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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

This is not about pear wine but an interesting pairing of wine and bells in stained glass. See the signature panel on the Chartres Zodiac/Labor of the Months Window on Stuart Whatling’s web-site.
http://www.medievalart.org.uk/chartres/028a_pages/Chartres_Bay028a_Panel01.htm
He comments:

On the left a man pulls hard on a bell-rope (the piece of glass painted with his hands has been inverted during re-leading). To the right are two figures - one hooded. Both of these men are clearly wine-growers - they carry the distinctive beak-shaped hoes seen being used in panel 02.

The association between wine-growers and bell-ringers may not be obvious, despite the boozy reputation of modern campanologists - however Jane Welch Williams, in her book on the 'trade windows' at Chartres discussed the custom of ringing bells to let people know whenever vintners had new wine to sell. This panel may therefore represent the end result of the donation by Count Thibault VI to a local abbey of a vineyard at Perche - which would fit in nicely with the other two signature panels; panel 03 commemorates the donation itself, panel 02 shows the tending of the vines and this panel represents the culmination of the production cycle, with the new wine ready to sell. Although appearance and attire are often unreliable signifiers in stained glass, Yves Delaporte noted how much the hooded figure here resembles the one kneeling before Count Thibault in panel 03, whilst his companion here, with the unusual cross-gartered boots looks very like the man at the back of that group. Identical boots are however worn by two of the men in panel02 - so they may just be an attribute of a particular class of viticultural labourer.

Richard J Legault

On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 4:10 AM, Anne Willis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Can anyone guide me to pictures of ringing before c1550?

 

I have three pictures: one from the British Library of nuns processing with one ringing two bells.  The other two are of rabbits ringing; one in a similar manner to the nun, the other using two mallets to bash a most odd-shaped bell in a manner calculated to crack it.

 

I have no objection to pictures of rabbits, and in no way underestimate their intelligence, but I would prefer pictures of humans ringing.  (Incidentally, why are rabbits portrayed thus?)

 

Thank you

 

Anne

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