Welcome!

This site invites you to explore the rich artistic tradition surrounding the Fall of Man, with a focus on the Tree of Knowledge and the forbidden fruit. This is a companion website to my book Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple, which examines how the forbidden fruit came to be identified as an apple. Since the Book of Genesis speaks only of a “fruit,” one of the questions Temptation Transformed must answer is where and when the forbidden fruit first appears as an apple. To that end, the book surveys artistic depictions of the forbidden fruit in Western art, from the fourth-century catacombs beneath Rome to the Renaissance—nearly six-hundred images in all. Of course, only a small fraction could be incorporated into the book, so I decided to make the entire image database publicly available online.

Special thanks to the individuals and institutions who made these images accessible, and to Carissa Tsien, who designed and created this website.

Enjoy!

Azzan Yadin-Israel
Professor, Rutgers University

All Images
All Images
573 photos
Browse by Map Appendices
Browse by Map Appendices
540 photos, 549 photos in 5 sub-albums
Browse by Medium
Browse by Medium
497 photos in 18 sub-albums
Browse by Fruit
Browse by Fruit
552 photos in 6 sub-albums
Browse by Location
Browse by Location
547 photos in 14 sub-albums
All Images
Browse by Keyword

Copyright Statement

This website would not exist without the generosity of many individuals and institutions. Many leading libraries and museums have placed their uncopyrighted images in the public domain. Every effort has been made to respect copyright protection. If any image on the website is copyrighted, please contact me and I will remove it.

Principal databases and websites used in collecting the iconographic material:

  1. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: https://www.bsb-muenchen.de/sammlungen/handschriften/
  2. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: https://digi.vatlib.it/
  3. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Mandragore search engine: http://mandragore.bnf.fr/jsp/rechercheExperte.jsp
  4. Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux (BVMM): https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/
  5. Biblissima: https://portail.biblissima.fr/en
  6. Bodleian Digital Collections: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/western-medieval-manuscripts/
  7. British Library Digitised Manuscripts: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/
  8. Cambridge University Digital Library: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
  9. Chester Beatty Library: https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/index/
  10. Compostela: The Joining of Heaven and Earth: https://compostela.co.uk/
  11. Corpus Vitrearum (Germany): https://corpusvitrearum.de/
  12. Corpus Vitrearum (Great Britian): https://www.cvma.ac.uk/
  13. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut: https://www.dainst.org/en/dai/meldungen
  14. Digital Scriptorium: https://digital-scriptorium.org/
  15. E-codices: Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland: https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en
  16. Fitzwilliam Museum: https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/about-us/collections/illuminated-manuscripts
  17. Free Library of Philadelphia: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/
  18. Harvard Houghton Library: https://library.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton
  19. Huntington Library: https://hdl.huntington.org/
  20. 30 Illustrated Bartsch: https://www.artstor.org/collection/illustrated-bartsch/
  21. Index of Medieval Art: https://theindex.princeton.edu/
  22. Initiale: Catalogue de manuscrits enluminés du Moyen ge: http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/
  23. J. Paul Getty Museum: http://www.getty.edu/art/manuscripts/
  24. Koninklijke Bibliotheek: https://manuscripts.kb.nl/
  25. Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België: https://www.kbr.be/en/collections/manuscripts/
  26. Morgan Library and Museum: http://ica.themorgan.org/
  27. New York Public Library Digital Collections: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
  28. Online Stained-Glass Photographic Archive: https://therosewindow.com/pilot/index.htm
  29. Pontificia commissione di archeologia sacra: http://www.archeologiasacra.net/pcas-web/
  30. Städel Museum: https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/en
  31. Stan Parry Photography: www.stanparryphotography.com
  32. Walters Library Digital Collection: https://art.thewalters.org/browse/category/manuscripts-and-rare-books/
  33. Warburg Institute Iconographic Database: https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/main_page.php
  34. Württembergische Landesbibliothek: https://digital.wlb-stuttgart.de/start
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