DOI article:
Pastan, Elizabeth Carson: A window on Panofsky’s Gothic architecture and scholasticism
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59426#0084
83
familiar a part of the educated mans visual experience as
the graph is of the modern readers.”55 The Walters Cos-
mography is a typical monastic schoolbook of c. 1190-1200
which is probably English in origin, and at only 9 folios,
excerpted from a larger volume.56 Fully 18 of its 20 dia-
grams take the form of rotae, and besides the winds, these
include: the signs of the Zodiac, planetary orbits, solstices
and equinoxes, phases of the moon, climate zones, har-
mony of the elements, seasons and humors, movement
of the tides, and a consanguinity chart indicating degrees
of kinship that determine whether individuals related by
blood may marry. The rota diagrams in much of this text
might be imagined as a kind of stand-in for the cosmos,
demonstrating the underlying order of the created uni-
verse, enunciated in the accompanying texts from Bede,
Isidore of Seville, and Abbo of Fleury. However, the con-
sanguinity chart on f. 9г also adopts this wheel-shaped
format, underscoring that medieval authors used circular
compositions for organizing all kinds of knowledge sys-
tems.57 In addition to cosmology, medieval rotae also con-
tain content drawn from the liturgy,58 philosophy and the
liberal arts, typology, and the virtues and vices.59
55 M. Evans, ‘The Geometry of the Mind’, Architectural Associa-
tion Quarterly, 12, 1980, no. 4, pp. 32-55 at 43. Evans also makes
the point that although wheel diagrams were the most popular,
they were one of several different types of medieval diagrams,
which included trees, towers and ladders. On this point, also see
J.E. Murdoch, Album of Science: Antiquity and the Middle Ages,
New York, 1984, esp. 15-84.
56 See H. Bober, ‘An Illustrated Medieval School-Book of Bedes
‘De Natura Rerum”, The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 19/20,
1956-1957, pp. 64-97; M. Holcomb, Pen and Parchment: Drawing
in the Middle Ages, [ex. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, June 2-August 23, 2009], New York-New Haven,
2009, cat. no. 28, pp. 105-107; K.A. Smith in The Digital Walters:
http://thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/
W73/description (accessed 28 April 2021); L. Cleaver, ‘On the
Nature of Things: The Content and Purpose of Walters W.73
and Decorated Treatises on Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth
Century’, Journal of the Walters Art Museum, 68-69, 2010-2011,
pp. 21-30.
57 R. Suckale, ‘Thesen’, pp. 264-65 (as in note 53); and now beau-
tifully developed in contributions to the anthology, The Visual-
ization of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds.
M. Kupfer, A.S. Cohen, J.H. Chajes, Turnhout, 2020.
58 J. Hamburger, ‘Haec Figura Demonstrat: Diagrams in an ear-
ly-thirteenth century Parisian copy of Lothar de Segni ’s De Mis-
sarum Mysteriis’, Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 58, 2009,
PP- 7-76 at p. 9.
59 This is by no means an exhaustive list. The examples named here
are from the learned text that Herrad of Hohenbourg compiled
near the end of the twelfth century for the nuns of her convent.
See The Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Hohenbourg, ed. R. Green
et al., 2 vols., London, 1979 (= Studies of the Warburg Institute
36), 1:104-106, no. 33: Philosophy and the Liberal Arts; pp. 131-132,
A rose window might well be regarded as “a rota dia-
gram writ large,” a connection which the etymology sup-
ports.60 Scholars had long suspected there was a connec-
tion between rotae and rose windows, based on the south
transept rose of Lausanne Cathedral of c. 1190, the vitre-
ous contents of which evoke a cosmological diagram,61
and the later south transept rose windows of Strasbourg
Cathedral of c. 1228-1235,62 which adapt a contrasting
pair of rotae portraying Old and New Testament Sacri-
fice from the Hortus Deliciarum.63 Attesting to their ori-
gin in a scholarly context, the roses in Strasbourg have
an unusually large number of inscriptions identifying the
personifications within, which match those in the Hortus
Deliciarum word for word.64
Beyond their shared circular forms and etymology,
however, there may also be a connection between the
function of rotae and early rose windows. I refer here to
the cumulative role played by rota diagrams in medieval
no. 98: Old and New Testament Sacrifices; and pp. 195-196, nos.
282-283 the Chariots of Avaritia and Misericordia.
60 J. Hamburger, ‘Haec Figura Demonstrat’, p. 9 (as in note 58).
Among others, W. Ranke, ‘Frühe Rundfenster in Italien, Inaugu-
ral-Dissertation, The Free University, Berlin, 1968, pp. 72-76 and
R. Suckale, ‘Thesen’, pp. 280-284 (as in note 53) have noted the
similarity of rose windows to rota diagrams.
61 For the south transept rose at Lausanne Cathedral, now see
Ch. Amsler et al., La Rose de la cathédrale de Lausanne: Histoire
et conservation récente, Lausanne, 1999); and the foundational
studies by E.J. Beer, Die Rose der Kathedrale von Lausanne und
der kosmologische Bilderkreis des Mittelalters, Berne, 19 52), and
eadem, ‘Nouvelles réflexions sur l’image du monde dans la ca-
thédrale de Lausanne’, Revue de l’Art, 10,1970, pp. 58-62. In ad-
dition, see E. Carson Pastan, B. Kurmann-Schwarz, ‘Seeing
and Not Seeing the Rose Window of Lausanne Cathedral’, in Un-
folding Narratives: Art, Architecture, and the Moving Viewer, circa
300-1500 CE, eds. A. Heath, G. Elliott, Brill, 2021, pp. 1-23.
62 The south transept roses of Strasbourg Cathedral are 4.65 meters
in diameter each. See J. Walter, ‘Les deux roses du transept sud
de la cathédrale de Strasbourg’, Archives Alsaciennes d’histoire de
l’art, 7,1928, pp. 13-33; V. Beyer, Ch. Wild-Block, F. Zschokke,
Les vitraux de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, Paris, 1986
(= Corpus Vitrearum France 9-1), pp. 123-140; J.-Ph. Meyer,
B. Kurmann-Schwarz, La cathédrale de Strasbourg choeur et
transept: de l’art roman au gothique (vers 1180-1240), Strasbourg,
2010, pp. 251-270.
63 See The Hortus Deliciarum, I: 131-32, no. 98; II: 11-12, plates 46
and 47 (as in note 59). For lucid discussions of how rotae in the
Hortus Delicarum functioned, see A. Krüger, G. Runge, ‘Lift-
ing the Veil: Two Typological Diagrams in the Hortus Deliciarum’,
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 60,1997, pp. 1-22;
D.B. Joyner, ‘Counting Time and Comprehending History in the
Hortus Deliciarum’, in Was Zählt: Ordnungsangebote, Gebrauchs-
formen und Erfahrungsmodalitäten des “numerus” im Mittelalter,
ed. M. Wedell, Cologne, 2012, pp. 105-118.
64 J.-Ph. Meyer, B. Kurmann-Schwarz, Cathédrale de Strasbourg,
p. 266 (as in note 62).
familiar a part of the educated mans visual experience as
the graph is of the modern readers.”55 The Walters Cos-
mography is a typical monastic schoolbook of c. 1190-1200
which is probably English in origin, and at only 9 folios,
excerpted from a larger volume.56 Fully 18 of its 20 dia-
grams take the form of rotae, and besides the winds, these
include: the signs of the Zodiac, planetary orbits, solstices
and equinoxes, phases of the moon, climate zones, har-
mony of the elements, seasons and humors, movement
of the tides, and a consanguinity chart indicating degrees
of kinship that determine whether individuals related by
blood may marry. The rota diagrams in much of this text
might be imagined as a kind of stand-in for the cosmos,
demonstrating the underlying order of the created uni-
verse, enunciated in the accompanying texts from Bede,
Isidore of Seville, and Abbo of Fleury. However, the con-
sanguinity chart on f. 9г also adopts this wheel-shaped
format, underscoring that medieval authors used circular
compositions for organizing all kinds of knowledge sys-
tems.57 In addition to cosmology, medieval rotae also con-
tain content drawn from the liturgy,58 philosophy and the
liberal arts, typology, and the virtues and vices.59
55 M. Evans, ‘The Geometry of the Mind’, Architectural Associa-
tion Quarterly, 12, 1980, no. 4, pp. 32-55 at 43. Evans also makes
the point that although wheel diagrams were the most popular,
they were one of several different types of medieval diagrams,
which included trees, towers and ladders. On this point, also see
J.E. Murdoch, Album of Science: Antiquity and the Middle Ages,
New York, 1984, esp. 15-84.
56 See H. Bober, ‘An Illustrated Medieval School-Book of Bedes
‘De Natura Rerum”, The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 19/20,
1956-1957, pp. 64-97; M. Holcomb, Pen and Parchment: Drawing
in the Middle Ages, [ex. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, June 2-August 23, 2009], New York-New Haven,
2009, cat. no. 28, pp. 105-107; K.A. Smith in The Digital Walters:
http://thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/
W73/description (accessed 28 April 2021); L. Cleaver, ‘On the
Nature of Things: The Content and Purpose of Walters W.73
and Decorated Treatises on Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth
Century’, Journal of the Walters Art Museum, 68-69, 2010-2011,
pp. 21-30.
57 R. Suckale, ‘Thesen’, pp. 264-65 (as in note 53); and now beau-
tifully developed in contributions to the anthology, The Visual-
ization of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds.
M. Kupfer, A.S. Cohen, J.H. Chajes, Turnhout, 2020.
58 J. Hamburger, ‘Haec Figura Demonstrat: Diagrams in an ear-
ly-thirteenth century Parisian copy of Lothar de Segni ’s De Mis-
sarum Mysteriis’, Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 58, 2009,
PP- 7-76 at p. 9.
59 This is by no means an exhaustive list. The examples named here
are from the learned text that Herrad of Hohenbourg compiled
near the end of the twelfth century for the nuns of her convent.
See The Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Hohenbourg, ed. R. Green
et al., 2 vols., London, 1979 (= Studies of the Warburg Institute
36), 1:104-106, no. 33: Philosophy and the Liberal Arts; pp. 131-132,
A rose window might well be regarded as “a rota dia-
gram writ large,” a connection which the etymology sup-
ports.60 Scholars had long suspected there was a connec-
tion between rotae and rose windows, based on the south
transept rose of Lausanne Cathedral of c. 1190, the vitre-
ous contents of which evoke a cosmological diagram,61
and the later south transept rose windows of Strasbourg
Cathedral of c. 1228-1235,62 which adapt a contrasting
pair of rotae portraying Old and New Testament Sacri-
fice from the Hortus Deliciarum.63 Attesting to their ori-
gin in a scholarly context, the roses in Strasbourg have
an unusually large number of inscriptions identifying the
personifications within, which match those in the Hortus
Deliciarum word for word.64
Beyond their shared circular forms and etymology,
however, there may also be a connection between the
function of rotae and early rose windows. I refer here to
the cumulative role played by rota diagrams in medieval
no. 98: Old and New Testament Sacrifices; and pp. 195-196, nos.
282-283 the Chariots of Avaritia and Misericordia.
60 J. Hamburger, ‘Haec Figura Demonstrat’, p. 9 (as in note 58).
Among others, W. Ranke, ‘Frühe Rundfenster in Italien, Inaugu-
ral-Dissertation, The Free University, Berlin, 1968, pp. 72-76 and
R. Suckale, ‘Thesen’, pp. 280-284 (as in note 53) have noted the
similarity of rose windows to rota diagrams.
61 For the south transept rose at Lausanne Cathedral, now see
Ch. Amsler et al., La Rose de la cathédrale de Lausanne: Histoire
et conservation récente, Lausanne, 1999); and the foundational
studies by E.J. Beer, Die Rose der Kathedrale von Lausanne und
der kosmologische Bilderkreis des Mittelalters, Berne, 19 52), and
eadem, ‘Nouvelles réflexions sur l’image du monde dans la ca-
thédrale de Lausanne’, Revue de l’Art, 10,1970, pp. 58-62. In ad-
dition, see E. Carson Pastan, B. Kurmann-Schwarz, ‘Seeing
and Not Seeing the Rose Window of Lausanne Cathedral’, in Un-
folding Narratives: Art, Architecture, and the Moving Viewer, circa
300-1500 CE, eds. A. Heath, G. Elliott, Brill, 2021, pp. 1-23.
62 The south transept roses of Strasbourg Cathedral are 4.65 meters
in diameter each. See J. Walter, ‘Les deux roses du transept sud
de la cathédrale de Strasbourg’, Archives Alsaciennes d’histoire de
l’art, 7,1928, pp. 13-33; V. Beyer, Ch. Wild-Block, F. Zschokke,
Les vitraux de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, Paris, 1986
(= Corpus Vitrearum France 9-1), pp. 123-140; J.-Ph. Meyer,
B. Kurmann-Schwarz, La cathédrale de Strasbourg choeur et
transept: de l’art roman au gothique (vers 1180-1240), Strasbourg,
2010, pp. 251-270.
63 See The Hortus Deliciarum, I: 131-32, no. 98; II: 11-12, plates 46
and 47 (as in note 59). For lucid discussions of how rotae in the
Hortus Delicarum functioned, see A. Krüger, G. Runge, ‘Lift-
ing the Veil: Two Typological Diagrams in the Hortus Deliciarum’,
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 60,1997, pp. 1-22;
D.B. Joyner, ‘Counting Time and Comprehending History in the
Hortus Deliciarum’, in Was Zählt: Ordnungsangebote, Gebrauchs-
formen und Erfahrungsmodalitäten des “numerus” im Mittelalter,
ed. M. Wedell, Cologne, 2012, pp. 105-118.
64 J.-Ph. Meyer, B. Kurmann-Schwarz, Cathédrale de Strasbourg,
p. 266 (as in note 62).