medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Wow - that is an amazing collection of images.
It might also be worth getting hold of a copy of the British Museum catalogue for the recent Treasures of Heaven exhibition- that included some lovely portable altars.
And a follow-on query. Were the relics always corporeal relics or could they in practice include contact relics - in which case presumably the saint's own altar stone could become a relic. One of the Welsh saint Cadoc's more useful miracles (he was better known for revenge miracles) was the transporting of three altar stones from the Holy Land for three churches he was founding. He had seen them while on pilgrimage and transported them through the power of prayer. Definitely contra naturam. But it occurs to me that they might in fact have been small stones for use in portable altars.
Maddy
Dr Madeleine Gray PhD, FRHistS
Reader in History/ Darllenydd mewn Hanes
School of Humanities and Lifelong Learning /Ysgol Ddyniaethau a Dysgu Gydol Oes
University of Wales, Newport/Prifysgol Cymru, Casnewydd
Caerleon Campus/Campws Caerllion,
Newport/Casnewydd NP18 3QT Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
'Medical science can make us live to 90. If you haven't got the arts and humanities, what's the point of living to 90?' (Leszek Borysiewicz, VC of Cambridge)
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From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of John Dillon [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 February 2012 18:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] portable altars / altar stones / relics
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 02/26/12, Meg Cormack wrote:
> Greetings all,
> I seem to be turning up a lot of questions all at once! As we know, an altar is supposed to be supplied with
> relics. I assume this applies to a portable altar as well. However, I'm unclear on what a portable altar might have
> looked like. In particular, I'm trying to figure out whether some items in Icelandic inventories might qualify - and
> whether they should be assumed to contain relics. The issue concerns the altar-stone: is this where the relic is supposed to be, or elsewhere? I have several entries of "consecrat altar stone" and "decorated/covered/adorned altar stone" and am trying to figure out whether these would be likely to contain relics.
> Thanks,
> Meg
The examples shown here could be helpful:
http://tinyurl.com/7725xev
In particular, see this ninth-century example of a decorated altar stone without apparent space for relics (though under the stone there might be a small cavity in the board for a relic):
http://www.landesstelle.de/index.php/objekte-des-monats-einzeln/items/280.html
Later one finds similarly formed instances of a stone in a decorated board serving as the upper surface of a portable altar of the common type with a reliquary chest beneath, e.g.
http://www.servatius-siegburg.de/kirchen-einrichtungen/einrichtungen/schatzkammer/tragaltaere
http://tinyurl.com/86rmrua
http://www.museenkoeln.de/homepage/bild-der-woche.asp?bdw=2003_34
Best,
John Dillon
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