medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (6. December) is the feast day of:
1) Nicholas of Myra (d. 4th cent.). Phyllis' excellent introduction of 2005 to this well known saint of the Regno is here:
http://tinyurl.com/y3s2nv
Herewith a few views, etc., starting with N.'s eleventh-century church at Myra (now Demre in Turkey):
http://www.aysen.net/sonresims/demre.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ygjsae
http://tinyurl.com/ya6aef
http://stnicholas.kids.us/stnic/images/myra-church-wmaster.jpg
Next, the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, begun in 1089 and consecrated in 1197.
Exterior:
http://www.athenaeum.ch/voyages/puglia/Bari_DSCN0076.jpg
http://www.arturocovitti.it/SNicola.htm
http://www.basilicasannicola.org/it/arch1.htm
Interior:
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660487
http://www.basilicasannicola.org/it/arch2.htm
http://www.ba.infn.it/www/bari2.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660478
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660480
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660484
Crypt:
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660486
http://www.basilicasannicola.org/it/arch3.htm
Virtual tour:
http://www.basilicasannicola.org/it/arch5.htm
Medieval reliquaries in the Treasury:
http://www.basilicasannicola.org/it/arch4_t2.htm
http://www.ba.infn.it/www/bari4.jpg
http://www.ba.infn.it/www/bari9.jpg
N. crowning Roger II; other medieval objects in the Treasury:
http://www.basilicasannicola.org/it/arch4_t3.htm
Various views (architectural):
http://www.mondimedievali.net/edifici/Puglia/SanNicolaBari.htm
Various views with English-language legends:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=462
Next, a few views of remnants of the Greek-rite monastery of San Nicola at Casole (LE; this 'Casole' is accented on the first syllable) near Otranto on Apulia's Salentine Peninsula. Founded in 1098/99, it was at its height in the early thirteenth century:
http://web.dsc.unibo.it/~prizzo/ig/casole.html
http://cliomg.clio.it/sc/lsm/immagini/casole_2.jpg
http://cliomg.clio.it/sc/lsm/immagini/casole_9.jpg
Next, two views of the originally eleventh-century church of San Nicola at Castiglione di Sicilia (ME) in Sicily:
http://tinyurl.com/y4xl2s
http://tinyurl.com/y6pr2r
Next, the early twelfth-century (ca. 1114) ex-monastic church of San Nicola (Nicoḷ) di Trullas, near today's Semestene (SS) in Sardinia:
http://www.immaginidellasardegna.it/chiese/galleria6/pages/12San_Nicola.html
http://www.immaginidellasardegna.it/chiese/galleria6/pages/13san_nicola.html
http://www.ignaziogrecu.com/images/foto/Romanico_sardo/trullas2.jpg
http://web.tiscali.it/romanico/c173.htm
The Camaldolese monastery to which this church belonged has left us a famous cartulary, the _condaghe_ of San Nicola di Trullas, now ms. 278 of the Biblioteca universitaria di Cagliari. An important historical source and one of the early monuments of the Sardinian language, this may not be as ancient as the Strasbourg/Strassburg Oaths but it is nonetheless a major witness to the emergence of one of western Europe's medieval languages. A page of text (fol. 62v) is reproduced here:
http://dobc.unipv.it/scrineum/biblioteca/Cau/tav5.jpg
This is from the second quarter of the twelfth century and thus only slightly younger than the church in whose immediate vicinity it was penned.
At Ottana (NU), in the former Sardinian judicate of Torres (or Logudoro; dissolved in 1259), is another noteworthy dedication to N. The cathedral of a diocese suppressed in 1501, this is a twelfth-century structure replacing an earlier church on the same site and consecrated to N. and to the BVM in 1160. Severely damaged by an earthquake, it was rebuilt towards the end of the century. The facade and the front end of the south side are from the building's earlier phase. An illustrated, Italian-language account of this church is here:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/nuottana.htm
and some expandable views are here (second set in this gallery):
http://www.immaginidellasardegna.it/chiese/galleria4/
At Villaputzu (CA), in the former Sardinian judicate of Cagliari, is the late twelfth-century church of San Nicola di Quirra (Quirra is the name of the locale). Considerably less attractive than either San Nicola di Trullas or San Nicola di Ottana, this building is notable chiefly for its being Sardinia's only "romanesque" church in brick. An illustrated, Italian-language account of it is here:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/cavillaputzu.htm
and some further views (left-click expandable) are here:
http://web.tiscali.it/romanico/c65.htm
Next, some views of surviving medieval elements of the late twelfth- (perhaps) or thirteenth-century church of San Nicola at Pisa (rebuilt in the seventeenth century):
http://www.stilepisano.it/immagini21/index3.htm
Some medieval decor in this church:
http://tinyurl.com/3xpaa5
The fourteenth-century (1300-1340; later modifications) cathedral of San Nicoḷ at Nicosia (EN) in Sicily has a belltower whose base is a reworked Norman military structure (a number of churches on the island have similar belltowers) showing an ogive seemingly of Sicilian Arabic inspiration, while the part of the tower immediately above it is a "gothic" addition from sometime during the period 1393-1455:
http://tinyurl.com/3eyez3
In the background, one can see the main portal of this much rebuilt church. An illustrated, Italian language discussion of this portal by the church's current restorers is here:
http://tinyurl.com/8rabl
Most noteworthy about this church (an Italian national monument since 1940) are the recently restored paintings, dated to the middle of the fifteenth century, that cover the interior of its wooden roof. Some detail views follow:
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-37-39-6532.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-37-10-9227.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-36-51-3256.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-36-25-4871.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-36-10-2819.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-35-55-6291.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/458/458-01-35-20-7018.jpg
An Italian-language site on this roof is here:
http://www.cormorano.net/nicosia/tettoligneo/index.html
Click on "Le Immagini" for a series of isolated views of (mostly) single details, many not among the ones reproduced above.
2) Obitius of Niardo (d. ca. 1204). O. (in Italian, Obizio or Obizzo) was a successful soldier from Niardo in today's Brescia Province of Lombardy. During the exceptionally bloody battle of Rudiano ('Malamorti'; 7. July 1191) between the Brescians and their Milanese allies on one side and the Cremonese and their Bergamasque allies on the other, he took part in the massacre of the latter when a temporary bridge on which they had been retreating gave way and caused them to fall into the river Oglio. O., who himself narrowly escaped drowning, then received a vision of Hell that caused him to give up the profession of arms and become a penitent.
In 1197, having either abandoned his family or won them over to the loss of income and standing his decision had entailed, O. entered the great Benedictine monastery of San Salvatore / Santa Giulia at Brescia as an oblate, where he died on this day early in the thirteenth century. O. was buried in the monastery. In the fifteenth century, apparently in consequence of a marvellous eruption of liquid at his grave, relics said to be his were translated to the main altar of the monastery's basilica of San Salvatore where they remained until 1798, the year following the monastery's suppression. They were then translated to the parish church of San Maurizio at Niardo, in whose modern successor they remain today.
In the 1520s the painter Romanino executed a series of frescoes in and on a chapel in the base of the belltower of Brescia's San Salvatore depicting scenes of O.'s life. A brief, illustrated, English-language account of that church is here (the chapel is at left after the two columns):
http://www.bresciamusei.com/pages/page_site.aspx?zone_id=123
Some interior views are here:
http://tinyurl.com/3cdrr3
A view of the Cappella di Sant'Obizio:
http://www.laketolake.it/immagini/cappella_obizio_big.jpg
In 1900 O.'s cult was confirmed with the designation of Saint. Here's a view of O.'s relics during a recent annual display at Niardo:
http://tinyurl.com/2zdaaw
Best,
John Dillon
(Nicholas of Myra lightly revised from last year's post)
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