Depicting a ruler of England seated on a throne alone was not a matter of course and, along with the smaller crowns worn by Emma's sons, serves to separate Emma's royal power from theirs using Continental models.As well as drawing on influential portraits of secular rulers, Emma's position in the Encomium image uses the iconography of Continental Evangelist portraits to demonstrate her authority. Emma would have been familiar with the targeted use of Christian symbolism to convey a ruler's power and integrity. Contemporary writers portrayed her second husband Cnut as the most Christian king, and skalds praised him as next in line to God.25 The text of the Encomium references Cnut's Christian kingship as his fleet is ornamented with the four beasts of the Evangelists.26 Emma's image in the frontispiece also borrows from the Christian symbolism of the Evangelists. The Evangelist is a guarantor of truthful narrative, and the use of this imagery to depict Emma makes a truth claim for the following text and her role in its production. Like the gospel writers portrayed in continental manuscripts of the late-eighth to mid-eleventh centuries, Emma is portrayed seated on a throne holding a book under a curtained arch. This Evangelist imagery can be traced back to the influential gospel books of the “Ada School” group of late eighth- and early ninth-century Carolingian manuscripts.27 As Elizabeth Rosenbaum points out, “all the Evangelists of the Ada School are set in arched frames. This is one of the School's most distinctive characteristics.”28 The arched frame, the architectural throne, and the position of the seated figure holding the book are particularly close parallels to the Encomium frontispiece. The throne upon which Emma sits, while paralleled in continental depictions of rulers, can also be seen in images of the Evangelists. The Encomium frontispiece shares all of the key iconographical features of Evangelist portraiture of the Ada School.In particular, the Encomium frontispiece (Figure 1) is a close parallel to the image of St. John in the late tenth- or early eleventh-century Boulogne Gospels (Boulogne-sur-mer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 11, f. 107v; Figure 2),29 and the image of St. Matthew in the late ninth century Athelstan Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Tiberius A II, f. 24v; Figure 3).30 The arched frames in both the Boulogne St John and the Athelstan St. Matthew reproduce this distinctive feature of the Ada School Evangelist portraits, repeated in the Encomium frontispiece. In both the Boulogne and Athelstan Gospels, the book is held to the left of the seated figure in the same position as the book in the Encomium frontispiece.31 In all of these images, the central figure looks off to their left, towards the book, rather than straight out towards the viewer. The use of parted curtains in the Encomium image strengthens the iconographical link between the frontispiece and the Evangelist portraits in the Boulogne and Athelstan Gospels, as the curtains in all three images are attached to the overhead arch in an unusual way that is not paralleled in other gospel books of the period. Curtains parting over a seated figure are “a symbol of authority and revelation with antecedents in Antiquity.”32 These parted curtains are present in many of the other Evangelist portraits in gospel books of the Ada School. However, in the typical curtain setting in Evangelist portraits of this period, the curtains hang “from a rod that rests on the capitals of the arcade,” not from the framing arch itself.33 For example, see the Evangelist portraits on f.1v-4v in the mid-eleventh-century Odalricus Peccator Gospel Lectionary (London, British Library Harley MS 2970), in which the curtains fall from a rod resting on the top of the framing columns.34 In contrast, the curtains over the head of St. Matthew in the Athelstan Gospels, St. John in the Boulogne Gospels, and Emma in the Encomium are all attached to the overhead arch directly and follow the line of the arch. The fact that all three of these images share this unusual feature strengthens the likelihood that the Encomium illuminator drew on the Evangelist images from this tradition to attribute authority to Emma directly and deliberately when drawing the Encomium image.The manuscripts containing this Evangelist iconography all stem from either St-Bertin or Canterbury. The links between St.-Bertin and English centers of manuscript production, notably Canterbury, were strong throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries and the Encomium frontispiece picks up on iconography from interconnected manuscripts produced between these two centers.35 The late ninth-century Athelstan Gospels manuscript was donated to Christ Church Canterbury by King Athelstan.36 In the tenth century, the St. Matthew image was copied into a manuscript now known as the Brittany Gospels (Oxford, St. John's College, MS 194, f. 1v), suggesting that both manuscripts were then at Christ Church Canterbury.37 Richard Gameson argues that the artist of the Boulogne Gospels was in Canterbury around the millennium, and so he could have encountered the Athelstan Gospels there, which may have influenced his work on the Boulogne Gospels.38 A later Canterbury manuscript, the Eadui Psalter (London, British Library Arundel MS 155), was in turn likely influenced by imagery produced by the artist of the Boulogne Gospels, who Gameson argues may have produced a prototype for its image of St. Benjamin (f. 133r).39 The Eadui Psalter was written by Eadui Basan at Christ Church Canterbury between 1011 and 1023.40 See the top of the canon tables on f. 10r, a seated figure has been drawn holding a book on his knee, flanked by two kneeling figures looking up to him also holding books. The posture of the kneeling figures looking up at the seated figure is reminiscent of the posture of the figures in the Encomium frontispiece. Images in all three manuscripts—the Æthelstan Gospels, the Boulogne Gospels, and the Eadui Psalter—have clear visual parallels with the Encomium frontispiece, placing the Encomium manuscript within the economy of manuscript production between St.-Bertin and Canterbury.Indeed, the Encomium may have had an even stronger link to the Boulogne Gospels, as the Evangelist attributes in the Encomium frontispiece could have come down to the illuminator of BL Additional 33241 directly via their use in this manuscript. The Boulogne Gospels was written and illuminated at St.-Bertin in St.-Omer in the late tenth or early eleventh century (ca. 987–ca. 1006), and it was presumably still at St.-Bertin throughout the early eleventh century. Although we do not know the identity of the artist of the Encomium frontispiece or the scribe of the manuscript, we know that the writer of the Encomium text was in St.-Omer when Cnut visited on his way to Rome to witness the accession of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II in 1027, as he explicitly flags this section of his narrative as an eyewitness account.41 Of course, the writer could have traveled to England (as we know many expert writers of Latin did—for example, Goscelin of St.-Bertin, writer of the Legend of Edith for the nuns at Wilton Abbey), but it is equally possible that the text was composed at St.-Bertin under Emma's instructions. If the text was composed at St.-Bertin, the manuscript and its frontispiece could also have been produced at St.-Bertin and influenced by the treatment of the Evangelist's authority in the Boulogne Gospels.The frontispiece of the Encomium uses Evangelist iconography to convey Emma's authority, as well as the use of Continental imperial iconography identified in previous scholarship. The artist of the frontispiece uses this Evangelist iconography deliberately to depict Emma as an authorizing figure for the following, contested, narrative of the Encomium. The use of specific elements of Evangelist portraiture, such as the curtains falling directly from the curved arch above the figure's head, places BL Additional 33241 firmly within the tradition of book production between England and Flanders, and suggests a St.-Bertin origin for the manuscript.The use of Evangelist imagery to convey female authority is not limited to the Encomium. Tenth- and eleventh-century manuscripts of Prudentius's Psychomachia also use Evangelist iconography to convey the authority of the female personification of wisdom, Sapientia, and in the Boulogne Gospels, Evangelist imagery is used to convey Mary's power. Although there are multiple similarities between the Sapientia images and the Encomium frontispiece, the image of Mary in the Boulogne Gospels provides a much stronger parallel, suggesting a more direct link between the Boulogne Gospels and BL Additional 33241. The contested elements of the Encomium narrative are authorized through Emma's depiction as an Evangelist figure using iconography from the St.-Bertin manuscript tradition.In the depictions of Sapientia in three tenth- and eleventh-century copies of Prudentius's Psychomachia Sapientia is shown in the position of an Evangelist, enthroned under parted curtains (London, British Library Cotton MS Cleopatra C VIII, f. 36r; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library MS 23, f. 39v; and London, British Library MS Additional 24199, f. 37r).42 Sapientia (Wisdom) appears at the triumphant end of the Psychomachia; once the Virtues have beaten the Vices in battle, Fides (Faith) and Concordia (Concord) build a temple in which Sapientia sits enthroned. In all three of these manuscripts, Sapientia is depicted as a woman wearing contemporary early medieval clothing seated on a throne with cushioned arms. She looks off to her left and is framed by a temple held up by columns. She holds a scepter in her right hand. Two curtains are attached to the roof of the temple and they part over Sapientia's head. While the image in BL Additional 24199 is unfinished, it is clear that it depicts the same scene as the other two manuscripts (for example, although the scepter has not been drawn in the image, Sapientia's hands are positioned in the same way as in the two other manuscripts ready to hold it). The overall composition of the image owes much to Evangelist portraits, with the seated figure on the throne framed by curtains and looking off to the left. In Karkov's discussion of the early medieval English Psychomachia illustrations, she notes that these manuscripts are “the first group to depict both [the Vices and Virtues] as primarily, if not entirely, female,” noting that both groups “wear the dress of contemporary Anglo-Saxon women.”43 The image of Sapientia, then, is an image of an early medieval woman, depicted in the position of the Evangelist to show her authority and depict her as a speaker of truth.In the Boulogne Gospels, it is Mary at the Annunciation that takes on Evangelist characteristics to demonstrate her authority (Boulogne-sur-mer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 11, f. 11v; Figure 4). The Boulogne Mary is seated on a throne under a curtained archway looking off to one side, paralleling the key features of Evangelist portraits in the same manuscript. In particular, the curtains over Mary's head fall directly from the curve of the arch and wrap around the columns at either side, like the curtains in the image of St John on folio 107v discussed above. Mary also has a book to her left, paralleling the book to the left of John in his Evangelist portrait. At the moment in the Biblical story that Mary's exceptional position is revealed, the artist uses Evangelist imagery to convey her authority and distinction.The iconographical relationship between the Encomium frontispiece and the Boulogne Gospels image of Mary is much closer than that between the frontispiece and the three Sapientia images, revealing the Encomium manuscript's links to the tradition of manuscript production at St.-Bertin. One key difference between the depictions of Sapientia and the depiction of Emma in the frontispiece is the framing of the images. The Prudentius illustrations depict Sapientia in a temple, with curtains falling open attached to the flat roof. Both the Cleopatra and Corpus Christi copies of the Psychomachia enclose the temple in the image in a line-drawn rectangular frame (perhaps this was also planned for the copy of the image in BL Additional 24199, but it is impossible to tell from the extant unfinished image). In contrast, Emma in the Encomium frontispiece is seated under an arched frame with the curtains falling from the line of the arch, which can also be seen in the images of the Evangelists and Mary in the Boulogne Gospels. The Boulogne Mary image also includes the additional figure of the Angel Gabriel, unlike the Sapientia images where Sapientia is depicted alone. The position of the Angel Gabriel in the Boulogne Gospels image parallels the position of Harthacnut in the image of Emma. The Sapientia images use some of the elements of Evangelist iconography (the opened curtains, the throne, the position of the seated figure), but the differences in the iconography of the images suggest this is a simultaneous adoption of Evangelist iconography to convey authority rather than a potential link with the Encomium frontispiece.Both the Boulogne Gospels Mary image and the Encomium frontispiece have a book at their center, which is not present in the three Sapientia images, strengthening my case for a link between the Boulogne Gospels and Encomium frontispiece. The iconography of Mary with a book at the Annunciation was not often seen in the West in the early Middle Ages. The earliest example is found on the Brunswick Casket ca. 860, the next in the Benedictional of Æthelwold (963–984), and the ca. 987–ca. 1006 Boulogne Gospels image is the third extant. As Laura Saetveit Miles argues, “by being placed underneath such a canopied throne with her book, Mary projects both the royalty accorded to her from David's house . . . as well as the authority of the Evangelists, who are also accompanied by their books.”44 The position of the Evangelists in the images–enthroned, under an arched frame, holding a book—signifies their authority as they transmit the word of God, and this iconography is adopted in images of Mary at the Annunciation to convey her authority and her position as a conduit to the divine. The Encomium frontispiece also brings out these elements: the authority of the Evangelists accompanied by their books, and the royalty of the canopied throne, reflecting this unusual iconographical tradition of depicting Mary enthroned with a book. The frontispiece follows the Boulogne Gospels in using Evangelist imagery to depict an authoritative female figure, and the unusual presence of the book in the image of Mary may have influenced Emma's portrayal in the Encomium frontispiece.The centrality of the book in the Encomium image conveys the authoritative nature of the Encomium text by depicting the Encomium as a gospel analogue—showing the book itself as sacred. The book is a key element of the Evangelist portrait, demonstrating the Evangelist's authorship of the Gospel narrative. Paralleling the Encomium with gospel books makes a claim for the authoritative nature of the following written account, and surrounding Emma with Evangelist iconography argues for her central role in its production. As the Encomium narrative was contested at the time of its production, depicting the book itself as sacred argues for the truth of this version of events over others. This use of Evangelist iconography to make truth claims about the text functions in parallel with the use of the Roman story world that Elizabeth Tyler has outlined. Virgilian allusions make a claim for the text as telling the truth through fiction, and the Evangelist iconography places Emma in a position to authorize this truthful narrative.45 In the John, Mark, and Matthew Evangelist portraits in the Boulogne Gospels, the Gospel book itself is on a stand covered with a flowing cloth placed to the Evangelist's left. Similarly, in the image of Mary holding a book at the Annunciation in the Boulogne Gospels the bookstand is covered with a cloth. In the Encomium frontispiece, the Encomiast holds the book representing the Encomium up to Emma from a kneeling position, with his hands covered with the flowing cloth seen in the Boulogne Gospels images. This use of the cloth to hold the book attributes the authority of the sacramental book to the Encomium, making a claim for the truth value and authority of the following text.Evangelist imagery is used to claim authority and royal power for a woman in both the Encomium frontispiece and the Boulogne Gospels, suggesting a more direct connection between the two manuscripts. While this imagery is also used to convey Sapientia's authority in three early medieval English manuscripts of Prudentius's Psychomachia, the differences between the Sapientia images and the Encomium frontispiece suggest this is a simultaneous adoption of Evangelist imagery to depict female authority. In contrast, the clear similarities between the overall framing of the Mary and Emma portraits and the inclusion of the authoritative book in both images suggests they stem from the same St.-Bertin-based manuscript tradition. Depicting Emma as Evangelist and the Encomium as gospel analogue makes a claim for the truth value of the Encomium's version of the recent past.As I have shown, the authoritative book in the Encomium frontispiece links the frontispiece to Evangelist portraiture. The presence of the book in the frontispiece means it has also been compared to book donor portraits in previous scholarship.46 However, the frontispiece has not been analyzed in conjunction with donation scenes from St.-Bertin produced in the early eleventh century. Alongside the parallels between the Boulogne Gospels and the Encomium frontispiece, the clear visual parallels between the book donation images from St.-Bertin and the frontispiece image again suggest the Encomium manuscript was produced within the tradition of book production linked to St.-Bertin. Emma's authoritative position in the frontispiece, as well as borrowing from Evangelist imagery, perhaps takes inspiration from iconography depicting monks of the abbey proffering books to the Abbey's patron saint.The books in the donation image on f. 84r of the early eleventh-century Odbert Gospels (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.333; Figure 5) have iconographical parallels with the treatment of the book in the Encomium frontispiece, paralleling the Encomium itself with the Gospel book.47 The Odbert Gospels’ donation image depicts three standing figures: a hooded monk carrying a book, a tonsured monk also carrying a book (identified as Odbert in scholarship), and a figure with a halo standing next to a small altar covered in a cloth (identified as St. Bertin).48 Unlike the books in the Evangelist portraits, which are positioned on cloth-covered stands, in the Odbert Gospels donation image the monks hold the books with their hands covered in cloth. This positioning signals both the holiness of the book itself and their unworthiness to touch the book directly. The cloth-covered hands are repeated in the Encomium frontispiece, but this time the book is the Encomium rather than a Gospel book, again making claims for the value of the Encomium as a truth-telling and potentially sacred text and validating its contested version of events. Emma and her sons can touch the book directly, but the monk-writer cannot. The Encomium artist's decision to show the monk-writer in the frontispiece holding the book with his hands under a cloth may have stemmed from the St.-Bertin tradition of depicting the donation of sacred books in this way.The other extant book donation scene with a definite St.-Bertin provenance is found in the late tenth- or early eleventh-century Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 107, a hagiographical manuscript with vitae of saints connected to St.-Bertin (Bertin, Folcuin, Silvin and Winnoc).49 This manuscript includes a probable depiction of a monk presenting a book to a seated St. Bertin, with Abbot Odbert standing at Bertin's right hand (f. 7r; Figure 6).50 The composition of this donation image is extremely close to the Encomium frontispiece. The image shows a seated figure with a halo (St. Bertin) accepting a proffered book from a crouching monk. St. Bertin looks to his left, towards the book. Another figure (probably Abbot Odbert) stands to the seated figure's right, holding a crozier. Both the poses of the seated and crouching figures and the spatial relationship between the seated figure in the center of the work and the crouching figure offering up the book are echoed in the Encomium frontispiece. In particular, note the parallels in the hierarchy between the seated enthroned figure looking towards the book and the crouching figure offering the book upwards at around his own head height. The right hands of both enthroned figures have the thumb pointing upwards and an undershirt emerging from a large ornate sleeve. Furthermore, the Boulogne MS 107 figures are drawn underneath an enclosing arch from which open curtains hang, reminiscent both of the curtains in the contemporary Boulogne Gospels and the curtains in the later Encomium image. The architectural details at the top of the donation image in Boulogne 107, in particular the arched windows, also have a parallel in the arched windows in the columns of the Encomium frontispiece.Considering this image as a potential model for the Encomium frontispiece, Emma sits in the position of St. Bertin in the center of the image. Alongside the visual references to imperial rulers and Evangelist portraits, and the sacred nature of the Encomium manuscript itself, placing Emma in the position of the Abbey's patron saint is a strong declaration of the authority she wished to convey, and her role as authorizing figure for the Encomium narrative. I am not necessarily suggesting that the artist of the Encomium frontispiece used the Boulogne 107 image as a direct exemplar (although, like the Boulogne Gospels, the manuscript would have been available at the Abbey at the time that the Encomium was being composed). Rather, the Encomium frontispiece draws on a grammar of authority that was legible in the context of manuscript illumination produced at or with links to St.-Bertin.In conclusion, Emma's positioning in the frontispiece to the Encomium conveys her authority using iconography linked to manuscripts produced at or with links to St.-Bertin. Her position under an archway with opened curtains holding a book situates her as an authoritative figure in parallel with the Evangelists, signaling the truth-telling value of the following text of the Encomium. The use of Evangelist imagery to depict Emma in this frontispiece image is sophisticated and innovative, authorized by a previous use of this imagery in the Boulogne Gospels to depict Mary at the Annunciation–the moment that Mary is separated from the mass of women to prominence. The visual parallels with book donation scenes place Emma in the position of textual authorizer; the Encomium was written for her and is being presented to her for her approval.These iconographical precedents for the Encomium frontispiece place the manuscript firmly within a tradition of manuscript exchange between Flanders and England in the early medieval period. The Encomium frontispiece uses imagery found in Evangelist portraits and book donation scenes localized to Canterbury and St.-Bertin in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The links between the Boulogne Gospels and the Encomium frontispiece are particularly strong, suggesting the Encomium frontispiece was produced at St.-Bertin or by someone who had spent a significant amount of time there. Despite not being produced by a specific artist or with any particular or unusual skill, the BL Additional 33241 Encomium manuscript takes its place among its more lavish cousins as evidence for the ongoing manuscript production between these two centers. The artist places Emma center stage, using a complex array of iconographical elements from the manuscript tradition linked to St.-Bertin to show her authority as truth-telling Evangelist and imposing recipient of sacred volumes.