medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The warmth derived from tapestries as insulation will of presumably
depend on the size of the church and the number of people in it
at a given time.
Meg
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>Marjorie Greene <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>Having lived through a few French winters, I'd assumed that tapestries,
>especially in choirs, were also for warmth.
>the coldest church i can remember ever being in was the 12th c. St. Lomer in
>Blois, in mid-February. like walking into a (very damp) freezer, it was.
>nose started to sting. colder than outdoors, somehow (the dampness, i
>suppose, the church being not far from the river).
>but i can't see how hanging the place with tapestries would have made it any
>warmer --have some marginal effect on the draft, perhaps.
>but probably not even that.
>unless they were electric tapestries, of course. something of a rarity in the
>12th century, i'm told.
>the more i think about it, the possibility that the unarticulated
>hangings visible at the main arcade level in _The Mass of St. Giles_
>(http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/m/master/stgilles/gilles2.html ) were indeed
>there for manipulation of the accoustal space makes more sense.
>--they are certainly not pedagogical.
>--being in a late gothic painting, they are not there to hide the architecture
>(as might have motivated the 18th c. practice).
>--there is the *possibility* that even a relatively small (i.e., relative
>to the total surface area of the stone/glass walls) square footage of
>suspended, heavy fabric *might* have had a significant deadening accoustical
>effect --i have noted that a recently built recital hall at the Indiana U.
>School of Muzak has included in its realisation some quite (relatively) small
>fabric baffles which can be lowered into place at the ceiling level (50 feet
>or so up), presumably part of a State-o-Thart accoustical design.
>then there's that (apparent) carpet, which wouldn't have done much to
>warm the officiating priests' feet (since it would have quickly reached the
>ambiant temprature of the stone floor), but might have gone a significant way
>towards deadening the sound in the place.
>in which context, i just recalled that an early 12th c. source tells us that
>when the Pope (Innocent II???) came to Paris and said mass at St. Genevieve
>(???) some guys in his entourage then rolled up the carpets which the H.F. had
>stood on and started to cart them off to take home,
>"as was the custom," which lead to a riot on the part of the canons of
>the church, which lead to its "reform" at the instigation of Fat Louis.
>i forget the source, but Luchaire tells the tale in his _Louis VI, Annales_.
>*carpets*, in use in choirs in the first half of the 12th c. --now, there's an
>idea one could get his accoustical mind around...
>best from here,
>christopher
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Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
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