Decachordum (Vat.lat.1125)

Published in 1507 by Marco Vigerio della Rovere, a cousin of the pope (detail, manuscript, spatial) and a Franciscan, whom Julius II elevated to the station of cardinal. This didactic text extends the metaphor of a lyre (detail, spatial), the instrument of the Psalms, to the structure and organization of its arguments; its topics range from the life, Passion, and Mysteries of Christ (detail, manuscript, spatial) and the Holy Family, to the nature of angels (detail, manuscript, spatial) and other theological themes. The ten chords that characterize Vigerio's thesis are conceived as the strings of Christian harmony. Vigerio is sometimes thought to have served as one of the Stanza's key intellectual advisors (Hartt suggested that Bonaventure (detail, spatial) in the Disputa (spatial) is modeled after his likeness), but the influence of his text is scarcely considered in the context of Raphael's frescoes. Indeed, the manuscript, which is mostly unstudied, is often described as a work of art in its own right. It is splendidly illuminated, with rich miniatures opening each of its ten books.

Fol. Ir
The text of the First Book begins by citing Socrates, Plato (detail, manuscript, spatial), and Aristotle (detail, manuscript, spatial). As he introduces the mysteries of the faith (particularly relating to the Annunciation), Vigerio explains that even the ancient philosophers, who grasped what is possible to know, could not have comprehended these sublime and ineffable examples. Vigerio continues to describe how all ranks of creation, including every immutable variety of being, are connected and revolve mutually in turn,attributing the number, measure, and form of the universe to the Son of God (detail, manuscript, spatial) as the architect of the world.

This epistemological landscape echoes the relationship of Philosophy (detail, spatial) and Theology (detail, spatial) in the Stanza. Knowledge, whose history begins in Philosophy, culminates in the Mystery of the Transubstantiation illustrated in Theology, similar to their relationship as described in the opening pages of Vigerio's text. Notably, against this backdrop, god appears in the painting against the golden firmament of heaven wearing the geometer's cap and holding the orb of the world. Also significant is the strong architectural metaphor that characterizes the fresco: the marble block at the right of the fresco, as well as the spiritual landscape of Raphael's fictive apse, which is formed from the bodies of the gathered theologians.

Similar Neoplatonic themes are seen on fol. VIIIr, where Vigerio compares the divine to a series of spheres, the highest of which consists of pure intellect, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere, whose light illuminates all things. Likewise, the spiritual geography of Raphael's composition is defined by a hierarchy of spheres along its vertical axis, embodying a similar cosmic order: the uppermost sphere, the golden vault of heaven, is occupied only by the figure of God, who holds a celestial globe and wears a geometer's cap. Below him, the mandorla of the sun encircles the figures of Christ, as a circular burst encompasses the dove of the Holy Spirit, mediating between natural and divine. And, finally, on the altar in our earthly plane, the wafer of the Eucharist is girded by the glittering gold of the circular monstrance.” (See pp. 80-81, “Raphael’s Art of Commentary and the Library of Julius II” on this example).

Fol. IIr - IIIv
On the ranks of angels (De angelis in genere (detail, manuscript, spatial))

This important section in the First Book follows the basic structure described by Pseudo-Dionysius, but attending in particular to the distinction of ranks and titles (although Vigerio is not so specific in naming, for example, their individual classes). This general celestial hierarchy, which describes ascending ranks of intellect and desire, is organized according to each rank’s physical and finite form, suggesting perfection in immateriality. These distinctions run parallel to the sensitive materialities that characterize the angels in the Disputa: at the highest level, for example, seraphic bodies dissolve (detail, spatial) into golden planes of light, whereas on the cloudbank below (where the Judeo-Christian Fathers are seated), the faces of putti (detail, spatial) emerge from the misty vapor as fleshy forms. (On the “cloud putto” in general, see Kleinbub)

Folio CXXr-CXXIr
On the power of the body of Christ in the sacrament of the altar (“De p[ote]ntia corporis Chr[ist]I in sacram[en]to altaris”)

At the start of the chapter, Vigerio compares the body of Christ to “the light of a single star that shines in many places” – a characterization that is underscored throughout the passage. Stressing the circumstance of the bread, as it becomes the flesh and blood of Christ, Vigerio describes the Mystery of the Transubstantiation using metaphors of light. Christ and his sacrifice are compared a lantern, which “illuminates the whole of the earth throughout the universe.” The relationship of the Eucharist to light echoes Raphael’s composition, whose theme is the Sacrament of the Altar (detail, spatial). Here God appears against the golden firmament (detail, spatial) of heaven and Christ is encircled by the mandorla of the sun (detail, manuscript, spatial). Further, the Disputa is the only fresco in the Stanza to use the technique of pastiglia, or wax leafed with gold (detail, spatial), evoking the qualities of light and illumination that characterize Vigerio’s text. Finally, the light in Raphael’s fresco illuminates the composition, shining down on an assembled world of priests, pontiffs, and theologians.

Further Reading
Tracy Cosgriff, “The Library of Julius II and Raphael’s Art of Commentary,” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 22.1 (2019): 59-91.
Frederick Hartt, “Lignum Vitae in Medio Paradisi: The Stanza d’Eliodoro and the Sistine Ceiling,” Art Bulletin 32.2 (1950): 115-145.
Christian Kleinbub, “At the Boundaries of Sight: The Italian Renaissance Cloud Putto.” In Renaissance Theories of Vision, ed. John Hendrix and Charles Carman, 117-133. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.