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William of Malmesbury wrote that > Lady Godiva of Coventry (died 1075) bequeathed to a statue of Mary 'the > circlet of precious stones which she had threaded on a cord in order that > by fingering them one after another she might count her payers exactly. In > thirteenth century these were called 'paternosters'; people who made them > were called 'paternosterers'; in London these people worked in street > called 'Paternoster Row'. > >Has anyone ever seen a medieval paternoster? Was it exactly the same as a modern rosary? Oriens. Survivals of early rosaries have not, to my knowledge, been systematically studied, but you might find helpful: E. Wilkins, The Rose-Garden Game: The Symbolic Background to the European Prayer-Beads, London, 1969 (fascinatingly, the author came to the subject from an initial interest in collecting marbles!); and L. Bartoli, Simbologia Mariano, Rovigo, 1949. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%