medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Pat McIntosh-Spinnler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>In my kitchen, floored with vinyl tiles over concrete (?or stone), I
have an oddment of carpet to stand on when working in there in the
winter. Believe me, it makes a lot of difference. The quarter-inch of textile
provides a valuable layer of insulation between the cold, cold ground and your
thin-soled shoes.
you are, of course, quite right, and *any*thing which would inhibit heat loss
from a part of the anatomy directly in contact with a cold mass of stone would
be most noticable and welcome.
even though the "R Value" (http://www.alhsipshomes.com/construction/rvalue.asp
) of carpeting is
not very much at all, it *is* something. as wall insulation --aside from the
draft-inhibiting effect-- it would be of help only in a relatively confined
space with its own heat source (fireplace, brazier, etc.)
>Looking at the website image we are talking about
(http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/m/master/stgilles/gilles2.html )
I think the surface depicted on the steps before the altar is indeed an
Oriental carpet,
yes. though mosiac floors in churches were quite common and elaborate, i
doubt if there was ever one which had *that* much detail and richness.
perhaps a carpet expert could even place its design geographically and
temporaly.
the combination of carpet, (drawn) curtains and altar furniture would
have given the chapel a quite intimate (and "warm") setting for the
celebration of the Mass, i should think, whatever the actual temprature.
>In domestic use (ie anywhere people lived, including palaces) at this date,
carpets were not usually put on the floor to walk on, although they were
occasionally shown under the subject's feet in a portrait as a piece of
ostentation.
yes. certainly the case here. that painting is about nothing, if it's not
about ostentation.
>They were still rare, imported from the East and very, very expensive... This
made them an ideal offering for church use, and explains the rioting canons of
St Genevieve also referred to by Dr Crocker.
well, nothing that Dr Crocker says should be ever be taken without a
grate big ole fistfull of salt.
the old guy first read that Ste G. (if, indeed, that's where it was)
story decades ago and it never occured to him the importance of the
carpet reference for material culture.
the canons of the church were, if he recalls correctly, thoroughly
"unreformed," including in their number the notorious Stephen of
Garland, and, when the Pope's minions claimed the "customary" right to
rip up and cart off any carpet which the H.F. had stood on to say mass, they
reacted in expectedly materialistic fashion, failed to see the spiritual
import of the action, and resisted. this, in turn, was used
as a pretext to "reform" the place (and bring in Victorines?).
at least, that's one interpretation to be put on things.
the whole incident was inextricably woven into the political and geopolitical
carpet of events of the moment --a near civil war between factions in the
French court (one headed by the Queen); a critical juncture in the progress of
the "reform" movement within the ecclesiastical institutions of the Royal
Domain (including the recent murder of the Prior of St. Victor's while in the
entourage of the Bishop of Paris and of a dignitary of the cathedral of
Orléans); Innocent II's comming to France to gain recognition (at the council
of Etampes, 1130) over the antipope Anecletus... etc.
lots of warping and woofing going on, en ces temps la.
best from here,
christopher
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