medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: jbugslag <[log in to unmask]>
> > being Art Hysterically inclined i was predisposed to look at the
expression as referring to a specific part of the building;
> The most obvious part of a church to be thus described were rose windows
(which were not known as rose windows until about the 18th century).
my first thought, as well, given my aforementioned Hysterical inclinations.
however, being also Imaginationally Challenged, i just couldn't connect the
*place* where a charter was "published" with a window, no matter what its
shape might have been.
>The rose windows of Lincoln Cathedral are still popularly known as the Dean's
Eye and the Bishop's Eye.
"still"?
how old is the terminology?
>I wonder if this charter phrase might be related to the medieval
understanding of the rose window?
wonder ahead on.
just explain to me how a window could fit in the contexts in which "oculi" is
used in the charter.
the first time it is used --in the context of an excommunication-- i thought
of a high altar in the choir of a building, with the actual excommunication
being pronounced (well) in front of it, at the crossing, under a "lantern
tower" (a common enough 12th c. feature, in some parts), and this vertical,
well-lit space (think: Laon) being the "oculus" of the building.
but, the citations from Tom's search make it pretty clear that the term is
either used figuratively or in the sense of "before the eyes of everyone [in
the church]", something like that.
what really threw me off is the fact that those "Datum in" clauses in charters
almost invariably refer to the *place* where the charter was "made" --"in
palatio nostro" or "in capitulum nostrum"...
so, i was naturally trying to imagine an actual physical *place*, within
("in") the church.
>One could easily start to imagine all sorts of creepy Foucauldian
implications!
well, if one believed in creepy Foucauldianism, yes.
i'm quite Agnostic on that question, myself.
and, *way* too Old to Change now.
c
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