• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe: Ukraine & Russia
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Category Archives: Medieval Bestiary

Mostly Misericords: the Medieval Bestiary

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Beast Literature, Liturgy, Medieval Bestiary

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

"Mercy Seats", Benedict of Nursia, Benedictine Monasticism, Byzantine Rite, Cenobite Monks, Erimitic Monks, Gargoyles, Gothic, grotesque, Hendrick Vanden Abeele, Kathisma, Misericord, Psallentes

Stalles Église Saint-Pierre de Coutances
Choir Stalls at Saint-Pierre Church in Coutances
Stalles de choeur en l’église de Saint-Pierre de Coutances (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
Beverley_st_mary_25

Choir Stall with a Misericord Beverley Minster, Church of St John, Yorkshire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gargoyles

anthropomorphic: humans in disguise or the lion is a king
zoomorphic: fantastical creatures blending the features of many animals or combining animal and human characteristic (anthropomorphic, allegorical)
allegories (allegorically)
 

If you have seen gargoyles, you are already acquainted with the grotesque (from the Latin: grotto [caves]). Gargoyles (gargouilles) are ingenious drain spouts, or water spouts, built in the shape of grotesque animals. They prevented and still prevent the erosion of exterior walls. Most gargoyles are zoomorphic.

Zoomorphism

Centaurs and the Minotaur
Gargoyles
the Mermaid
the Unicorn
 

Zoomorphic beings combine the features of several animals, which is the case with the gargoyle shown below. However, they may also combine the features of an animal and those of a human being. In Greek mythology, the Centaur and the Minotaur are both man and beast, as are biblical angels. (See RELATED ARTICLES.)

Anthropomorphism

Reynard the Fox
Isengrim the wolf
Bruin the bear
stereotypes
 

Anthropomorphic animals are humans in disguise. For instance, Reynard the fox and Isengrim the wolf are anthropomorphic animals. They are not zoomorphic animals because they look like a real fox and a real wolf. However, the foxes and wolves of literature and art are all alike in temperament, by “universal popular consent” (George Fyler Townsend). They are stereotypes or archetypes. (See RELATED ARTICLES.)

Zoomorphic & Anthropomorphic

You may find books, articles and internet sites that challenge the above classification, i.e. anthropomorphic versus zoomorphic. My classification is based primarily on the physical attributes of an animal in literature or art. If the animal combines the features of various animals or is both beast and man, that animal is first and foremost zoomorphic. Other considerations are secondary.

Allegorical and Symbolic

As for the denizens of the Medieval Bestiary, the majority, if not all, are allegorical animals, or metaphors. They represent a human attribute, such as a virtue, or a vice, which, strictly speaking, does not make these animals anthropomorphic, or humans in disguise. They are symbols. For instance, the mermaid is the symbol of vanity

Gargoyle, Autun, France

Gargoyle, Autun (Photo credit: The Rusty Dagger, BlogSpot)

The Amphisbaena
The Amphisbaena
A Dragon
A Dragon
Doves
Doves
A Dragon
A Dragon
  • The amphisbaena, with the small head seeming to threaten the large one. Misericord; Limerick Cathedral (St. Mary’s), Limerick, Ireland; late 15th century.
  • A dragon with four legs and bat wings. Misericord; Cartmel Priory, Cartmel, England; late 14th century.
  • Two doves biting at foliage. Misericord (number 30); Exeter Cathedral, Exeter, England; third quarter of 13th century.
  • A dragon fights with a lion, while two other dragons watch. This combination is unusual, though the meaning is clear: the lion is Christ, the dragon is Satan, and the lion is winning the fight.  Misericord; Carlisle Cathedral, Carlisle, England; early 15th century.[1 & 2]
Misericord (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Misericord (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Miséricordes

monasticism
the choir stalls
the Canonical Hours
sitting while standing
kathisma, in the Byzantine rite
 

As for Misericords (from miséricorde [mercy]), they are ornamented “mercy seats,” narrow wooden seats that fold up when they are not in use. Consequently, the carvings are underneath the seat and hidden when the seat is folded down. It seems they were first used as choir stalls in the quire, by monks living in monasteries and observing the Canonical Hours. Monks who lived in a monastery were called Cenobites. Several monks were recluses and were called eremitical. Others live in a small group.

The Benedictine order, or confederation, is 1,500 years old. It was founded by Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 – 543 or 547). Benedictines have therefore sung the eight Canonical Hours, Christian horae, for centuries, which meant standing up for a long time in choir stalls, hence our “misericords,” or mercy seats.

Some monks could survive the ordeal, but many couldn’t. A way of sitting while standing was therefore devised, much to the benefit of church architecture and art. (See Misericord, Wikipedia.) In the Byzantine rite, Eastern monasticism, a misericord is called a kathisma, literally a seat, but it is not as ornate as misericords. In the Western Church, cathedra also means a seat. Cathedrals are the seat of a bishop. Interestingly, Eastern monasticism precedes Western monasticism.

In Western monasticism, monks have used Gregorian chant, a plainchant (unison), as opposed to polyphonic compositions. Gregorian music was developed by Saint Ambrose (c. 340 – 4 April 397) and, to a larger extent, by Saint Gregory or Pope Gregory I (c. 540 – 12 March 604).

Benedict of Nursia wrote the Rule of Benedict, a text which many consider foundational to monasticism in general. The Rule of Benedict is observed by other monastic orders as is the Rule of St. Augustine, written by Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430).

I saw several misericords at Beverley Minster, in the Yorkshire. Ironically, Beverley Minster is the church where a large number of my husband’s ancestors have been laid to rest. I also saw several misericords in the “cathedral” at Coutances, in lower Normandy, where we lived for nearly a year. Many of Beverley Minster’s misericords are sexually explicit and some, quite repulsive. One does not expect to see such carvings in a church or a cathedral.

Les Andelys Église Notre-Dame

The Mermaid, a symbol of vanity, Église Notre-Dame, Les Andelys, Eure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

800px-Aosta_Sant_Orso_Stalli_07

Camel (?) Sant’ Orso, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reynard the Fox

Misericords often featured animals from Le Roman de Renart (Reynard the Fox). I have seen pictures of these, but Reynard misericords and misericords on fox lore require their own post.[3]

A Revival of the Grotesque & the Gothic

Both gargoyles and misericords, gargoyles mainly, are architectural and functional elements, but ornamented. They do, however, revisit our standard or “classical” view of beauty. There was a revival of the grotesque in 19th-century France and elsewhere. Romanticism was, to a large extent, a rejection of the classicism of the 17th and 18th centuries, considered a foreign element.

The grotesque and the Gothic (fiction, architecture, and the Gothic revival) are related to one another. Victor Hugo‘s 1831 Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) is one of the foremost literary examples of this blend. Notre-Dame de Paris will be discussed in a future post.

St. Benedict delivering his rule

St. Benedict delivering his rule to the monks of his order, Monastery of St. Gilles, Nîmes, France, 1129 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

Misericords were used from the 13th century to the 17th century, but the later ones, those carved in the 17th century, were often copies of earlier misericords. Elaine C. Block writes that:

“[a]t the dawn of the Renaissance, tens of thousands of medieval misericord carvings must have existed. Since then only about ten thousand historiated carvings remain.”[4]

Many were destroyed with the rise of Protestantism and through acts of vandalism. There are modern misericords, but they are not included in G. L. Remnant‘s 1969 catalogue, reissued in 1998.[5] 

They are a collector’s item and most are beautifully carved. The Coutances choir stalls, shown at the top of this page, also feature the endless knot motif, a characteristic of Celtic art.

With my kindest greetings to all of you.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • The Fox, by “Universal Popular Consent” (25 September 2014)
  • Anthropomorphism and Zoomorphism (25 August 2013)
  • Canonical Hours or the Divine Office (18 November 2011)

Sources

  • Wood Carvings in English Churches [EBook #43530]
  • Notre-Dame de Paris is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #2610] EN
  • Notre-Dame de Paris is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #19657] FR
  • Rule of Saint Benedict (oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2202) (EN)
  • La Règle de Saint Benoît (FR)
  • La Regla de San Benito (SP)

____________________

[1] Francis Bond, Wood Carvings in English Churches (Oxford University Press, 1910). [EBook #43530]

[2] David Badke, The Medieval Bestiary (Caption and Photo credit)

[3] Elaine C. Block and Kennett Varty, “Choir-Stall Carvings of Reynard and other Foxes” in Kenneth Varty, ed. Reynard the Fox: Social Engagement and Cultural Metamorphoses in the Beast Epic from the Middle Ages to the Present (Oxford & New York: Berghahn Books, 2000), pp. 125-163.

[4] Op. cit., p. 125.

[5] G. L. Remnant, Misericords in Great Britain; with an essay on their iconography by Mary D. Anderson. (Oxford University Press, 1998 [1969]).

O Sancta Mater Begga (Gregorian Chant by Chant Group Psallentes, directed by Hendrik Vanden Abeele)

Stalles, Cathédrale de Meaux (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Stalle, Cathédrale de Meaux (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
8 November 2014
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Jacques de Voragine & the Golden Legend

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Literature, Medieval Bestiary

≈ Comments Off on Jacques de Voragine & the Golden Legend

Tags

best seller, Dominican Order, Goden Legend, Guelfs and Ghibellines, hagiography, incunabula, Jacobus de Voragine, St George and the Dragon, Varraze, William Caxton

Jacques de Voragine‘s Golden Legend,

Compared to the various versions of our peripatetic Reynard the Fox, Jacques de Voragine’s Golden Legend, which contained the story of “St George and the Dragon,” has not endured or is currently dormant.  Yet, it was the bestseller of the Middle Ages, a period during which hagiographies, i.e. lives of saints, St George in our case, were very popular.

The Renaissance

In the sixteenth-century, Renaissance scholars such as Erasmus (28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536) and Georg Witzel (b. at Vacha, Province of Hesse, 1501; d. at Mainz, 16 February 1573) found the Golden Legend too fanciful.  It therefore went out of fashion. But times have changed.

St George and the Dragon: the Story

* Caxton showing the first specimen of his printing to King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth at the Almonry, Westminster

The English Golden Legend

Among incunabula (an incunabulum is a work printed before 1500), the Legenda aurea was printed in more editions than the Bible. It was one of the first books William Caxton (ca. 1415~1422 – ca. March 1492) printed in the English language. Caxton’s version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, reaching a ninth edition in 1527.  In 1481, two years before he translated and published the Golden Legend, William Caxton had translated and printed Reynard the Fox.

Voragine: biographical notes

Voragine (Italian: Giacomo da Varazze, Jacopo da Varazze (c. 1230 – 13 or 16 July 1298) was archbishop of Genoa, a chronicler and, more importantly, the author of the Golden Legend also entitled Legenda aurea (Golden Legend and Lombardica historia).

Jacopo became a Dominican in 1244.  He was the prior at Como, Bologna and later in Asti.  But his reputation as preacher and theologian soon led to his appointment as provincial of Lombardy (1267–1278 and 1281–1286).  He represented his province at the council of Ferrara (1290) where he was one of four delegates who conveyed Nicholas IV‘s desire for the deposition of Munio de Zamora.  Muno was deposed on 12 April 1291.

He travelled to Rome the following year to be named bishop of Genoa by Nicholas IV.  When he reached Rome the pope had died, but Jacopo was nevertheless consecrated as Bishop of Genoa.  According to Wikipedia “[h]e distinguished himself by his efforts to appease the civil discords of Genoa among Guelfs (pro-papal) and Ghibellines (pro-imperial).”[i]  There is a story according to which Pope Boniface VIII threw ashes in his eyes on the first day on Lent, saying:

 Remember that thou art a Ghibelline, and with thy fellow Ghibellines wilt return to naught.

Jacopo died in 1298 or 1299 and was buried in the Dominican church at Genoa.  He was beatified by Pius VII in 1816.  His feast day in the Dominican order is July 16th.

The Golden Legend  includes “events in the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary, information about holy days and Season the whole arrange as readings (Latin: legenda) for the Church year. Immensely popular in the Middle Ages, it was translated into all western European languages and gradually much enlarged.”[ii]  Voragine kept enlarging it until 1260.

Voragine’s works also include sermons on Gospel readings, saints’ days, and the Virgin Mary, as well as a chronicle of Genoa.

It appears that Petrus Comestor’s History of Scholasticism was also a favorite among Medieval readers.  But the Golden Legend was the bestseller.

Sources and Resources

The Golden Legend : Fordham University

Dragon in Heraldry

Jules Massenet: Pieces for piano (please click on title to hear)

______________________

[i] “Jacobus de Voragine.” Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_de_Voragine>. 

[ii] “Jacobus De Voragine.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299131/Jacobus-de-Voragine>.

sans-titre

© Micheline Walker
6 February 2012
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Phoenix: on the Importance of Symbols & Myths

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Beast Literature, Bestiaries, Medieval Bestiary, Mythology, Myths, Symbols and Emblems

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Ave Phœnice, Évangéline, Job, Lactantius, legengary animals, mythology, myths, pays de Québec, symbols and emblems

Phoenix_detail_from_Aberdeen_Bestiary
“The Phœnix,” The Aberdeen Bestiary
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 

Aberdeen Bestiary

If the myth of the phœnix did not exist, we would probably invent it. Mythical and legencreatures are usually born of a human need, which, in this case, is the need for rebirth. Moreover, given that the Phœnix is a transcultural and nearly universal figure, we can presume that the need for rebirth is widely and profoundly rooted in the human imagination.

Our phœnix is the mythical singing bird that is reborn from its ashes. It [le phénix] is associated with a 170 elegiac-verse poem written by Lucius Cæcilius  Fiminature  Lactantius, an early Christian author (c. 240 – c. 320) and an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I. The Ave Phœnice is about the death and rebirth of a mythical bird, a bird that rises from its own ashes. This poem was retold in English as The Phœnix, an anonymous Old English poem composed of 677 lines, based on Lactantius’s Ave Phœnice.

Given that the phœnix rises from its ashes, it constitutes a powerful symbol that one can associate with survival, as is the case with Évangéline and Maria Chapdelaine’s mythic “pays de Québec.” The phœnix is a source of hope to the inhabitants of lands decimated by wars or natural disasters. As a symbol of rebirth, the phœnix also brings hope to those who, like Job, who have lost everything. This is how it appears in the Hebrew Bible:

 I thought I would end my days with my family/ And be as long-lived as the phœnix. (Job.29:18) [i]

Mythical, Mythological and Legendary Animals

Because of his features, the phœnix is a zoomorphic. It combines features borrowed from other animals. Given that he is not a real animal, one is tempted to call it a mythical creature, but it appears in the Bible, and Greek mythology. Mythological figures have ancestors and descendants, or a lineage, which can hardly be the case with the immortal phœnix. However, given that it can rise from its ashes and is therefore immortal and godlike, the phœnix is a more powerful symbol than the dragon, the unicorn, the griffin, creatures that lack a lineage, or mostly so. See List of Legendary Creatures, Wikipedia)

In beast literature, he is zoomorphic in that he combines features borrowed from many animals, except obviously human features. Remember that Machiavelli’s centaur was half human and half horse. Our phœnix is an animal, albeit legendary.

In Greece, the phœnix (purple) was an “Arabian bird, the only one of its kind, which according to Greek legend lives a certain number of years, at the end of which it makes a nest of spices, sings a melodious dirge, flaps its wings to set fire to the pile, burns itself to ashes and comes forth with new life.”[ii]

The Phœnix (Photo credit: Bestiary.ca)

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica “in ancient Egypt and in Classical antiquity, [the phœnix] was a fabulous bird associated with the worship of the sun. The Egyptian phœnix was said to be as large as an eagle, with brilliant scarlet and gold plumage and a melodious cry.[iii] Besides, it had a life span of no less than 500 years and “[a]s its end approached, the phœnix fashioned a nest of aromatic boughs and spices, set it on fire, and was consumed in the flames. From the pyre miraculously sprang a new phœnix, which, after embalming its father’s ashes in an egg of myrrh, flew with the ashes to Heliopolis (“City of the Sun”) in Egypt, where it deposited them on the altar in the temple of the Egyptian god of the sun, Re.”[iv] The Egyptian phœnix symbolized immortality.

Phœnix depicted in the book of mythological creatures by F. J. Bertuch (1747-1822) (Photo credit: Wikipadia)

In Islamic mythology the phœnix was identified with the ‘anqā,’ also a bird, but one that “became a plague and was killed.”[v]

Fantasy Literature and elsewhere

The phœnix was used by J. K. Rowling in the fifth book of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phœnix, 2003. It is also featured in Jean de La Fontaine, “Le  Corbeau et le Renart,” (Book I.2), or the “Raven and the Fox,” where the Fox tells the crow that because of its beautiful voice, he is a phœnix among the guests of forests:  “Vous êtes le phénix des hôtes de ces bois.”  In French, blackmail is translated by le chantage. The fox makes the corbeau sing and the cheese drops.

Even the ageless Cinderella narrative has phœnix-like dimensions. The word Cinderella (Cendrillon) is derived from ashes: cinders and cendres. Through the mediation of her fairy godmother, the ash-girl, reduced to that role by jealous sisters and a mean stepmother, a second wife, becomes the princess of fairy tales.

Christian Symbolism

Moreover, we cannot leave aside the phœnix as a Christian symbol. For Christians, the immortal bird represents the resurrection of Christ. On the third day, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead as the phœnix rises from his ashes. In the liturgical year, Christians go from Ash Wednesday to the Resurrection: Easter.

Mere Mortals

We cannot escape death as we are mere mortals, but life is nevertheless perpetuated.  Outside my window there are naked trees, but they will again be adorned. And even if one’s land is a paper land, a literary homeland, that too is a land. In 1889-1890, Henri-Raymond Casgrain, the author of Pèlerinage au pays d’Évangéline was President of the Royal Society of Canada and therefore lucid. Yet there is no “real” Évangéline. She was created by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in 1847.

The manner in which humanity copes with its condition often leads to mythification and once the myth is in place, it can be as real and powerful as is Évangéline to Acadians and her “pays de Québec” to Maria Chapdelaine.

 

Phoenix, from Aberdeen Bestiary


[i] Donald Ray Schwartz, Noah’s Ark: an Annotated Encyclopedia of Every Animal Species in the Hebrew Bible (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc., 2000), p. 400, p. 405, pp. 408-409.

[ii] “phœnix,” in Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, revised by Adrian Room (London: Cassel House, 2001[1959]).

[iii] “phœnix.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/457189/phoenix>.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

composer: Igor Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
piece: “The Firebird”  first performed for Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes (1910)
performers:  Vienna Philharmonic (Salzburg Festival, 2000) 
conductor: Valery Gergiev
photograph: Igor Stravinsky
 

Igor Stravinsky©Micheline Walker
1 February 2012
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,507 other subscribers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Epiphany 2023
  • Pavarotti sings Schubert’s « Ave Maria »
  • Yves Montand chante “À Bicyclette”
  • Almost ready
  • Bicycles for Migrant Farm Workers
  • Tout Molière.net : parti …
  • Remembering Belaud
  • Monet’s Magpie
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws in Quebec, 2
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws

Archives

Calendar

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,475 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: