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From On the Song of Songs and Other Writings by Honorius Augustodunensis
Germany, probably Tegernsee; ca. 1200
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Clm. 18125
This delicate drawing of a king and queen introduces an exceptionally learned text—an elaborate allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs, a love poem found in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Like the text it accompanies, the drawing assumes an intimate knowledge of the biblical poem and it, too, offers a recondite commentary through the juxtaposition of visual details and inscriptions taken from disparate parts of the poem.