Is it a Good Knight or a Bad Knight? Methodologies in the Study of Polemics and Warriors in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts

In this essay, I will map a range of different methodological approaches to
the study of illuminated manuscripts that contain images of warriors and put
them in the context of Jewish-Christian polemics, examining the images and
the texts together in conjunction with military history. The importance of
this study lies in its holistic reappraisal of the manner in which we think
about illustrations in connection with text, the Christian milieu, and the
possible meaning that the images had for the patron. Going into great detail
regarding the displays of warfare allows us to broaden our understanding of
the role these images played in the thought of the Jewish patrons and the
reasons why they were included. I will apply the methodology of a close
examination of weapons in a Jewish context. After deciphering the
iconography, I will turn to the textual context and the meaning it affords the
images. This article will focus on examples from four manuscripts, all
displaying “bad knights,” that is, warriors and knights who represent
persecution and the enemies of the Jews; beginning with a close examination
of the text and images of a micrography scene from the book of Jeremiah in
an Ashkenazi Bible, continuing with the associative nature of images of
warriors in the North French Hebrew Miscellany, and finally ending with
examples of the wicked son in two haggadahs.