Things get repeated

My blog got neglected. In this week I hope to have enough time to post about the tradition about Holy Grail in the church of Bezlawki. Now simply my reflection about how things get repeated over and over again.

I watched for short moments the live broadcast by BBC  today, it was about pope retiring. One of the journalists said about the uniforms of the Swiss Guard that those were designed by Michelangleo. No, there were designed during the beginning of the XXc. Did Dan Brown was talking about it? Yes, he did. Pop cultural version of historical facts.

Form Wiki commons,  part of  treatise about opitcs by Bacon

 There are more opinions repeated as facts.For example that people during medieval times believed that Earth was flat. No, already ancient Greeks knew about spherical Earth and would be difficult to find any scholar who believed in flat Earth.Or that all believed that the Earth was center of the Universe. Or that medicine was based on prayers and superstition. ( Medieval medicine if wasn't folk medicine was exactly the same as in Antiquity). Or that in medicine there was no dissection of corpses at all. Or that there was no interest in chemistry. (It was, thanks to Arab writings which were  read by monks). There is quite a number of strange beliefs about history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which don't get corrected by the pop culture.Why? Because those beliefs help to create those periods in some kind of monolitic icons which than have more popular appeal.

 After all it is more interesting to say and believe that the Swiss Guards uniforms were designed by such a giant as Michelangelo himself, instead of giving credit to some obscure commandant of XXc. People often say that history was written by victors ( not exactly correct, it was actually written by others than victors too). Not only victors shape views of history, also common biases and what are common preferences, what people gladly believe, and what they dismiss as uninteresting, even if the uninteresting facts are closer to historical truth than interesting historical pieces of gossip.

History of Science at Chartres Cathedral, and Zodiac

In the previous post there was Zodiac window form Chartres, today is the astronomical clock. Strange setting for such symbols?

No way. Zodiac then was nothing unusual in churches. So, why all the mystery so many tourists talk about? Actually there is nothing mysterious about it. Explanation follows.

Chartres Cathedral Choir, Astronomical Clock, via Wikimedia Commons, thanks to Harmonia Amanda

First, the clock comes form XVI c. but its ideological roots are medieval, and proto-scientific, not really esoteric. Astronomy, astrology, the synthesizing medieval minds didn't see the difference.

 It is a common misconception that the Middle Ages were not interested in science, only in religion, or there was no reading of Classical texts before the Renaissance. Actually the classics were read, not as widely as  during the Renaissance, of course, but were not unknown, rather kept in high esteem. Many Classical and Arabic texts of science were translated into Latin. Arabic texts about astronomy, mathematics, anatomy and chemistry, and medicine contributed a lot in development of Western medical sciences, we often forget about it. Or simply don't want to know. And there was no agreement about if the Sun was the center of Universe or moved around the Earth. The official decision   in favor of the Earth as the center of the Universe came later. Science was fine as long it didn't oppose any dogma. For example the theological idea of dignity of the human body was applied to the medical field, and this particular idea didn't allow dissecting human corpses for anatomical research. Dead animals were dissected instead, specially pigs. Sometimes, rarely, human bodies were dissected also.

Chartres itself had a cathedral school, as often was the case with such buildings: there were also centers of learning, not only part of religious live of communities as today. Chartres was one of such centers, and was among the famous ones. Neo-Platonism was flourishing there, sciences were treated as separated from theology. A number of so called than natural philosophers (philosophers interested in science) came from Chartres. School of Chartres became less influential when universities started to compete with cathedral schools, but this was a case with all cathedral schools.

So, if the clerics of Chartres were so scientifically minded, why such thing as Zodiac in the cathedral?

 Here we need to understand the mind of people who lived before us, and don't project our XXI c. world view on them. The clerics form Chartres were still products of their times, and during their times astrology was science, before the Catholic Church opposed it, and before it was mocked  by the scientists of the Enlightenment era as superstition, not a scinece. Medicine was part of curriculum at Chartres school, and astrology was officially part of medicine also. Here is the illumination dealing with the human body as related to Zodiac.

Anatomical Zodiac Man, Limburg Brothers, Book of Hours of Duke de Berry, illuminated manuscript tempera on vellum, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, thanks to Petrus Berbygere

In addition to proto-scientific reasons, Zodiac was a very popular motive in depictions of passing time. One  was very common:  the labors of the months. Frequently months and Zodiac signs were tied together, and this is often found in medieval churches and religious  manuscripts. Labors of the months showed secular world. Zodiac window at Chartres belongs to this popular category. Here is incomplete list of  zodiacs and labours of months in churches.

 Another example, most famous of this type is the series of illuminations from the mentioned  Book of Hours of Duke de Berry, (the same book from which the illumination above comes from). It is not the only example of this kind, but among the most beautiful ones, if not the most skilfully rendered, so far. Here it is, via Wikipedia article and picture gallery.

The Book of Hours of Duke de Berry is  of the most beautiful examples of book illumination in International Gothic style, and contains a very good example of Gothic blue, specially loved and used in France.

 Art history itself is an interdisciplinary endeavor, and understanding history of science or cultural history can enhance knowledge of art. Art doesn't exist in historical vacuum. It is connected to the world around, it exists in historical contexts. Striping old art form its historical context can give us only partial insight, and lead to some  misunderstanding too, some of them can be quite funny.