XIV 



THE LILY OF THE ANNUNCIATION 



There is one incident in the life of the Virgin 

 Mary which is particularly associated with 

 lilies. It is the Annunciation. 



The Annunciation was not often depicted 

 before the twelfth century, though there are 

 instances of it on some early ivories, on a sar- 

 cophagus at Ravenna of the fifth century, in 

 the famous sixth - century Syrian MS. of the 

 Laurentian Library,' and among the mosaics 

 of Santa Maria Maggiore.^ During the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries, while the veneration 

 of the Virgin within the Catholic Church steadily 

 grew greater, the story of her life, as apart from 

 that of her Divine Son, appeared in sculpture 

 and stained glass, but still the Annunciation 

 was a comparatively rare subject and simply 

 treated. Early in the fourteenth century, 

 however, a whole flight of announcing angels 



' Florence. * Rome. 



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