Privacy in the Middle Ages was a concerning and potentially dangerous thing, especially when granted to women, because it gave them opportunities to act outside of the male gaze. Thus, themes of privacy and voyeurism became more prevalent as certain rooms of the house were gendered and rendered exclusive. This image of cuckoldry was conceived at a time when the traditional medieval house, consisting of one large room where all activities occurred, lost favor as a new domestic plan, with designated rooms for different activities, became more popular. Despite this assertion, the illustration depicts this scandalous interaction rather than the more realistic theories, which suggests that there may be some meaningful and interesting themes to unpack by analyzing the image. Regarding the last theory, Lucena asserts that this story as recounted by Vincent of Beauvais is not historically or factually accurate. The relevant section delves into various theories surrounding Alexander’s paternity, from a theory that Alexander was the son of Jupiter, to the above pictured theory that his father was Nectanebo. The caption underlying this image roughly translates to “Diverse opinions about Alexander’s conception and the dreams, signs, and prodigies that happen”. This source was not easily accessible at the time, further underlining Lucena’s intention of creating a reliable history of Alexander’s life. He supplemented the gaps in Rufus’s history by using other reliable sources, relying significantly on Guarino’s Latin translation of Plutarch’s Life of Alexander. Lucena intentionally used this account rather than the widely circulating medieval Alexander romances because he considered Rufus’s version to be the most historically accurate and suitable for educating a young ruler. He translated the account of Alexander at the behest of Isabella of Portugal and dedicated the book to the future duke, Charles the Bold. Lucena was a scholar and diplomat who served in the Portuguese and Burgundian courts. This particular version is Vasco da Lucena’s French translation of Quintus Curtius Rufus’s Latin text, Historiae Alexandri Magni, dating to the first century CE. The picture above is included in a book entitled the History of Alexander the Great ( Les faize d'Alexandre). As the act depicted here marks the conception of Alexander the Great, it also serves as evidence of Alexander’s extraordinary origins and suggests a potential rationale for his immense success as a warrior and ruler. The image brings into question the significance of private female spaces and adulterous queens. The audience is thus placed in the position of King Philip, able to observe the scene through a small window, but powerless to intervene. Interestingly, the dragon does not conceal or hide Olympias from the eyes of the viewer or King Philip. The dragon seems to smile triumphantly at King Philip, wrapping its arms around Olympias in a possessive manner. Nectanebo then transforms himself into a dragon, tricking Olympias into thinking that he is the prophesied god.
According to the story, Nectanebo used astrology to convince the queen that a god would appear to her in the form of a dragon and she would bear his son. Meanwhile, Olympias’s husband, King Philip, peers through a small window in the door to spy on the scene. The image above depicts the Macedonian queen Olympias in bed with the Egyptian sorcerer and exiled pharaoh, Nectanebo, disguised as a dragon.
The goal of the Dragon Prayer Book Project is to undertake a comprehensive and multidisciplinary study of the manuscript, and in doing so create the first known records of this book. “Sisters! Be sober and watch, for your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking someone he may devour!” The life of the nuns revolved around this and similar manuscripts, from which prayers were recited approximately every three hours daily.
The manuscript is suspected to have been written by and for Dominican nuns in the Convent of Saint Catherine located near the city of Nuremberg in southern Germany. The research team named it for the small illustration of a dragon on its first page of prayers. Housed in Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections, the Dragon Prayer Book is a German manuscript that was created entirely by hand toward the end of the medieval period, likely after 1461.
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