ABSTRACT
Around 1170, a talented artist created quite an extraordinary illumination showing the heavenly Jerusalem for the decoration of a manuscript of De civitate Dei that is now in Prague. At the center of the image, as expected, is Christ ruling over the universe. Equally expected in the iconography of Maiestas Domini: Christ is accompanied by the symbols of the evangelists and by angels. The illumination, like most other medieval depictions of the heavenly Jerusalem, also shows the patriarchs and various categories of saints—apostles, confessors, virgins, and, in the bottom right corner, a rather extraordinary group, described as “the righteous Bohemians.” Some scholars have identified the figures in that group as specific Bohemian saints, and others believe them to be the representatives of the Bohemian society and its various social groups. 2 At any rate, the 12th-century illumination demonstrates the close relation that Bohemians had with the saints, whom they believed to participate in the City of God.
