536 Orcagna, Andrea di Cione Arcagnolo
Further reading:John Peckham, John Pecham and the
Science of Optics: Perspectiva communis,ed. and trans.
David C. Lindberg (Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, 1970); David C. Lindberg, Studies in the History of
Medieval Optics(London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).
Orcagna, Andrea di Cione Arcagnolo(ca. 1308/15–
ca. 1368)Florentine painter, sculptor, architect
Andrea studied in FLORENCEand was first mentioned in
1343, when he was admitted to the guild of PAINTERS.He
was admitted to the guild of the stonemasons in 1352.
Having won fame for his work at the Strozzi Chapel
(1354–57), in Santa Maria Novella in Florence where he
painted an altarpiece, he was commissioned in 1357 as
the architect of the Cathedral of Florence, where he
worked until 1367. His principal accomplishment was a
tabernacle with a relief of the DEATHand ASSUMPTIONof
the Virgin MARY in Orsanmichele in Florence. In the
meantime, he also planned the rebuilding of the Orvieto
Cathedral. His brothers, Nardo (active 1343–66) and
Jacopo (active 1365–98), were among the most influen-
tial painters in Florence in the second half of the 14th
century. Andrea died about 1368.
See alsoFRESCO PAINTING; PAINTING.
Further reading:Gert Kreytenberg, Orcagna’s Taber-
nacle in Orsanmichele, Florence(New York: H. N. Abrams,
1994); Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena after
the Black Death: The Arts, Religion and Society in the Mid-
Fourteenth Century(1951; reprint, New York: Harper &
Row, 1964).
ordeals Ordeals were supposed to be judgments of
GODthat allowed judges to decide the guilt or innocence
of an accused according to the person’s physical behavior.
They were thought to give judicial proof. This often
meant holding in hand or walking over fire or plunging a
hand into boiling water or cold water. It was not rational,
in our terms, but could make sense to minds expecting
GODto be active in this world. Of Frankish origin and
mentioned in the first Salic law, the ordeal was widely
deployed from the sixth century in Gaul and was gradu-
ally adopted throughout much of Europe.
This irrational procedure has long been unfavorably
compared with the rational spirit of Roman LAW. It was
applied most often in murky and undecided cases, crimes
without witnesses or with conflicting evidence, or cases
recognizably susceptible to supernatural or divine inter-
vention. It was a dramatized way to address the uncer-
tainty of judges. Religious rituals and FASTINGpreceded
its application, giving those involved time to weigh the
possible results of such a procedure and to move to con-
clude an agreement to preclude it, which was always
preferable to a condemnation. Because interpreting the
results was not necessarily easy, a majority of those tried
were acquitted. After growing opposition to the ordeal,
there was a general suppression after the Fourth Lateran
Council of 1215.
An offer to submit to an ordeal allowed an accused to
demonstrate good faith. In reality there was little need to
push the procedure further. It was used in 1083 by Pope
GREGORYVII in his conflict with the emperor Henry IV
(r. 1050–1106). In that case the result did not favor the
PAPACY, and Gregory had to resort to other means to try
to win the INVESTITURECONTROVERSY. Legal progress and
the rediscovery of Roman law prompted the suppression
of the ordeal in the first half of the 13th century.
See also HENRY II, KING OF ENGLAND;HUGUCCIO;
OATHS.
Further reading:Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and
Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal(Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1986); Ralph J. Hexter, Equivocal Oaths and
Ordeals in Medieval Literature(Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1975).Orderic Vitalis(Odericus)(1075–ca. 1142)Benedic-
tine monk, historian
Orderic was born on February 16, 1075 at Atcham in
Shropshire in England and educated at Shrewsbury. His
father, Ordelerius, was a priest from Orléans who had fol-
lowed a Norman knight with WILLIAMI the CONQUEROR
to ENGLANDat the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Though a cleric, he had three sons by an anonymous
Englishwoman.
Orderic, after receiving some rudiments of Old
English, was sent by his father in 1085 to the Norman
monastery of Saint-Évroult in the diocese of Lisieux. He
became a monk there and copied manuscripts from
which he learned some history. He received the name
Vitalis and studied LATINand grammar. He probably took
his monastic vows in 1090; he became subdeacon in
1091, deacon in 1093, and priest in 1108. He journeyed
to NORMANDY, England, FRANCE, the abbey of CLUNY, and
Cambrai. There he gathered all kinds of information from
the LAITYand the CLERGY. This information formed the
basis of his writing.WORKS
From 1114 at the latest and at the request of an abbot,
Orderic started to write his Ecclesiastical History,which
he finished in 1141 near his DEATH. The history was orga-
nized into 13 books. Books I and II were a chronological
history from the birth of Christ. Books III, IV, V, and VI
were a history of the monastery of Saint-Évroult; the oth-
ers cover the deeds of the Normans to 1083. His history
was a lively and detailed picture of the Anglo-Norman
world of the second half of the 11th century and the first
third of the 12th. Using dramatic dialogues, he presented
individual portraits of members of lay and ecclesiastical