36 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
sentation
of Bacchus seated in a car drawn by Centaurs; the other leaf depicts
Diana in a chariot drawn by two bulls. The manuscript enclosed by these
covers is an example of the so-called "Office of Fools," a
semi-travesty of a religious service, tolerated by the Catholic Church
on the Feast of the Circumcision, which falls on New Year's Day.
Doubtless the pagan designs were expressly chosen as covers for this
popular ritual, one of the concessions made by the Church, perhaps not
unwisely, to the fondness of the common people for a frolic on the
first day of a new year, although such an observance would be regarded
today, when the religious and secular aspects of life are so sharply
distinguished, as a profanation of holy things.
The
great Christian church of Santa Sophia, turned into a Mohammedan mosque
since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, was enriched with six ivory
doors especially commanded for its embellishment by its founder,
Emperor Justinian. An old record says that the ivory was elaborately
sculptured and the effect enhanced by gold ornaments.* As there can be
no doubt that the ivory panels adorned with figured representations of
religious subjects were quickly removed and almost certainly destroyed
by the Mohammedan conquerors, there is little reason for surprise that
no trace of them remains. Perhaps the present year is destined to be
noted in future history as that in which this wonderful historic
monument, the peerless Santa Sophia, shall have been restored to
Christian worship.
There
is evidence that work in ivory was extensively done in the early
Christian centuries, for among other artists or artisans granted
especial exemption by law from certain municipal obligations are noted
"the ivory workers (eborarii) who make seats, beds, etc., of ivory."
*See Ridulfus de Diceto, in Stubbs's "Rerum Brittanicarum scriptores," Vol. 71, Pt. l,p.93.
