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Paradoxplace Photo Galleries
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About Paradoxplace
Medieval Illustrations of Labours of the Month, Zodiac Signs, Cardinal
Virtues and Sins
BRITAIN
FRANCE
ITALY
Back to Paradoxplace Medieval Christian Church Page Links
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The archivolts, door jams, facade
reliefs and floors of many
Romanesque and Gothic churches contained reliefs, mosaics or medallions which represented
either or both of the twelve signs of the Zodiac and the twelve typical activities
associated with them. This material is also to be found in
misericords, and sometimes there were also other subjects,
such as illustrations (reminders ?) of
the Cardinal & Christian virtues and sins.
Great examples of the genre are to be found
in Burgundy in the
Cathédrale St-Lazare,
Autun and the
Basilique Ste-Madeleine, Vézelay. Chartres Cathedral has a
magnificent
"Zodiac" stained glass window dating
from 1217, plus archivolt sculptures in two of its three portal
ensembles, whilst
Notre Dame de-Paris has a full array of zodiacs, sins
etc in its west rose window and in (mostly replica) sculptures on the door jams of the
(west facade) Coronation Portal, and
Angers Cathedral has zodiacs in one
transept rose window and labours in the facing one.
In
Otranto (Puglia)
monthly activities and zodiac signs are to be found in the eastern nave
section of the
mosaics which cover the entire cathedral floor, and there are
several other examples in reliefs in northern Italian churches. In
Perugia, the monthly labours are portrayed in some of the relief panels
ringing the bottom tier of the magnificent
Fontana Maggiore outside the Duomo.
Canterbury
Cathedral has a well worn set of large round Zodiac medallions
inset into the east (Trinity Chapel) floor near where the Shrine of Saint Thomas used to
be, whilst a bit further south in Kent (at
Brooklands in the Romney Marshes) there is a beautiful Norman lead font with
reliefs of both zodiac signs and monthly labours (one and two thirds
times over).
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Paradoxplace and its associated sites
have other
photo pages of zodiacs and there are several more photographed
and awaiting their turn to be published (see the links below), .
This page also lists other places we have not been to
(yet), or went to before we became interested in this subject (and
therefore now have to go back!)
These pages relate to sculpture, mosaics,
misericords and
stained glass representations of zodiac signs, monthly activities,
virtues and sins. The book by Henisch on the right has an emphasis
on medieval books of hours,
many of which had
beautiful illustrations of monthly labours.
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colour coding |
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XXX - Link to Photos in
Paradoxplace
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XXX - Photos in
paradoxplace photo-library but not yet published
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XXX - Link to External Site;
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XXX - No links or photos at this
stage |
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BRITAIN
roughly north (top) to
south
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Carlisle Cathedral (choir capitals) |
A full set of monthly
activity scenes is incorporated into the choir capitals, but
only half are visible at all because of the subsequently erected
ugly dark choir panelling, and some of the other half that
can be seen are
pretty obscure!
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Church of St Margaret, Walmgate, York |
Scroll down to
"South Doorway" section. Looks like the remains of a complete Zodiac / Labours
cycle, but not in good nick!
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Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk - Saint Mary |
The square stone font has
three relief panels on each side depicting labours (and some
relaxations) of the months. The font is in outstanding
condition, especially considering that it spent several
decades in bits in a rockery garden.
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Church of Saint George, Brinsop,
Herefordshire |
A weathered Pisces and
Taurus are to be found sculptured on two of the voussoirs
circling the St George tympanum over the main north door of
the church. Sagittarius has found his way onto an
inner voussoir on the north side.
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Great Malvern Priory, Worcestershire |
Misericords.
Link to more photos from Holly Hayes.
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Church of Saint Mary the Virgin,
Iffley, Oxfordshire |
The Norman portal on the
west front of this attractive Romanesque parish church has
some zodiac signs in the outer archivolt.
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Canterbury Cathedral (Trinity Chapel floor
medallions) |
Next to where the
shrine of St Thomas (Becket) used to be (now called the
Trinity Chapel), this elegantly
worn set of floor roundels
depict months, labours, vices, virtues and a couple of
heroes.

Canterbury Cathedral medieval floor
medallion - Cancer
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St Nicholas, Barfreston
(Kent) |
The outer archivolt of the south
door of the 1100s church has 14 roundels, mainly depicting monthly
activities. Barfreston lies between Canterbury and Dover, a road
traversed in ignorance hundreds of times by the Paradox ! |
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Brookland (Romney Marshes, Kent) - Church of Saint Augustine |
A rare example in Britain
of both Zodiacs and Monthly Activities together (almost twice over) is to be
found in the wrap around stamped lead of Saint Augustine's 1100s font
(see photo at top of page). |
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colour coding |
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XXX - Link to Photos in
Paradoxplace
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XXX - Photos in
paradoxplace photo-library but not yet published
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XXX - Link to External Site;
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XXX - No links or photos at this
stage |
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FRANCE
roughly north (top) to
south
Link to The Medieval Pilgrimage Roads
of France
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Amiens Cathedral (Link
to some photos)
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The lower part of the
west portals is faced by a masonry band within which sit two
rows of quatrefoil framed bass reliefs. These include
representations of Zodiac signs, monthly labours, vices and
virtues and ? (a quatrefoil has an outline shape
similar to a four leaved clover, a trefoil would be like a
three leaf clover, etc). The photo link on the left also has
images of the last judgement tympanum.
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Soissons Cathedral
(between Amiens and Reims)
The photo on the right comes from
a wonderful book
"The Rose Window" by Painton
Cowen
Buy
from Amazon USA
Buy from Amazon UK 
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Zodiac window with
panels thought to have come originally from a rose window in
Braine Abbey - much of the glass replaced in the late 1800s
but no less interesting or beautiful for that.

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Basilique St-Denis (near
Paris, the first Gothic "cathedral")
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On the doors of the
western facade, a set of Zodiac signs is
on the two north door jams, whilst a matching set of
monthly activities is on the south door jams.
In
the north ambulatory pavement is a mosaic of October's activity -
winemaking ... the only survivor of what would have been a
set of 12 dating from the 1100s. |
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Paris -
Notre Dame Cathedral
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West
Rose Window (partially obscured by organ pipes, but it is a
full cycle of 12 Zodiacs, 12 monthly activities, 12 vices
and 12 virtues so it's worth having a good look with the
binoculars)
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Door Jams of the (north) west portal
(the Coronation Portal or Portal of the Virgin). |
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Paris -
Basilique St-Germain
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Paris -
Museums
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Reims Cathedral
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There are the remains
of what could be monthly labours on the wall next to the
famous smiling angel, and presumably more on the other side
of the doorway.
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Reims - St-Remi Museum
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February foot warming
capital (1100s), a Sagittarius roundel (1400s) and others. |
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Vézelay - Basilique Ste-Madeleine
- archivolt of the main west door |
A complete set of
sculpted roundels illustrating both Zodiac signs and labours
of the month are in the outer archivolt of the main west
door. |
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Autun - St-Lazare Cathedral
January to May
June to December |
A complete set of
sculpted roundels illustrating both Zodiac signs and labours
of the month are in the outer archivolt of the main west
door, and in these two paradoxplace pages. |
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In the Chapter House,
one of Gislebertus' capitals
shows
Generosity v Greed (Avarice), and Abstinence v Gluttony. |
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St. Philibert in Tournus |
A few large mosaic
roundels have been uncovered in the ambulatory and cleaned.
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Avallon - St-Lazare, (North Burgundy) |
The west portal archivolt of this charismatic old Clunaic
Priory church has a weathered set of zodiacs and monthly
activities. |
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Chartres - Notre Dame Cathedral
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The "Zodiac
Window" in
Chartres cathedral shows all the zodiac signs and monthly
labours in magic stained glass panels. The paradoxplace pages explain the window and show large photos
of the individual frames
Links to:
Zodiac Window Overview
Individual Frames
A: Aquarius to Taurus
Individual Frames
B: Cancer to Capricorn
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The archivolts of the
north door of the west portal, and the east door of the
north portal, both have sculptured Zodiac and monthly labour
cycles (which will appear in Paradoxplace). |
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Angers, Cathédrale
St-Maurice
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Signs of the zodiac
are displayed in circular stained glass panels at the end
of the "spokes" of the upper half of the south rose window,
and labours of the months are shown in a similar way in the
north rose window. And we spent two
hours there and noticed neither of them
...... but nonetheless we do have a photo.
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St-Savin-sur-Gartempe
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There was at one stage
an arch full of painted zodiacs just inside the abbey
church's west door. Nowadays most have worn off
completely, and
even what remains is hardly visible. So, no photos in
Paradoxplace, though there are some of the church and its
famous frescos (in 2007 mostly hidden for a long term
restoration unlikely to finish for another couple of years). |
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St-Nicholas, Civray
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Near the via Turonensis
south of Poitiers - a few surviving archivolt figures. |
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St-Pierre, Aulnay
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On the via Turonensis
south of Poitiers - a few surviving archivolt figures. |
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Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Bordeaux
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Archivolt of main facade
door has zodiacs and labours of the months. |
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Bazas Cathedral
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On the via Lemovicensis
south of Bergerac - a few surviving archivolt figures. |
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Issoires (South of
Clermont-Ferrand)
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colour coding |
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XXX - Link to Photos in
Paradoxplace
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XXX - Photos in
paradoxplace photo-library but not yet published
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XXX - Link to External Site;
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XXX - No links or photos at this
stage |
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ITALY
roughly north (top) to south |
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Venice - San Marco
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Verona -
San Zeno
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Reliefs
in the portal are well protected and in reasonable condition. |
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Piacenza
- San Savino
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San Savino has two
restored polychrome mosaic floors. In the crypt are
the signs of the Zodiac and illustrations of monthly
labours. The Presbytery floor illustrates the
impossibility of holding back the march of time, and the
importance of using time to practice the
cardinal virtues of
Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance and Justice.
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Parma, Baptistery
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The lower "band" of
the Baptistery exterior has a bas-relief zoophorus running completely round it,
with figures of real and imaginary animals, diabolical and sea monsters,
centaurs, mermaids, unicorns, signs of the zodiac and activities of the
month.
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Ferrara Duomo
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Pisa -
Baptistery
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Monthly activity relief
panels on
a door jam. |
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Lucca
Duomo |
Panels
depicting monthly activities plus small Zodiac signs are on the lower part of the west facade.
If you go there, also cast your eyes up to the "knotted" end columns at
each end of the top level of the facade. |
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Basilica of San Miniato,
Florence |
Pretty ordinary circular marble intarsia floor panel in the
centre of the church depicting the signs of the Zodiac. |
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Arezzo, Santa Maria della Pieve |
A few (probably obscure) bas-reliefs. |
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Perugia - Fontana Maggiore |
Photos in Gino Casagrande's web page.
There are 12 large double panels - two reliefs illustrating monthly
activities for each month. Small reliefs of the relevant zodiac sign
appear in the corner of the first of each of the double panels. |
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Rome - SS Quattro Coronati (west
facing church) |
Frescos illustrating
the 12 months of the year were discovered in 1999 in a room
on the north side of the inner courtyard, which was once
part of the nave of a much larger Carolingian church.
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Otranto - Mosaic floor of the
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunciata |
Deep down in the
"heel" of Italy, the entire floor of the Cattedrale di
Otranto is still covered with the mosaics originally laid in
the mid 1100s. The nave area to the west of the crossing is
occupied by three rows of four large mosaic roundels - each one illustrating a
monthly labour and the relevant Zodiac sign. Their
large size has allowed their artists to be more inventive
and include more detail than any other set in this list (see
below). |
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Palermo Cathedral, Sicily
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Zodiac "Heliometer"
inset into the floor of the transept. |
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Monreale, Sicily |
Multiple Zodiac Images
engraved on the "four marble column set" beside the fountain
in the south west corner of the cloisters |
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Otranto Cattedrale - September grape
treading - Virgo the virgin.
Sep |
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Andrea Kirkby's web pages have a good descriptive
overview, photos and a listing of lots of relevant places and other
websites
Holly Hayes' Sacred Destinations has a well laid
out table to bring it all together
Wikipedia has a limited Labours of the Month page
which includes references to Books of Hours as well |
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Links to other
Paradoxplace pages

All original material on this site ©
Adrian Fletcher 2000-08. The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission.
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