The Westminster pavement

At the time of the Papal visit I posted about the image of the Pope standing on the wonderful thirteenth century cosmati sanctuary pavement of Westminster abbey. Now David Clayton, whom I knew when he was here in Oxford, has drawn attention on NLM to a post by another friend, Stratford Caldecott, and a post he has produced about the pavement. It includes a short documentary and can be found here.

The abbey's own site about the pavement can be read here, and there is another account here , and there is also a newspaper article about its restoration here.

The Queen views the great pavement in Westminster Abbey

Image: Westminster Abbey

If you would like to read more about the pavement there is Richard Foster Patterns of Thought: (1991), and the pavement is also discussed in J.D.North The Ambassadors' Secret. Professor North's book is a fascinating exploration of the themes and symbolism in Holbein's painting, now in the National Gallery, of the French ambassadors to King Henry VIII in 1533, and it is a book well worth reading on its own account.