The Salerno Ivories: Objects, Histories, Contexts

The so-called Salerno ivories comprise more than sixty carved plaques datable between eleventh and the twelfth centuries, combining Islamic, Byzantine, Coptic, and western Christian features. They present superb craftsmanship and display numerous biblical scenes as well as portraits of saints and magnificent decorative ornaments. In medieval times as today constituing one of the most precious and impressive treasures of the Cathedral of Salerno, they have attracted the attention of many historians and art historians, who have tried to contextualize the ivories in the medieval history of Salerno, southern Italy, and the Mediterranean. Yet they remain enigmatic, as do the many questions concerning their date, place of production, patronage, function, and possible audience. Accompanied by new photographs produced in a campaign sponsored by the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut, which for the first time presents the ivorie’s backs and oblique views as well as the reliefs, the volume brings together articles written by scholars with different backgrounds and perspectives on medieval art. It presents the Salerno ivories in an interdisciplinary approach and sheds new light on their important position as mirroring the visual culture of the Mediterranean at the age of intense commercialism and cultural exchange.