Since in the West the wives of rulers started to be formally crowned as queens and empresses, their status required a religious explanation and basis. It would seem that the obvious model was the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven, and students of the topic tend to stress this parallel. A careful examination of sources, however, shows that this connection may sometimes be overestimated. My paper analyzes three early medieval iconographical sources, claimed to be good examples of the ideological bond between terrestrial and heavenly queen. The first two are illustrations of particular consorts: Richildis, wife of Charles the Bald, in the Bible of San Paolo Fuori le Mura and Emma-Æelfgifu, wife of Cnut, in New Minster Liber vitae. Both women wear veils, associated by Dominique Iogna-Prat and Patrick Corbet with virginity and the Virgin. However, the wider context of the miniatures contradicts such an explanation, as a veil was not only a common part of female attire, but could also bear many different meanings. The third example is the imagine of Mary-Ecclesia in the Sacramentary of Petershausen; the female, queenly figure wears, as suggested by Anton von Euw, Byzantine imperial costume, inspired by the attire of the contemporary consort, Theophanu. In fact, an examination of the dress typical for the Byzantine empresses of the period reveals that it was very unlike those from the image, giving therefore no basis to associate the last with any particular female ruler. These examples show that we should be very careful of easily linking Mary with queenship ideology.

Traditionally women are valued for their ability to bear children and often regarded as mere vessels for reproduction. This patriarchal view of women is notably encountered in the portrayal of the Virgin Mary, who throughout history has been regarded as a "vessel" for God's message and therefore portrayed as a perpetual virgin, shrouded in servanthood and suffering. The aim of this article is to distinguish Mary from this tradition and the way the early church perpetuated the patriarchal custom of equating womanhood with motherhood. Instead, an exploration of Mary as occupying a leadership role is offered. This exploration will take place by way of a consideration of early Christian art that depicts Mary as a figurehead of the early church-which indicates that this depiction predates Mary's assigned role as pious mother and the "vessel" of God. Ultimately, this contribution critiques the manner in which womanhood and motherhood are equated with one another and highlights the embeddedness of patriarchal influences in Christianity's traditions.

As its main scope, this reprint investigates some of the many ways in which Christianity venerated and performed the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Our motivations for writing this scientific work derive from the conviction that there is still much to rigorously document the various issues related to the Virgin Mary in the period under study. We believe that this book is a good response to this motivation. The reprint is especially addressed to scholars and researchers in religious issues, Christianity, Marian studies, medieval and Renaissance art and culture, as well as to everyone interested in the development of the societies and cultures of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The reprint, written by fifteen researchers in various areas of the Arts and Humanities, consists of two parts. In the first one, “Medieval and Renaissance Marian Iconography”, seven papers deal with several iconographic manifestations by which Christians made their devotion to Mary visible in pictorial or sculptural forms. The second part, “Medieval and Renaissance Marian Devotion”, six papers analyze some ways through which Christians rendered worship and devotion to the Virgin Mary during this long period. We take the opportunity to sincerely thank the managers and technicians of the Editorial Office of Religions for their valuable help in the difficult task of improving the content and form of each paper incorporated in this reprint.

The essays presented in this volume address the question posed about the role of women throughout the history of the Church: which female figures had the opportunity, and under what circumstances, to express themselves and act freely, thereby exerting their influence in the family, social, spiritual, political, or cultural spheres, but above all, in the ecclesiastical realm. It explores the resources available for their education and training aimed at developing the functions to which they had access. The result is a broad historiographical panorama, characterized by a unique profile, due both to its extensive range - covering almost two thousand years of Church history - and to its openness to less-explored geopolitical contexts. Stimulating reflections on lesser-known figures and events that challenge established historiographical paradigms are not lacking. One of the most important aspects of the volume is its interdisciplinary nature; within the book, we find research conducted by specialists from various fields: history, biography, archaeology, patristics, and archival studies. A strong aspect of the book lies in the authors’ efforts to measure the gap between an often negative and limiting paradigm of women’s roles and their actual condition in a world that, in any case, was imbued with Christian values.

The iconography of Mary bearing the crown and vestments of a Byzantine empress has long been associated with the arts of the city of Rome, where the overwhelming majority of early examples survive. From the eighth century onwards, this theme was exploited by the popes to reinforce their claims to independence from secular authority. But did they invent it? This paper supports the view that the iconography was initially developed at the imperial court in Constantinople in the first half of the sixth century, and that it first appeared in Rome in an “imperial” as opposed to “papal” context.