Text-image Relationships
The lack of inscriptions in Figures 83 and 84 repeats the example set by the illustrations of Book I of the Yconomique . The consequent abandonment of the miniature's lexical function probably reflects Oresme's assumption of the readers' familiarity with the subject of marriage. The indexical, summary character of the illustration supports this suggestion. On another level, the choice of a wedding ceremony as standing for the whole of the marriage relationship may also reflect the common rhetorical figure of synecdoche. The summary paragraph below the illustration echoes the cursory nature of the miniature: "Cy commence le secunt livre de Yconomique , ouquel il determine en especial et plus complectement de communication nuptial ou de mariage. Et contient .viii. chapitles" (Here begins the second book of Economics , in which he considers particularly and more fully married life or marriage. And it contains eight chapters).[3]
One reason that Oresme may have chosen the wedding ceremony to introduce the subject of marriage is that Aristotle discussed it in both the Ethics and the Politics , as well as in the previous book of the Economics . Thus, there is a preexistent textual link that might bring the reader to associate previous knowledge of the subject in these works with the forthcoming expansion of the theme in Book II of the Yconomique . In his commentaries on Book I of this text, Oresme refers to relevant passages in Books I and VII of the Politiques and Book VIII of the Ethiques .[4] Indeed, marriage as one of Aristotle's three types of relationships among people of unequal rank is depicted by the bride and groom in Figure 38, the illustration of Book VIII in C .[5] Oresme may have intended or hoped that the repetition of the motif of the bride and groom would constitute a visual and textual association with Aristotle's previous discussion of marriage in the Ethics .
By choosing a wedding ceremony Oresme may also have wanted to signal an aspect of the institution of marriage apart from its ethical, political, and economic implications. As a means of updating Aristotle's exploration of the theme, Oresme introduces the Christian view of marriage as an institution ordained by God. In the context of how the wife should conduct herself (Book II, Chapter 2), the text speaks of the procreative function of marriage as something that could not "be greater or more holy."[6] Oresme's gloss on the passage elaborates this point: "car societé de mariage, qui est pour procreation d'enfans et pour mutuel aide, est chose saincte et divine" (For the marriage relationship, which is for the procreation of children and for mutual help, is a holy and divine thing).[7]
Even more clearly than in Book I of the Yconomique Oresme glosses the idea of marriage as a "divine partnership."[8] The translator's assimilation of Aristotelian and Christian notions of marriage is quite clear:
Et meismement en nature humaine, de laquelle Dieu a especial solicitude et cure. Et donques selon le Philosophe, mariage est de divine ordenance et se acorde a ce que dit Nostre Salveur, que Dieu fist ceste conjunction: Quod ergo Deus conjunxit, etc. Et aussi il fu né en mariage et fu present as noces la ou il fist le commence-
ment de ses signes par un gracieus et joyeus miracle en muant l'eaue en bon vin. Et par ce il approva mariage comme chose saincte, laquele Dieu beneÿ des la premiere creation: Masculum et feminam creavit eos et benedixit illis. Et est mariage un sacrement et donques est ce chose divine. Apres il met comment ce est convenable chose.
(And this accords with human nature, for which God has a special solicitude and attention. Thus according to Aristotle, marriage is divinely ordained and he agrees with the statement of our Saviour that God made this union: 'What therefore God hath joined together, etc.' [Matt. 19:6]. And our Saviour also was born from wedlock, and He was present at the wedding ceremony where He first demonstrated his powers by a gracious and joyous miracle, changing water into wine. In this manner He gave approval to marriage as a holy thing, which God blessed from the beginning of creation: 'Male and female created He them and He blessed them' [Gen. 1:27]. And marriage is a sacrament and is therefore a divine rite. He next indicates how this is a felicitous thing.)[9]
Oresme may have chosen the scene of the wedding in front of the church to emphasize marriage as a sacrament. He may have done this not so much from theological conviction but as a means of updating and concretizing the wedding ceremony as an intelligible shorthand or synecdoche for marriage.