Chair of the Ninth or Tenth Century
Chair of the Ninth or Tenth Century, taken from a Miniature of that period (MS. de la Bibl. Imp. de Paris). The chairs or seats of the Romanesque period exhibit an attempt to revive in the interior of the buildings, where they were used, the architectural style of contemporary monuments. They were large and massive, and were raised on clusters of columns expanding at the back in three semicircular rows.
Arbalestina
The narrow cruciform loophole, called by architects ' Arbalestina,' which is usually to be seen in the masonry of a mediaeval fortress, was designed for the special use of crossbowmen in repelling an assault. To enable the crossbow, or longbow, to be aimed to the right or left through a loophole, the aperture was greatly widened out on the inside face of the perforated wall.
An 11th century knight, after the Bayeux tapestry
A domed church
A juggler, after a miniature
According to Viollet-le-Duc
10th century castle, on its mound, with a wooden palisade enclosure
A Bishop
The Lord of Joinville, dressed in his coat of arms, from a 14th century manuscript
The Saint-Martin church, in Canterbury, founded by Saint Augustin
The Source of Life
Suger, after a stained glass window from Saint-Denis
The Krak Castle. Current state
Seal of Henry I
Seal of the municipality of Fismes
Street and apse of Saints John and Paul, in Rome
San Bartolommeo in Isola, in Rome
Seal of Celestin III, like the apostles
Seal of Henri Plantagenet
Saint Louis transporting the relics of the Passion to the Sainte-Chapelle
Saint Louis, after a wooden statuette from the Cluny museum
Qala'at El-Hosn
Qala'at El-Hosn
Rome dominating the world.
Ruins of Gaillard castle
Ornate page from the Evangéliaire de Saint-Vaast
Philippe de Valois, after his seal
Philippe le Bold, son of Saint Louis, after his tombstone
Interior facade of the old St. Peter's Church in the Vatican
Knight of around 1220, from the Villard de Honnecour album
La Ziza, palace of the Norman and Swabian kings of Sicily, near Palermo
Germanic costume (5th-8th century)
Former Constantinian Basilica of Saint Peter. Restitution
Gautier Bardins, bailiff and adviser to the king in the 13th century, according to his tombstone
Geoffroy Plantagenet
Empress Theodora
Enamelled copper stock. The Annunciation. Limoges, 13th century
Enamelled copper vase by G. Alpaïs de Limoges
Emperor Lothaire
Emperor Otton III, after a miniature from the Evangelist of Bamberg
Crown of Charlemagne, kept in the imperial treasury of Vienna
Emperor Anastasius in consular costume
Emperor Justinian and his court - Mosaic of San Vitale, in Ravenna
Anglo-Norman knight, after a tomb from 1277
Byzantine enamels from the Limburg reliquary
An attempt to restore the Krak, according to M. Rey
Carillon, Netherlands
The idea of forming of a number of bells a musical instrument such as the carillon is said by some to have suggested itself first to the English and Dutch; but what we have seen in Asiatic countries sufficiently refutes this. Moreover, not only the Romans employed variously arranged and attuned bells, but also among the Etruscan antiquities an instrument has been discovered which is constructed of a number of bronze vessels placed in a row on a metal rod. Numerous bells, varying in size and tone, have also been found in Etruscan tombs. Among the later contrivances of this kind in European countries the sets of bells suspended in a wooden frame, which we find in mediæval illuminations, deserve notice. In the British museum is a manuscript of the fourteenth century in which king David is depicted holding in each hand a hammer with which he strikes upon bells of different dimensions, suspended on a wooden stand.
Divining Rod
I believe that the imagination is the principal motive force in those who use the divining rod; but whether it is so solely, I am unable to decide. The powers of nature are so mysterious and inscrutable that we must be cautious in limiting them, under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of experience.
Positions of the Hands on Divining Rods
From “Lettres qui découvrent l’Illusion des Philosophes sur la Baguette.” Paris, 1693
Time-chart A.D. 800-A.D. 1500
Time-chart A.D. 800-A.D. 1500
King or Chief of Franks armed with the Seramasax, from a Miniature of the Ninth Century
When the Franks took root in Gaul, their dress and institutions were adopted by the Roman society. This had the most disastrous influence in every point of view, and it is easy to prove that civilisation did not emerge from this chaos until by degrees the Teutonic spirit disappeared from the world. As long as this spirit reigned, neither private nor public liberty existed. Individual patriotism only extended as far as the border of a man's family, and the nation became broken up into clans. Gaul soon found itself parcelled off into domains which were almost independent of one another. It was thus that Germanic genius became developed.
Chaining of Books
The system of chaining, as adopted in this country, would allow of the books being readily taken down from the shelves, and laid on the desk for reading. One end of the chain was attached to the middle of the upper edge of the right-hand board; the other to a ring which played on a bar set in front of the shelf on which the book stood. The fore-edge of the books, not the back, was turned forwards. A swivel, usually in the middle of the chain, prevented tangling. The chains varied in length according to the distance of the shelf from the desk. The bar was kept in place by a rather elaborate system of iron-work attached to the end of the bookcase, and secured by a lock which often required two keys—that is, the presence of two officials—to open it. To illustrate this I will shew you a sketch of one of the bookcases in Hereford Cathedral.
Bookcases in the library of the University of Leiden
Another device for combining desk with shelf is to be seen at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and, as these cases were set up after 1626, we have here a curious instance of a deliberate return to ancient forms. There is evidence that there once existed below the shelf a second desk, which could be drawn in and out as required, so that a reader could stand or sit as he pleased, as you will see from the next illustration. The University of Leiden in Holland adopted a modification of this design, for there the shelf is above the desk, and readers could only stand to use the books