The Illustrated Sermons of James the Monk: Their Dates, Order, and Place in the History of Byzantine Art

"The Illustrated Sermons of James the Monk: Their Dates, Order, and Place in the History of Byzantine Art." In an effort to establish when James the monk lived, the author examines the manuscripts containing James's works, the letters to Irene Sebastokratorissa, Paris. gr. 3039, and the Sermons on the life of the Virgin, Paris. gr. 1208 and Vat. gr. 1162. James's portrait in the Paris Sermons shows that he was alive when the book was illuminated; on the basis of stylistic comparisons it is argued that the manuscript was most likely made sometime during the 1120s or 1130s. The Vatican Sermons is shown to be the later of the two copies; its date is placed in the 1140s or 1150s, around the time the letters to Irene were gathered in a handsome volume. Finally, the relevance of the manuscripts of James's writings to twelfth-century society, and in particular to the taste of the Byzantine court, is considered.