‘Leva eius sub capite meo et dex[t]era illius amplesabit[ur] me.’ ‘Veni electa mea et ponam in te thronum meum.’ These words from ‘the greatest and most beautiful of all songs’, the Song of Songs, and from the Divine Office celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven, are displayed in the apse mosaic of Santa Maria in Trastevere, commissioned by Pope Innocent II, and executed between 1140 and 1143. They feature in the mosaic on a scroll held by the Virgin and in an open codex displayed by Christ to celebrate the intimacy of their divine union. The image of Christ putting his right arm around Mary's shoulders while both are seated on the same throne was chosen as the lead image for the conference entitled ‘Marriage Symbolism, Society and Cognition in the Medieval West’, held in May 2016 at the Norwegian Institute in Rome, and is featured on the cover of the present publication. The depiction of the passionate love felt by Christ (the bridegroom of the Song of Songs) for his Church (the bride, identified with the Virgin Mary) was intended by its twelfth-century commissioners to promote Roman papal authority.

What was the relationship between this kind of bridal imagery and the Christian belief in marriage as a sacrament consecrated by Christ and advocated by the Church?