The Purposeful Patron: Political Covenant in the Salerno Ivories

The Old and New Testament ivory plaques known as the “Salerno Ivories” have been understood to draw on both early Christian sources and a group of related manuscripts deriving from the Cotton Genesis. But the peculiar iconography of one plaque in particular, Abraham and God at an Altar, calls this derivation into question. I argue that the scene cannot be explained solely in iconographical terms, but that it must be considered in light of the political and theological events surrounding its creation. The dramatic events of the Investiture Controversy in late eleventh-century Italy provide the context for this new interpretation. Using political and historical evidence from the period, I make a case that the monument was created by a “purposeful patron” who wished to legitimate Norman rule in southern Italy by casting the Normans as god-given rulers. The identification of the Normans and church leaders as bearers of a new “Abrahamic covenant” explains the unusual iconography of the scene.