Trees of Jesse flourished in the early twelfth century as a motif to illustrate the beginning of the New Testament (Matthew 1), tracing Jesus' descent from King David and 'Jesse's Seed'. This is one of a whole host of visual motifs which proliferated in the Romanesque era to decorate churches, manuscripts, tombs, and educate even the non-literate in the stories and patterns of Bible lore.

	Tree of Jesse window at Canterbury (ca. 1220).
	Tree of Jesse at Chartres, nave (ca. 1150).
	Genealogy of Christ as fishing line: Herrad of Hohenburg, Hortus Deliciarum (bef. 1195: sketch copy).
	Tree of Jesse: painted cieling, nave of St. Michael's, Hildesheim (2d quarter, 13th century; restored, 19th century).
	Tree of Jesse: painted cieling, nave of St. Michael's, Hildesheim (2d quarter, 13th century; restored, 19th century).
	Tree of Jesse: painted cieling, nave of St. Michael's, Hildesheim (2d quarter, 13th century; restored, 19th century).
	The Ingeborg Psalter (ca. 1200: Chantilly, Musˇe Condˇ).
	Tree of Jesse, Bible, French, later s. XII (Paris, BNF, MS Lat. 16746, f. 7v).
	Lambeth Bible: Jesse Tree, mid. s. XII. Lambeth Library, MS 3, f. 98.
	Tree of Jesse tomb slab, Lincoln Cathedral: ca. 1148.
	Tree of Jesse, later s. XII. Hrabanus Maurus, De laudibus sancte crucis. Douai, Bib. Municip., MS 340, f. 11.
	Peter of Poitiers, Compendium of Biblical History (Scroll), ca. 1210 (Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana Cod. 489).
	Tree of Jesse (on right), Saint-Denis: by 1143 (restored s. 19)
	Tree of Jesse with all ancestors in trunk: Herrad of Hohenburg, Hortus Deliciarum (before 1195; colored sketch).