ivory and ivories 391Further reading: John Lister Illingworth Fennell,
Ivan the Great of Moscow(London: Macmillan, 1961); Ian
Grey, Ivan III and the Unification of Russia (London:
English Universities Press, 1964).
Ivo of Chartres, Saint(Yvo, Yves, Carnotensis) (ca.
1040–1115)French canonist, bishop, theologian
Ivo was born in about 1040 in northwestern France, most
likely at Chartres. He studied at the monastery of Bec in
Normandy under LANFRANC, and later at Paris. Early on,
he obtained a benefice in the church of Nesle in Picardy,
and in about 1078, he became prior of regular canons at
the church of Saint-Quentin in Beauvais. Elected bishop
of Chartres in 1090, he had to be consecrated by Pope
URBANII at Capua late that year. He was soon in conflict
with the local lords and had to be supported by King
Philip I (r. 1059–1108). But the king’s divorce and his
adulterous and bigamous marriage had to be denounced
by Ivo in 1092; from then on, their relations were not
friendly. However, in 1104 Yvo assisted in finding a solu-
tion to the king’s matrimonial difficulties with his exper-
tise in canon law. He died on December 23, 1115, and
was quickly venerated at Chartres as a saint.
His reputation was, and has remained, based on his
three important pre-Gratian canonical collections. The
first was the Decretumfrom probably about 1094/5, a sys-
tematic study and compilation of canon or ecclesiastical
law as it stood in his day. His second great work, the
Panormia,was the most important; it was a smaller and
more systematic manual for judges that allowed them to
find texts for their decisions or opinions in clear cases
more easily. The third, done between 1093 and 1095, was
the Tripartita,which contained papal decretals, conciliar
texts, and a short version of his Decretum.
Further reading:Georges Duby, The Knight, the Lady
and the Priest,trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Pantheon,
1983); Richard W. Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the
Unification of Europe,Vol. 1, Foundations(Oxford: Black-
well, 1995).
ivory and ivories An ivory was made by working
on the dentin on teeth to form a sculpture. During the
Middle Ages it was a major medium of artistic creation.
Artists copied the material, the techniques, the types of
objects made, and the stylistic models of the ancient world.
The preferred material was the elephant’s tusk, either
from lesser-quality tusks from India in the early Middle
Ages or from the preferred tusks of African elephants in
the later Middle Ages, after trade with that region became
more developed. Artists often had to find substitutes for
it and turned to the tusks of walruses, or to deer antlers.
Their use was constrained by the curve and thinness of
irregular animal tusks. Exploiting the natural translu-
cence and whiteness of the material, artists sometimes
added gilding or polychrome.
In Byzantium artists in the early Middle Ages
followed antique classical styles. By the 10th and 11th
centuries they were producing numerous delicate and
small plaques and triptychs for religious use and decora-
tive caskets for secular buyers or patrons in several
specific workshops. In the West in the time of the
barbarian kingdoms ivory work was scarce. However,
during the eras of the Carolingian and Ottonian
Empires, old traditions revived to produce beautiful
workmanship for the ornamental bindings of deluxe
liturgical books in particular.
In the ROMANESQUEera, artists were carving crosses
and reliquaries but also secular chessmen or counters for
various GAMES. By the 13th and 14th centuries there were
centers of innovation and production in the Rhineland,
England, Italy, and especially Paris. These artists created
statuettes and groups of figures as well as bas-relief dipty-
chs and triptychs, mirror backs, writing tablets, and cas-
kets involving secular and classical images. Parisian
ascendancy declined from the 1400s because of competi-
tion from Italian pieces. Having begun their ivory pro-
duction with large and impressive ALTARPIECES, both had
begun to specialize in almost mass-produced secular and
decorative objects.
See alsoGREENLAND.
Further reading: Robert P. Bergman, The Salerno
Ivories: Ans Sacro from Arnsefi(Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1580); Benjamin Burack, Ivory and
Its Uses(Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1984); Anthony Cutler, The
Hand of the Master: Craftsmanship, Ivory, and Society in
Byzantium (9th–11th Centuries)(Princeton, N.J.: Prince-
ton University Press, 1994).