medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
There might be something helpful in
Kendall, Calvin B. The Allegory of the Church: Romanesque portals and their
verse inscriptions (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1998)
all best
laura
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Bugslag" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 17 February 2006 00:29
Subject: door symbolism
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear Learned Ones,
> I have recently been trying to make sense of a passage in Pierre de
> Roissy's
> Manuale de mysteriis Ecclesiae, a sort of early 13th-century precursor of
> Durandus
> by a chancellor of Chartres Cathedral. In other words, it is a symbolic
> interpretation
> of the fabric and decoration of a church. This is what he says on doors:
>
> De [h]ostio. [H]ostium est Christus, qui dicit: Ego sum [h]ostium [John
> X, 7]. Si
> autem sint plura [h]ostia, significant prelatos, per quos intratur ad
> Christum; et sunt
> versus meridiem et aquilonem, quia aliqui de utroque populo intrant. Unde
> Ysaias :
> Dicam aquiloni : Da ; et austro : Noli prohibere.
>
> My (undoubtedly faulty) translation of this is:
> The door is Christ, who said: "I am the door". If, however, there are
> more doors,
> they signify prelates, by whom one enters to Christ; and they are toward
> the south
> and north, because some of the people enter from both directions. Whence
> Isaiah:
> it is said to the north: give [them up], and to the south: do not hold
> them back.
>
> His parting reference to Isaiah XLIII, 6, is not at all clear to me. Does
> it simply
> signify that people would be welcome through either door? Or is there
> something
> more to it? Can anyone enlighten me with a comprehensible exegesis of
> this
> reference?
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
> PS Any and all "improvements" to my translation would also be welcomed.
>
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