ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways, verbal and visual, in which early medieval art conveyed meaning. Early medieval images could be books of the illiterate, but they could be much more as well. Art historians studying an illuminated manuscript try to understand the relationship of the book's text to its images. Pictures and texts are alike in that both can tell stories and one of the most common types of early medieval art was narrative. The miniature depicts how, in the late fourth century, St. Jerome translated the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into Latin. It narrates pictorially the story of how the Word came to be. For Christians, the written word of the Old Testament Law is insufficient; indeed, it leads to death, whereas the spirit gives life. Although Christians believe in the unity of the Bible, they also believe in the superiority of the New Testament and law to the Old.
