Getty Museum

Numa Pompilius; Zodiacal Sign of Aquarius

Date

probably 1170s

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, silver leaf, and ink

Culture

German

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

The page for the month of February in the Stammheim Missal features a bust of Numa Pompilius, one of the kings who ruled Rome around 700 B.C. before the founding of the Roman Republic. Numa may appear on the calendar because he was credited (inaccurately) with the formulation of the religious calendar and the founding of some of Rome's other early religious institutions, including the Vestal Virgins and the cults of Mars, Jupiter, and the deified Romulus. The sophistication of references to antique culture in the Stammheim Missal suggests that the abbey of Hildesheim enjoyed an unusually classicizing intellectual climate. In the middle of the page is the month's zodiacal constellation, Aquarius.

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