Canterbury Zodiacs, Labours, Sins and Virtues

PARADOXPLACE BRITISH ABBEYS AND CATHEDRALS

Zodiac Signs, Labours of the Month, Sins, Virtues and Heraldic Beasts

in the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral

BACK TO MAIN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL PAGE

Links to all Paradoxplace pages about medieval illustrations of Labours of the Month, Zodiac Signs,

Cardinal Virtues and Sins in Western European churches.

Canterbury Cathedral
A Walk Around Canterbury Cathedral	Inside Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral Zodiac Signs, Labours, Sins and Virtues Roundels (this page)	Canterbury Cathedral Stained Glass Windows
Limoges Reliquary Châsses made to contain relics of Thomas Becket	Images of the Saint Thomas Becket story

Roundels near the tomb of Henry IV on the north side of Trinity Chapel

On a visit to Canterbury Cathedral in July 2007 what should we spy but four sets of large roundels (36 individual ones in all) arrayed on either side of the Trinity Chapel. Looked like another old Zodiac / monthly activity job. Returning a few weeks later, we managed to obtain a plan and description of all the roundels plus of course photos of most of them. Some of these are shown below.

Link to Paradoxplace pages on Monthly Activity and Zodiac representations in Western European churches.

Link to Zodiac and Monthly Activities at Cathédrale St-Lazare, Autun (Burgundy).

Link to the Zodiac Window at Chartres

Link to Zodiac font at nearby Saint Augustine's Church at Brooklands (Romney Marshes, South Kent)

Pisces (NE Roundel Group)

This map of the roundels was kindly given to us by the Cathedral Information Centre. Note that "Tetramorph" most commonly refers to the group of four evangelistic symbols surrounding a mandorlad Christ - here the image is more akin to a Gryphon (Griffin).

North East Roundel Group (6 in total)

March - Digging	Aries the ram
February - Hand and foot warming	Pisces the fish
January - Two faced Janus	Aquarius the water carrier

Aquarius (NE Roundel Group)

Aries the Ram (NE Roundel Group)

Digging in March (NE Roundel Group)

North West Roundel Group (12 in total)

*July - Weeding*	Lion & Dragon	Anger & Patience	Virgo the virgin
Envy & Love	Taurus the bull	Winged dragon	April - Pruning
Libra - The Scales	Arms of Mandeville	Sobriety & Luxury	Cancer the crab

Cancer (NW Roundel Group)

Virgo (NW Roundel Group)

Sobriety and Luxury (or lust - Luxuria) (NW Roundel Group)

Libra (NW Roundel Group)

July Weeding (NW Roundel Group)

South West Roundel Group (12 in total)

*July - Leo the lion*	*June - Mowing*	*September - Boar hunting*	*Humility & Pride*
*May - Hawking*	*August - Reaping*	*Rabbit playing harp*	*Gryphon*
*May - Gemini - The Twins*	*Diligence & Sloth*	*Lion & Dragon*	*Greed & Temperence*
*Yellow means that there is a photo below. Some photos have been rotated 90° and stretched to approximate the real thing*

July - Leo the Lion (SW Roundel Group)

Hawking in May (SW Roundel Group)

May - The Gemini Twins (SW Roundel Group)

August Reaping / Baling (SW Roundel Group)

September - the boar hunt (SW Roundel Group)

Rabbit plays Harp (SW Roundel Group)

South East Roundel Group

*Scorpio - The Scorpion*	*October - Treading grapes*
*Sagittarius the archer*	*November - not clear*
*Capricorn the billy goat*	*December - Pig killing?*

Scorpio - the roo lookalike scorpion.

The dates and signs of the Zodiac, and typical labour of the month illustrations

There are many variants and interpretations, both in the labours illustrated and in the month in which they occur - that's part of the fun of discovery!

Aquarius – January

January 21 – February 18

Le Verseau (The Water Carrier)

A feast or a man (Janus) with 2 (/3) faces - looking to the old and new years.

Pisces – February

February 19 – March 20

Les Poissons (The Fishes)

A man warming his feet in front of a fire.

Aries – March

March 21– April 20

(March 20 - Spring Equinox)

Le Bélier (The Ram)