The Mystic Cave

The present work is the first monographic book published in English, since 1910, on the history of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. In comparison to other Holy Land monuments, the latter underwent relatively minor alterations in the course of time: spared from the destructions that affected other holy sites, such as the Holy Sepulchre, the basilica at Bethlehem stands out for its still well preserved architecture, dating from the late 6th century, and its exuberant mosaic décors completed in 1169, in the period of Crusader rule in Palestine. This book offers a general description of the vicissitudes of the holy site since its very beginnings in Late Antiquity until the present times, with a special focus on the ways in which the complex relationship between the underground holy site, the Nativity cave housing the very spot of Christ’s birthplace and the manger, and the sumptuously decorated upper church came to be variously negotiated in the course of time by means of different forms of mise-en-scène. The book is accompanied by a rich apparatus of colour illustrations, plans, and a bibliographic annex.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter I: The Beginnings and the First Mise-en-Scène (2^nd-6^th Centuries)
  • Experiencing the Holy in a Cave
  • The Birth of Jesus’ Birthplace
  • The First Mise-en-Scène of the Holy Cave (ca. 330 – End of the Sixth Century)
  • The Church of Constantine and Helena
  • The Earliest Decoration of the Church Interior
  • The Nativity Church and its Topographic Network
• Chapter II: The Second Mise-en-Scène (6^th-11^th Centuries)
  • Destruction and Reconstruction in the Sixth Century
  • Most Noble Apses and Glittering Columns
  • The Superposition of Sacred Space and Holy Site
  • Site-Bound Religious Experience in a New Setting
  • Visual Markers in the Church Decorum
  • The Bethlehem Masjid: The New Setting of the South Transept Under Islamic Rule
  • The Myth of Bethlehem in the Latin West
  • Bethlehem Under Fatimid Rule
• Chapter III: The Third Mise-en-Scène Under Latin Rule (11^th-12^th Centuries)
  • The Crusaders in Bethlehem and the Latin Appropriation of the Holy Site
  • The First Painted Decorum
  • A Byzantine-Latin “Joint Venture”
  • Master Ephraim and his Workshop
  • The Decoration Program of the Nave
  • Mosaics in the East End
  • Embellishing the Holy Cave
• Chapter IV: Protected by God: The Nativity Church from Saladin’s Conquest to the Present Day (12^th-20^th Centuries)
  • Saladin, the Second Latin Rule (1229 –1244), and a New Phase of Pilgrimage
  • Expanding the Topographic Network (Late Thirteenth to Early Sixteenth Centuries)
  • From the Mamlukes to the Ottomans
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index