ABSTRACT

Allegorical images of Justice, historians of iconography tell us, 1 did not always cover the eyes of the goddess, Justitia. In its earliest Roman incarnations, preserved on the coins of Tiberius’ reign, the woman with the sword in one hand, representing the power of the state, and the scales in the other, derived from the weighing of souls in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, 2 was depicted as clear-sightedly considering the merits of the cases before her (figure 9.1). Medieval images of justice based on figures of Christ, St. Michael, or secular rulers likewise provided them with the ability to make their judgments on the basis of visual evidence (figure 9.2). Roman coins dedicated to Justice and Impartiality. Justitia's sword is not yet in place in these images, which show her with a staff instead. Upper left, dupondius of Tiberius, 22–23 <sc>a.d</sc>.; upper right, dupondius of Vespasian, 77–78 <sc>a.d</sc>.; bottom, areus of Marcus Aurelius, 168 <sc>a.d</sc>. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315024448/38857b69-8ff4-4960-a80d-6600884eb17a/content/fig9_1_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> “The Eruption of Justice in Imaginary Causes: The Trial of Satan and the Queen Ratio,” from The Book of the King Modus and of the Queen Ratio, fifteenth century. Library of the Arsenal, ms. 3080, fol. 103, xv. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315024448/38857b69-8ff4-4960-a80d-6600884eb17a/content/fig9_2_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>