medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Anne Willis <[log in to unmask]>
> Towers must have been in England since before 680, when Bede heard the bells
of Whitby Abbey toll on the death of the Abbess Hilda.
being blissfully unencumbered by any actual knowledge of the subject, i
wouldn't think that the Bells ==> Towers supposition is valid at all.
among other things, bells needn't be placed in towers.
just think of their placement in bell walls (clocher-mur)
http://eluardamicale.free.fr/atelierpatrimoine/IMG/jpg/Beaulieu.jpg
http://www.azurs.net/photographies/cloches_espanes.jpg
http://storage.canalblog.com/94/66/503751/30369486.jpg
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/memoire/1391/ivr74_82191763x_p.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/dxwswkk
i believe that this was the dodge that the early Cistercians used to get
around grumpy ole Bernie's pesky prohibition against towers and other
"luxuries." (doesn't a Cistercian example or two survive, somewhere?)
they are a quite ubiquitous feature in colonial Spanish architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mission_San_Juan_Capistrano_Facade2.JPG
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mission_San_Miguel,_California_-_rock_wall_and_bell.jpg
reflecting, perhaps, a certain emphasis on "economy" in building practice
(which would have been true in Bede's time as well).
or, for that matter, in free standing settings
http://www.svtempest.com/Mission%20San%20Juan%20Capistrano.jpg
somewhere i've seen relatively small timber structures beside churches,
purpose built to hold the bell(s).
i would imagine that such Ad Hoc arrangements were once much more common than
the relatively few number of survivals into our own Benighted Epoch might
suggest.
architecture in Bede's time --even "major" architecture like (i assume)
Whitby-- was considerably more "modest" than which came later, and
extrapolating backwards from that later period into texts from the earlier one
is a risky business.
> As James Bond (the archaeologist) said 'towers bother me'.
obviously, evidence of a fear of heights --which is why the guy went into
archeology (before finding his true calling in MI-5 --or was it 6?).
c
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