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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture "Stephen J. Harris" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >An interesting numerological point. Is there a corroborating source? I'm intrigued since it just occurred to me that Beowulf is broken into 43 fitts, or sections. Perhaps 43 is just one better than 42! Welcome back, Stephen! as i'm sure you know better than i, there's quite a vast secondary literature on the various numerological goings on in primary literature. my all-time favorite amongst the latter is the 11th c. _Vie de Saint Alexis_, which consists of --what is it?-- 125 stanzas of 5 lines each, each line of ten beats, a cesura between the fifth and sixth. something like that. significant events in the poem *seem* to be placed in what *seem* to be numerically significant stanzas (or lines), in a fashion similar to the way many Romanesque sculptures *seem* to have been laid out according to a pre-determined (usually foliate or abstract geometric) pattern. (on the latter, see Jurgis Baltrusaitis' _La Stylistique ornementale dans le sculpture romane_ [1931], which fleshes out in considerable detail the idea of his art historical mentor, Henri Focillon, on the "_Loi du cadre_" as a determining factor in the composition of romanesque sculpture and painting. an example of Focillon's idea may be seen in the famous "Last Judgement" tympanum at Conques http://www.conques.com/visite24.htm , where the Elect are arranged in good order under a Heavenly Arcade [lower left] while the Damned appear, at first glance, to be undergoing their torments in utter Chaos [lower right]. a closer look, however, http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bycountry/france/auvergne/Conques/tympanum/181.JPG reveals that the Damned are equally compositionally constrained by a "frame" [_cadre_] and one can superimpose the *same* arcading explicitly shown on the left on the figures of the right: they, too are subject to the same "law.") to my mind and eye the same principles are at work in both genres, the St. Alexis just happens --by accident of survival perhaps-- to be a particularly clear example of the process at work. composing such works, whether literary or in the plastic arts, in this fashion is so alien to the method of work which most of us "moderns" use that it is difficult for us to imagine how the process actually would work; and this lack of imagination is reflected, if i recall correctly, in the scholarly literature, where there is much scepticism evident, much of it very poorly founded, it seems to me. best from here, christopher ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1 ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html