The concept of opposing forces of good and evil expressed in a broad range of moral qualities-virtues and vices-is one of the most dominant themes in the history of Christian art. The complex interrelationship of these moral traits received considerable study in the medieval period, resulting in a vast and elaborate system of imagery that has been largely neglected by modern scholarship. Rich resources for the study of this important subject are made available by this volume, which publishes the complete holdings of 227 personifications of virtue and vice in the Index of Christian Art's text files. Ranging from Abstinance to Wisdom and from Ambition to Wrath, and covering depictions of the Tree of Virtues, the Tree of Vices, and the Conflict of Virtues and Vices, this is the largest and most comprehensive collection of such personifications in existence. The catalogue documents the occurance of these Virtues and Vices in nearly a thousand works of art produced between the fifth and the fifteenth century. The entries include object sin twelve different media and give detailed informatin on their current location, date, and subject. This extract, the first to be published, is accompanied by six essays that investigate topics such as didactic function of the bestiaries and the Physiologus, female personifications in the Psychomachia of Prudentius, the Virtues in the Floreffe Bible frontpiece, and good and evil in the architectural sculpture of German sacramentary houses. Colum Hourihane is Director of the Index of Christian Art, Princeton University.
