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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Hi Meg, The Biblical symbolism is fairly obvious as illustrations of Old and New Testament texts. It compares well with contemporary artwork in illustrated manuscripts. To get a grasp of the non-biblical images like zodiacs, astrolabes, sirens and geometrical stuff you need to look at the texts of Natural Philosophy that the scholars of the period were reading and writing. So look to Boethius, Macrobius, Capella, Plato (Timaeus), Euclid and all the sources that fed into the study of the *quadrivium.* The best introduction I've found to the natural philosophy of the period is Peter Ellard's* A Sacred Cosmos. *See also Edouard Jeauneau's *Rethinking the School of Chartres *and his *Lectio Philosophorum. * I think you also need to consider that rhetorical devices used by students of the *trivium* were applied also to the visual and touchable forms of expression found in the sculpture and glass of the cathedrals. I think there is no device more important than what they called the *integument. *The best source I've found on that is Winthrop Wetherbee's *Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century: The Literary Influence of the School of Chartres.* I've posted some draft papers (with lots of pictures) touching on many of these issues as they relate to Chartres. Many primary and secondary sources are listed. See: http://independent.academia.edu/RichardJLegault As for sunlight entering certain windows, my hands-down favorite is what happens on the floor of Vézelay Abbey around noon on the summer solstice. See image at: http://www.bacimu.be/users/alistair Cheers, Richard J Legault On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 5:17 PM, Cormack, Margaret Jean <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > Greetings all, > > It is my understanding that Notre Dame in Paris was built to correspond to > the measurements of the temple of Solomon. There is the labyrinth at > Chartres, there are Sybils and other pre=Christian types in Sienna (I > actually have my own amateurish pictures of these!) and there are churches > where light entering certain windows marks off astronomical (zodiacal?) > information according to markings on the floor. Can anyone recommend > articles and/or photos of such things? I'd like to give a final lecture in > my medieval Christianity class on the multiple meanings different aspects > of cathedrals (and other churches) could have. Any advice on readings > (including especially primary sources) on architectural symbolism, > astronomical connections, or modelling of this sort would be very welcome. > Thanks in advance, > > Meg > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: subscribe 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: unsubscribe 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/medieval-religion > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe 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: unsubscribe 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/medieval-religion