Ultima Thule identified?

The website Greek Reporter is a useful resource for stories about Classical Greece and the Hellenistic world. A recent report outlined the latest theory to emerge to try to identify Thule, or Ultima Thule, as described by Pytheas of Massalia ( Marseilles ) and which survives only in quotations and citations by later Greek authors. 

In the years leading up to 300BC Pytheas sailed from his home city, or possibly from the mouth of the Loire, around the islands to the north for which he gives the first record of their name - Britain. He then sailed a further six days northwards to a wintry world of ice and snow, the very limit of humanity. This he named Thule, or Ultima Thule. Where exactly he was has been a source of much speculation. However the latest theory, which looks on the surface reasonable, given our fragmentary knowledge of Pytheas’ work, identifies it as most probably being Iceland. The article making the case can be read at Greek Discovery of Iceland Supported by Linguistic Evidence

It contains a link to an earlier article on the same website about Pytheas’ exploration of the north-east Atlantic, and his recording of Britain, which can be seen at The First Ancient Greek to Reach Britain and the Arctic

To know more about Pytheas, or at least about the theories about him, Wikipedia has a quite detailed account at Pytheas

Both articles reproduce an Italian map made in 1490 that sought to reconstruct Ptolomey’s second century AD map of the British Isles which was based partly on evidence accumulated during the Roman conquest in the previous century and partly based on Pytheas’ measurements.

The reconstructed Ptolemaic map

Image: Wikipedia 

It may not be the Ordnance Survey, but, all things considered, it is no mean achievement as one looks back across the space of two millennia.

Roman armour from Trimontium

The BBC News website reports on the return to the National Museum of Scotland from the exhibition at the British Museum of the restored and reconstructed Roman brass arm guard from the military camp at Trimontium.

Trimontium, in the Borders, takes its name from the distinctive and dominant Eildon Hills, and was a forward post in the Roman attempts to either subjugate what is now Scotland or to at very least maintain a degree of control beyond Hadrian's Wall in the first and second centuries. 

There is a good introduction to the site on Wikipedia at Trimontium (Newstead)

as well as other online links to information.

Although discovered over a century ago it is only recently that this piece of armour has been identified as protection for the arm of the wearer from shoulder to wrist, and that it has been pieced together from numerous fragments. It is one of only three such pieces known to survive from the Roman Empire.

The online report can be seen at Rare reconstructed Roman armour goes on display 

An award for Wentworth Woodhouse

In my recent article about the plan to rebuild the north-west tower of the Abbey of St Denis I commented that such schemes of restoration  of great buildings struck a deep emotional chord with me. Another example I cited is the ongoing project to restore the great eighteenth century country house at Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire. The fact that this building, so historcally and architecturally important, faced such a sequence of threats to its very survival and is now, seemingly against the odds, being so imaginatively and impressively restored is, I find, deeply moving.

Yesterday the BBC News website reported that the restoration of the Camellia House and Lady Rockingham’s Tea Room at its rear had won an award from the Georgian Group as their 2024 outstanding repurposing of a building of the period. The camellias, thought to be the first imported into this country, are themselves doughty survivors as their home fell into decay around them before they, and it, were rescued.

The article can be seen at Wentworth Woodhouse Camellia house restoration recognised

For those unfamiliar with Wentworth Woodhouse there is, literally, an overview of the spectacular house - it is in effect two stately homes back-to-back - and the equally impressive stable block which can be seen at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire

The interior of part of the house can be seen in a video at Wentworth Woodhouse  - Inside the grand house

The state of much of the interior, and its very real need of restoration, is shown in another of the excellent videos produced by the Preservation Trust at Wentworth Woodhouse Off Limits: breathtaking exteriors mask a brutal reality 

A friend shared with me the latest information video from Wentworth on the ambitious aims for the Stable Block which blends the prosaic realities of adapting historic buildings with a spectacular vision of what might be achieved in coming  years. It can be seen at Stables Regeneration Phase 1: September 2024 update

Carmelite Traditional Rite

To mark the Feast of St Teresa of Avila yesterday the New Liturgical Movement posted an article with a film from the 1950s or early 1960s of the celebration at Aylesford Priory of Mass according to the traditional Carmelite Use. 

As the article explains this originally was used by the Carmwes as it was the Use of the Church of Jerusalem in the Crusader epoch. As the Carmelites moved into Europe they brought the liturgy they were used to with them. It has remained a possession and preserve of the older Carmelite community. The reformed, discalced version established by St Teresa and St John of the Cross were, after their deaths to adopt the 1570 form of Mass.

The article gives a few further introductory comments and then links to the film of the Mass. This is therefore the Mass as attended by SS Teresa and John of the Cross in the Spain of King Philip II, but also the one offered across medieval Europe in Carmelite friaries, and, until more recently, in those of the White Friars  who followed the ancient practice of the Order. Ultimately it is a living 000 link to the spiritual life of the Crusader kingdoms if the Holy Land and the founding fathers of the Order on Mount Carmel.

The article can be seen at For the Feast of St Theresa of Avila - A Film of Mass in the Ancient Carmelite Rite

The Knights Templar seek redress

We live in a litigious age, with so many seeking redress to the courts for wrongs, be they real or imagined. It reaches to the highest levels and can have wide implications.

In recent years the rather curious legal processes of the Vatican have been in the news with internal espionage and more recently charges relation to high-level fraud and corruption. All grist to the journalist’s mill and those of webmasters and bloggers. 

However a story on the usually very sober Rome based  Zenit website promised something that could be not the trial of the century but of the millennium: the Knights Templar are seeking to sue the Holy See for restitution and compensation, and to establish a new legal basis for their relationship with the Papacy.

The report can be seen at Knights Templar Sue the Pope and Call for Their Rehabilitation

Now, maybe these are not the Knights Templar from 1312, but then who knows? Some Freemasons claim thatthey are, for what that is worth…. not much in my opinion. The Portuguese Order of Christ has a good claim, as they were re-established from the Templars by King Dinis.

This Spanish based group has tried several times in recent years to sue, so we shall have to wait and see what happens.

Try to imagine calculating over seven centuries of lost income, maybe at compound interest, let alone the restitution of property. What about compensation for reputational damage? Will they want the Holy Shroud back? Will they make the French State a party as successor to King Philip IV? Given the present Pope’s oft stated opposition to the death penalty will he feel compelled to pay compensation to the heirs of Jacques de Molay, Geoffrey de Charnay and the other victims? 

Normally I have an instinctive reaction against anything other than a purely academic work that refers to the Knights Templar. Who knows, with the right lawyer, this could be fun. Maybe the courts in California would be a good place to pursue the suit.

  

St Edward the Confessor - Anglo-Saxon and Catholic Christian

Today, were it not a Sunday, would be the Feast of St Edward the Confessor, a patron of England, of the Monarchy and of the Order of the Garter. His feast is kept on the anniversary of the translation of his relics at Westminster  in 1163 and 1269 rather than the anniversary of his death.

 

  

St Edward the Confessor from the Bayeux Tapestry

Image: Wikipedia 

St Edward the Confessor from the Wilton Diptych, circa 1397

This was from probably peak of his cult under King Richard II

Image: Wikipedia

St Edward the Confessor as depicted in an icon commissioned in 2019 for his shrine in Westminster Abbey

Image: Westminster Abbey

Wikipedia, which is very detailed in its lives of Anglo-Saxon royalty, has a lengthy account of his life and cult at Edward the Confessor

The other week I posted in More academic folly  about the blinkered nonsense of those academics who re-name courses and journals dealing with Anglo-Saxon history and literature as Early English or Early Medieval - there is, I stress, nothing wrong per se in that specific terminology - because of a “woke” perception, notably in the US, that “Anglo-Saxon” has white supremacist connotations.

Thomas Casemore has written a very good article about this phenomenon, and its wider implications, in The Catholic Herald. It can be read at Another attack on Britain’s Christian heritage: Don't say 'Anglo-Saxon' Catholic

May St Edward the Confessor pray for the King and the nation

St Wilfrid

Today is the Feast of St Wilfrid, the great Northumbrian born seventh and early eighth century Bishop of York, and then of Hexham, founder of what became the see of Chichester, tireless missionary and a determined and combative fighter for the rights of the Church and its adhesion to the Roman obedience.

I have posted about him in 2010 in St Wilfrid, in 2011 in Celebrating St Wilfrid, in 2013 in More on St Wilfrid, and in 2022 in St Wilfrid. These cover more of his life and achievements, and have links to relevant sites.

I have also written about his place in the formation of Fr Faber in my 2011 article St Wilfrid and Fr Faber. Continuing the Oratorian theme in 2013 I wrote about the foundation at the church of St Wilfrid in York of a new Oratory in the city in St Wilfrid's York

A modern depiction of St Wilfrid

Image: St. Wilfrid’s Catholic High School

A while back I happened upon an online piece which interviewed the author of an English Historical Review article about the way in which those who claimed the St Wilfrid on his deathbed in 709/10 at Oundle had nominated them to succeed him in the abbacy at Ripon or to the see of Hexham, and happened to be the only witnesses to what the saint had said…. The article can be read at Historian turns detective to uncover ancient Ripon conspiracy

Whilst looking for illustrations I found a very well illustrated account of Hexham Abbey ( strictly speaking Priory) on the website of Great English Churches. This has, in addition to splendid views of the interior of the later medieval church and of the stone episcopal seat from the Anglo-Saxon era, a good selection of pictures of the significant quantity of painted decorative woodwork from the fifteenth century in the building. It may not be the greatest art but it does indicate what medieval church interiors were like. The article can be seen at Hexham Abbey

Hexham Abbey is very well worth seeing, as is the very attractive town centre as part of an exploration of Hadrian’s Wall, looking for the Wars of the Roses battlefield or at the Jacobite associations of Dilston Castle, or simply enjoying the glorious Northumberland countryside.

St Wilfrid Pray for us

The Sacristy at Westminster Abbey

Writing about the proposed rebuilding of the north-west tower and spire of the Abbey of St Denis coincides, I find, with publicity about a not altogether dissimilar project at what is in not a few ways its English equivalent as a royal monastery and necropolis, Westminster Abbey. This is the plan to rebuild on the excavated medieval foundations the Great Sacristy which was an original part of King Henry III’s scheme. It stood to the north of the nave, an almost freestanding structure on an L plan, linked at one end to the North Transept, and on the other to the north door of the nave. It was demolished in the early eighteenth century. The new building will rise from the medieval foundations and provide storage space and serve as an entrance for visitors to the Abbey, who will then walk round to the West Door to enter the main building. As a new building in the present reign it is to be named the King Charles III Sacristy.

Westminster Abbey has produced two short videos about the project which can be seen with the Dean at Introducing: The King Charles III Sacristy. and with the architect at  Designing: The King Charles III Sacristy . The main website, which includes those two videos, can be viewed at The King Charles III Sacristy | Westminster Abbey

There is also a video of The Queen visiting the site as the recently announced Patron of the scheme, which can be seen at Camilla tours site of new King Charles III Sacristy at Westminster Abbeyand in a longer version at Queen becomes Patron of Westminster Abbey's Sacristy project

There is a report on the excavation from the archaeologists responsible for the work, Pre-Construct Archaeology, which can be seen at Westminster Abbey – Pre Construct Archaeology

There are other reports from 2020  about the excavation in The Guardian at Lost medieval sacristy uncovered at Westminster Abbey, and shorter ones in Current Archaeology at Sacristy uncovered at Westminster Abbey, and in Archaeology Magazine at Medieval Great Sacristy Uncovered at Westminster Abbey - Archaeology Magazine

Rebuilding at St Denis

In 2020 I wrote about the proposal to rebuild of missing north-west tower and spire of the Abbey of St Denis. My post can be seen at Restoring St Denis

In it I write enthusiastically in favour of the scheme, and it is one, like the rebuilding of the Frauenkirke in Dresden or watching videos of the ongoing restoration of Wentworth Woodhouse in my home area, that brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. Such is the impact upon me of such restorations that so defiantly resist the destructive urges of recent times.

St Denis as it is now and as it is hoped it will be

Image:FSSPX News

I am not the only person to feel enthusiastic about the project as can be seen from the Reddit post at From the ArchitecturalRevival community on Reddit: The Basilique de Saint-Denis's Northern tower will be rebuilt, I'm so glad ! It's a really important church in French history as it was a the resting place of many kings and queens before the Revolution. They're currently running archaeological digs before starting.

There are those who are not in favour as reported by The Times in French academics at odds over €25m plans to rebuild spire of Basilica of Saint-Denis. and as set out by one critic, founder of La Tribune de l’Art quoted in The Connexion at Rebuilding church’s long lost tower is ‘historic lie’

This reminds me somewhat of the reaction in this country of that pioneering conservation group the Society for the Protection of Ancient Monuments who withdrew their intended donation towards the restoration of the west front of Wells Cathedral because the Dean and Chapter commissioned a new statue of Christ in to replace the damaged one, reduced as it was only to waist height, of the top of the west front. Leaving it as a ruin was seen by the Society as preferable to restoring the figure of Christ on the front of a functioning cathedral.

Whilst I can appreciate some of the reservations expressed by dissenters at St Denis I remain completely convinced this is the right thing to do. The foundations have been found to be secure after all, and the threat to the Merovingian era graves obviated.  There are detailed drawings from the 1840s, and some at least of the original stonework survives. The taking down of the tower and spire in 1845-6 was meant to be a temporary measure. The delay in rebuilding is an indictment of state control of church buildings, not of the idea. The fact that this planned rebuilding began in the reign of Louis Philippe speaks sufficiently for French bureaucracy, neglect and probably anti-clericalism and anti-royalism.

An article last year in Le Monde covered the excavations of the Merovingian levels and the investigation of the foundations and can be seen at Basilica of Saint-Denis: Newly discovered graves bring back the past

The scheme and debate about it is also outlined on the FSSPX News website at Work Begins on the Spire of Saint-Denis

However the nay-sayers appear to have been held at bay, and scheme does seem to be going ahead, albeit rather slowly. A report covers trading new stonemasons at Masons are restoring the church where France's kings were buried for centuries

The rebuilding is entirely privately funded and looks to attract other funding from visitors whilst they work is carried out. This has been found to be a successful fundraising method in France. The hope  is the building work will prove a means of drawing visitors to Saint Denis and thereby benefit the local economy and community. St Denis is noted as a run-down area, with a high immigrant population and a poor reputation with outsiders. One hears stories of intending visitors to the Abbey being advised against such a visit by Parisian hoteliers, or telling them to just visit the Basilica and then to come away. Some of this is covered in a 2017 article on Medieval Histories, which has links to some French websites. It can be seen at Rebuilding or Restoring the spire of Saint-Denis

Wikipedia has a good illustrated history of the fabric of the Abbey, including unrealised proposals for Bonapartist and Orleanist crypts, and of its place in the history of France and of art and architecture at Basilica of Saint-Denis

The misfortunes inflicted upon this great and noble building from the end of the medieval era until the end of the Ancien Regime is outlined in Deterioration and first renovations of the Saint-Denis Basilica. Then followed the horrific ransacking of the royal tombs and remains in 1793.

As a building the Abbey has suffered much from those with wicked intentions and from those with misguided if well intentioned ones. This rebuilding is not - it is positive, it is renewing and restoring one of the most important buildings in the history of France and of Christian Art.

St Denis Pray for this scheme and its completion, and continue to pray for his shrine church.

St Denis

Today is traditionally the day on which the Church has commemorated St Denis and his companions, three martyrs from the mid-third century. As the proto-martyrs of Paris their cult flourished in the diocese, and especially around the grave of the martyr bishop to the north of the city. This became the centre of the immensely influential abbey named in his honour, and which witnessed the birth of gothic architecture. Wikipedia has an account of his cult at Denis of Paris

I have posted about St Denis and his depiction in religious art in past years. Unfortunately not all of the images have downloaded but there is still a good selection to view. From 2011 there is St Denis and from 2015 St Denis and his companions

St Denis shown carrying his head after his execution from the Book of Hours of King Charles VIII, painted by Jean Bourdichon. His two companions can be seen at the bottom left.

Image: Wikipedia 

St Denis is probably the most famous cephalaphore saint, and artists and sculptors have depicted him carrying his head in various ways, and sometimes carrying his physical head but having on his shoulders a replacement spiritual one. 

The Last Communion and Martyrdom of St Denis

Commissioned from Henri Bellechose in 1416 by Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy for the Carthusian monastery of Champnol near Dijon. Now in the Louvre.

The spectacular use of blue and gold in the depiction of the vestments is presumably intended to evoke the imagery of the fleur-de-lys of the French monarchy.

The obvious brickwork in the tower on the left points to the Netherlandish origins of the artist. 

The figure of the executioner is interesting. In a painting of the martyrdom of St John the Baptist Rogier van der Weyden, and in a BL Royal MS, executioners are shown like this one as having rolled their hose down to their knees. Was this to avoid blood splatter on their clothing? The axe is typical of the type used for beheadings in Germany and Scandinavia until modern times, and more like a meat cleaver than the English type of executioner’s axe, which can be seen in the example on display in the Tower of London. This looks to be an artist drawing upon actual practice or experience.

Image: Wikipedia 

I will post separately about the plans to rebuild the north western tower of the abbey church - now designated a minor basilica and the cathedral of a diocese - which I wrote about in 2020.

St Denis and his companions Pray for us

St John Henry Newman

Today is the Feast of St John Henry Newman. The date was selected as it is the anniversary of his reception into the Catholic Church by Bl. Dominic Barberi in The College at Littlemore in 1845.

The Newman Canonisation Resource has an illustrated biography with a fine selection of quotations from his writings at About Newman — Saint John Henry

St John Henry Newman about the time of his reception into the Catholic Church.

The original drawing was done in 1844 by George Richmond. After Newman joined Oratory in 1848 this engraved version was produced showing him with an Oratorian collar. It is said that Richmond persuaded him to remove his spectacles so that as an artist he could capture this image, presenting a Newman slightly idealised as a spiritual man, a man with a mission.

Image: Maryvale Institute

Of the writing of books about Newman there seems to be no end, aided in part by the great volume of his writings, both for publication and as private correspondence. His wide ranging intellect and his scholarly method resulted in a treasure trove of Catholic thought and spirituality. Whilst his literary style is, naturally, that of his time it is also elegant and, in that sense, classical English prose, easy to follow in its lucidity, but enriching in its profundity. His writings, like his whole life, were a blending of a very English, Oxford education with deep personal faith that led him on this day 179 years ago, into the Catholic Church, and his embrace of its vast spiritual treasury. A man of the English nineteenth century he developed into one of universal interest and appeal.

A late photograph of St John Henry in his robes as a Cardinal. In reality he very rarely wore them.

Image:Reddit

St John Henry Newman Pray for us

The Shroud of Turin and AI

The recent publicity about the recent research into the date of the Shroud of Turin, about which I have posted several times recently, has now yielded another article. This is in the Daily Express who have produced an AI reconstruction of the Man in the Shroud. I have seen at least one artist’s impression of the face which looks very credible, but this new image has greater impact on the modern eye, accustomed as we are to photographs. Like all such facial reconstructions it carries all the strengths and limitations of a developing technology with it, but it seems to be a very impressive result. As with all things to do with the Holy Shroud it is at the interface of science and faith. 

The article, and the facial reconstruction can be seen at 'Face of Jesus' unveiled by AI using Shroud of Turin after astonishing discovery

The Numerology of the Rosary expounded

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the anniversary of the battle of Lepanto in 1571, and this month of October is traditionally presented as being dedicated to the Rosary.

To mark today’s liturgy and the theme for the month the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter have an article on their Minute Missive website by Fr William Rock FSSP about the various and varied interpretations that have been offered for the  number of beads and Aves that comprise a complete rosary. Some of these derive from Scripture, others from mathematics, and virtually none are exclusive of others. There are not a few interesting coincidences along the way. 

The article can be read at There's Something Fishy about that there Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Victories, Pray for us

The evolution of the Lincolnshire Coastline

The other evening I came upon a really excellent online video about the evolution over much of the last two millennia of the Lincolnshire coast. It is presented by Dr Caitlin Green whose work on this subject I have encountered before. The story she tells is fascinating, and more complex than being merely a story of gradual coastal erosion as in the case of the East Riding with its many villages swept away by the North Sea or of the eastern coast of Norfolk and Suffolk and the loss of towns such as Dunwich. Whether you know the area or not it is very interesting as a survey of change and human adaptation over time.

The video can be watched at The Changing Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Coastline of Lincolnshire, with Dr Caitlin Green

The new dating work on the Shroud of Turin

The Daily Telegraph has an article about the most recent work to try to establish a secure scientific date for the Shroud of Turin. I wrote about this recently in The science of the Shroud of Turin and in More on the Holy Shroud

This new article looks at the X-ray method involved and talks to the scientists who conducted the investigation. This assigns a clear first century date, compatible with other, archaeological, finds from the Holy Land. As the scientists involved say they have proved its age. That does not “prove” the Gospel accounts, but it goes a significant way, a very significant way, towards making them believable to a sceptical modern world. As I wrote in my recent posts on this matter absolute certainty can never be obtained, but the judicial burdens of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” or of “with reasonable certainty” can be applied when we are seeking an answer. The article can be seen at We proved how old the Shroud of Turin really is – the rest is a matter of faith

I have posted previously about the Shroud in earlier years as in 2012 in The Shroud of Turin and in 2021 in The Shroud of Turin

Historic Woodland management by coppicing

Some months back I read Oliver Rackhams’s really splendid books Trees and Woodland in the British Countryside and The History of the Countryside. Anyone interested in history - national or local - or in conservation, or simply who enjoys being out and about in the country shoykd not only read them, but own copies as essential works alongside Hoskins’ The Making of the English Landscape. One of the things Rackham brings out is that woodland was a managed asset, tended and protected, and also harvested. One way of doing this was by coppicing trees to produce multiple stems which could be cut on a rota over the years.

Watching the videos to which I referred in my recent post Living the life of an Anglo-Saxon I found the site features coppicing in Tree Felling and Regenerating Ancient Hazel Coppice with an Axe | Early Medieval Woodland Management

 

I subsequently came acros other websites on coppicing and its place in the history of woodland management. They can be seen at The Art of Coppicing: Ancient Woodland Management Techniques Explained, at Coppicing Hazel, Why, When & How and at Pollarding vs Coppicing

St Thomas of Hereford

Today is the Feast of St Thomas of Hereford, who died in 1282, and whose canonisation in 1320 was the last of a non-martyr Englishman until that of St John Henry Newman.

I wrote about St Thomas and his well documented process of canonisation and his cult in St Thomas of Hereford in 2011, and I added to that in the following year in St Thomas of Hereford

St Thomas of Hereford

From a stained glass window commissioned by one of his successors, Thomas Spofford OSB, in 1430 for his episcopal chapel in his Manor House at Stratton Sugwas. Now in the church at Ross on Wye

Image:Flickr

Looking online I see that Wikipedia has a quite detailed account of his life and canonisation at Thomas de Cantilupe. As an article it is superior to many biographies of medieval ecclesiastical figures on that site in drawing out details of his life and career and his family connections.

This does not mention in his early preferments the church at Kirk Deighton in the central West Riding. Though he may well have had little to do with it directly it raised my awareness of him, as it is relatively close to my home area, and a handsome building in its own right. His leading role in the life of thirteenth century Oxford before his elevation to the episcopate caught my attention when studying the history of the University.

There is a really splendidly illustrated 2019 article from the website of Belmont Abbey, which lies just on the western outskirts of the city of Hereford. It is by the Dean of Hereford and  looks at the life and relics of the saint. It can be seen here

The British Medical Journal in 1990 had an interesting article which examined some of the stories of those who believed they had been saved by the intercession of St Thomas, and which looks into the medical conditions which may be being described.  Not only is that interesting but they also are revealing of incidental features of life at the time, both in Herefordshire and further afield. It can be read here

There is an excellent study of the representation of St Thomas in medieval art by Ian L. Blass in ‘Commemorating Cantilupe: England’s Other St Thomas: The Iconography of England’s Second St Thomas’ in The Antiquaries Journal, 2023, pp 1-23 © The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London.  Together with another article by the same author examining the recorded evidence for the miracles attributed to St Thomas and a recent Oxford D.Phil thesis on his cult by Andrew Fleming can all be accessed on Researchgate. net by entering that and St Thomas Cantilupe. 

May St Thomas of Hereford pray for us

The Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Winchester Cathedral

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

In 2020 I posted the Breviary Mattins readings from St Bernard of Clairvaux, together with a picture of the thirteenth century vault painting in the chapel dedicated to the Guardian Angels in the retrochoir of the cathedral at Winchester. This can be seen at St Bernard on the Guardian Angels

 

I had previously posted about the vault paintings in 2012 in a piece which can be seen at Guardian Angels at Winchester

This draws attention to the similar scheme which can be seen extending over the vault of the choir and eastern transepts of Salisbury Cathedral and which must be from the same period. I am not sure how extensively that scheme has been restored. In the south transept of Lincoln Cathedral is a restored vault decoration of foliage which must be in origin also of that period and probably part of a much more extensive scheme. The idea a blue ground with stars, which is part of the Winchester arrangement, became very popular and was a feature of the fourteenth century Lady Chapel at Ely and the nave and choir vaults of York Minster from that same century. Remains of a similar starry vault can be seen in the chapel at Rycote in Oxfordshire. Such schemes survive on the continent.

The vault of the Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Winchester Cathedral

Image: Wikimedia

I have now found a more detailed online account of the paintings, and their relationship to the court painters of King Henry III, with his close connections with the cathedral and city, an article which can be seen here

There is a close-up view of part of the ceiling at Look up in the Guardian Angels Chapel and you will see some #NightofStars #FollowTheStar  and a picture of the complete vault at Photographs of Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England: Ceiling of the guardian angels chapel

A further insight into the later medieval appearance of the interior of the chapel - and of the ruthlessness of sixteenth century iconoclast “reformers” - can be obtained from an article in the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society from 1990 which discusses and identifies figures from the reredos of the chapel. It can be seen online here 

May the Guardian Angels ever defend us