Norwegian medieval furniture: chairs and benches

An image of a turned medieval chair on Pinterest connected me to the Norwegian site UNIMUS. This is a portal of six Norwegian University Museums containing their huge collection of high quality photos of objects and research activities. When you type in 'Middelalder' (= Middle ages), 20553 photos are found. It took some long evenings to sift through all these photos and save the interesting pieces of medieval furniture, tools and games. Most of the 'Middelalder' photos (I guess over 80%) concerned images of archaeological dig sites - not really interesting. Another large quantity concerned runic inscriptions on wooden sticks, also not so interesting for me. Already in my previous post, a few photos of medieval planes from originating from this portal were shown. Here I would like to show you the Norwegian medieval chairs and benches from this site. It will save you going through all these photos yourself, although I have shrunk the photos in size (originally they were 2-3 Mb each). Although these photos show nice pieces of furniture, almost no information on the furniture piece is given on the UNIMUS site. It took some more nights to gather some additional information of these seats. I will show other pieces of Norwegian furniture in a following post.

 

The turned chair from Urnes Stavkirke that started it all,  dating around 1200.

Most of the Norwegian medieval furniture is early medieval in style (1100-1300) and still has influences of the Viking period, visible in the decoration style.

 
 Box chair dated to the early 13th century from Blakar farm in Gudbrandsdalen. The staves are made from birch while the panels are from pine. Part of the seat makes up the lid for the box with wooden hinges protruding on both sides, while a hole in the front seem to be from a missing lock.
 

The Tyldal chair (1150–1200) made from birch originating from Osterdalen, Hedmark.
 

Chair from Gålås, Ringsaker, Hedmark with carved animal heads. The backrest is 13th century, the front a 18th century restoration. Note that the chair legs are uneven.

A bishop's chair from Heddal stavkirke dating from the 13th century. Kulturhistorisk museum Oslo.

A (part of a) pine choir stall with Mickey Mouse ears from Hol stavkirke, Hallingdal, dating from the late 13th century. Kulturhistorisk museum, Oslo.

Choir stall with  ears from Skrautvål, Nord-Aurdal. 13th or 14th century.

Most of the two-seat benches below seem to be some kind of bridal chairs.

A bench for two persons from the Kulturhistorisk museum, Oslo.

Another church bench from the Kulturhistorisk museum in Oslo originating from Eastern Gausdal, Oppland. 

The backside of the backrest of the bench is much more decorated than the front.

A bridal (marriage) pine bench dating from 1517 originating from Nes Church, Nes in Telemark. Length 120 cm, height 118 cm, depth 38.5 cm. The backrest consists of two wide board, and the seat and the front of one. The sides are carved at the top as a fan ending in four circles. Bridal bench is now painted over, probably in the 1700s. The rear of the backrest has sloppily painted yellow-pink vines and foliage with light blue middle swath. Profiles along the edges are blue. Backrest cover is decorated with a newly wed couple, dressed in village costumes. Around them is a text in black letters from of Ruth, I, v. 17.  The stylized foliage is painted red.

A simple bench originating from Telemark.

A simple bench or stool from Torpe Church in Hallingdal. 
Length 1.08 m and depth 0.26 m. In the middle of the seat is a small ornamentation.

Back of a bridal bench from the Kravik farm, Buskerud. Made from pine, 70 by 41 cm. Decoration shows two fantastic animal figures (griffins?); below them are three dragons that seem to join in the battle. The rest of the chair was rotten away by humidity.

A bench from Heddal stavkirke, Telemark.

 A bench from Rennebu, Sør-Trøndelag.

Side pieces of a bench from Hemsedal church. Height 1.35 m.

A side plank of a bench from Torpe church in Nubgaarden. Only one side is decorated. Height 140 cm, width 43 cm. 

Church bench from Heddal stavkirke, Telemark, Notodden.

 A choir bench (cathedra) from Verne's Church in Stjørdalen.
One side piece has a dragon figure with a human master on the inner side.
The reverse of the same piece is smooth, due to weather deterioration.

Part of a choir chair from Sakshaug Kirke,  Inderøy,  Nord Trøndelag.

Late medieval church bench combined with chest originating from Oppland. 

The following two seats are from the Oseberg burial mound dating from 834 AD and suggested to be from Queen Åsa of the Yngling clan, mother of Halfdan the Black and grandmother of Harald Fairhair.

Long low stool with four legs from the Oseberg grave. The seating is made of one big oak plank, square with rounded corners. Length 92.5 cm, width 33 cm. Underneath the seating is thickened where the legs are fastened. The four legs were made of softer wood, oval shaped and had a length of 28.5 cm; the current legs are modern replacements, one.  Stool's total height above the floor is only 28-29 cm.

There is a lot of information on this Oseberg chair made from beech: It consists of a box-shaped lower part and a higher back portion. The seating is lost, but was likely made from rope or bark. The front of the chair has two fairly short legs that are approximately 37.7 cm long (which is also the height of the seating). The chair's rear pillars measure 63.5 cm. Width of the chair is 55 cm (front) and 57 cm (back). Seating was approximately 47.5 by 40 cm.  The legs are between 4.5-4.8 cm thick. Exact descriptions of all chair part can be found in the kulturhistorisk museum database.

Two sturdy Viking stools.

The medieval toolchest: The medieval plane part 3.5

This post is a part 3.5 as it contains some new images of medieval planes, as well as some better ones shown previously in  the medieval plane part 3.

This is the medieval plane found in Bergen, Norway. It is made from Taxus and dated to the 13th century.

 All sides of the Bergen plane shown together with a (cm) ruler. Both images from the UNIMUS photo website.

The Tonsberg Plane, a lapp-style plane together with a (cm) ruler.

 

 The side of the Tonsberg plane with the runic inscription. Photos from the UNIMUS website.

This scene from the margins of Folio 123 recto of Bodleian MS 264 (Oxford, UK) shows two fletchers making moon-shape tipped arrows. The arrows that are ready are stored in the barrel.

The worker on the right is making the shafts of the arrow. He uses a knife (in front of him) as well as a small plane (at his back). It is a bit difficult to determine whether there is a toat or a wedge shown on the plane. The pin, however, can be clearly seen. More medieval planes have been associated with the production of arrow-shafts, like the Vimose planes or some of the planes found on the Mary Rose shipwreck.

The Holy Family in the woodwright shop. Sculpture in oak by Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1475-1480. Museum Catherijneconvent, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Jezus helps his father drawing a straight line using a chalk line. A basket with woodworking tools is lying in front of them. One of the tools is a small plane with a toat. Other tools are a brace and a small axe. The sculpture has likely once been painted as there are some remnants of paint on the sculpture. The scene probably was part of the Maria altarpiece in the St. John's cathedral in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. Height 32.5 cm, width 25.5 cm, depth 11.0 cm. Photo from the museum website.

The basket of tools with the plane. Photo website museum (top) and St. Thomasguild.

The backside of the sculpture. Photo St. Thomasguild.

A detail from the 1529 woodblock print showing 'Architectura' by Barthelemy de Chasseneux with some wood and stoneworking tools. Among them are three planes. In front, a double (side)handed Italian type plane can be seen, as discussed in the post medieval planes part 1 and part 1.5. On the left on the ground, just beneath the axes a part of a large foreplane is shown. And finally on the wall at the back a small low angle blockplane with one (or two?) toats can be seen (compare to the planes in part 2).

Pomesmoille: apple pudding

As the apples harvest season has started, this is an excellent opportunity to try the apple pudding recipe 'Pomesmoille'. It is found in the Laud Misc. 553 Manuscript (Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK), and a translated modern cooking version appears in the book 'Pleyn Delit - medieval cookery for modern cooks' by C.B. Hieatt, B. Hosington and S. Butler. This recipe tastes especially good when it is combined with whipped cream with a little rosewater added (the cream with rosewater was mentioned on a medieval food website, but no original source was given).

Folio 7v of Laus Misc 553, a treatise with herbal and medicinal texts, including some recipes.
 

 

Pomesmoille

Nym rys &bray hem in a mortar; tempre hem up with almande milke; boile hem. 
Nym appelis & kerve hem as small as douste; cast hem in after be boiling, & sugur; 
colour it with saffron, cast therto goud poudre, & zif hit forth.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound cooking apples, peeled cored and finely diced
• 60-120 gram ground almonds
• 2 cups of water
• half a cup of sugar
• quarter of a cup rice flour
• half teaspoon cinnamon
• an eighth teaspoon ginger 
• a pinch each of salt, ground cloves, and nutmeg 
• pinch of saffron

 The peeled and diced apples.

Draw up the almond milk with the water (a basic method which has can be found in many medieval cookbooks and websites). Mix the sugar, rice flour, and almond milk in a sauce pan; stir in the apples and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir and boil for about 5 minutes, or until quite thick. If necessary a little more rice flour can be added to thicken. Mix in a small cup all the seasoning's except the nutmeg with a spoonful of the pudding. Put this mixture back into the pudding pot and stir until thoroughly blended. A stew pestle can be used to decrease the size of the apple parts. Pour the pudding into a serving dish and sprinkle some nutmeg on top. Serve it cool (preferably with some whipped cream with a sprinkle of rosewater added).

 

The cooked and thickened pudding in the form.  

The whipped cream with rose water.

The bones of Saint Thomas

I was curious if there were some relics of our guild patron saint Thomas spread over Europe (or India). The answer is yes - and, surprisingly, there is an almost complete skeleton of him! The story is that after Saint Thomas was slain, he was initially buried in India. In the 3rd century, however, his bones were transported to Edessa in Mesopotamia (the place from the feast with the hand of the cupbearer) by the Indian King Mazdai (Misdeus), where a tomb was build for him. In 13th century the bones were 'rescued' together with the tombstone to Italy, as the shrine with the bones was threatened by the Turks. The relics made an intermediate stop at the island of Chios in the Aegean. From there they were stolen by Leone Acciaiuoli, captain of a ship from the fleet of Manfred, prince of Taranto, and taken to Ortona in Italy were they arrived on 6 September 1258. In Ortona, the relics were kept in the basilica San Thomasso Apostolo, which was desecrated by the Turks in 1566. After this event the remains were kept in an gild copper urn that was made in 1612 by Tommaso Alessandrini from Ortona.

From the 17th century to today, the shrine has been opened several times to do some surveys (which bones are there) and even some research. Between 1983-1986, the shrine was opened for a protection and preservation project. The opportunity was also taken to do some scientific research on the bones of the apostle. This was done under supervision of prof. dr. Arnaldo Capelli, prof. dr. Sergio Sensi, prof. dr. Luigi Capasso (paleopathology) and prof. dr. Fulvio Della Loggia, all from the Faculty of medicine from the University of Chieti. The anthropological examination on the remains of the skeleton established that the bones belonged to a relatively long male individual with delicate bone structure, with a height of 1 metre 60 cm plus/minus 10 cm. At the age of death the individual was between 50 and 70 years old, with a fracture of the right cheekbone caused by a sharp blow shortly before or after death. The person did also suffer from rheumatism or artritis, which could be seen at the small joints of the hands. Furthermore, a small osteoma (bone tumour) was found in the frontal region of the skull.

  

 The gild copper urn holding the most of the remains of Apostle Thomas.

As can be seen from the photo of the skeleton, several bones are missing, especially the bones of the arm. In 1953, a wrist bone of the right arm was extracted from the Ortona skeleton and given to the Indian church. It now resides at the Marthoma Pontifical Shrine in Koddungalloor in Kerala, India, one of the places where Thomas supposedly has built a church.

The shrine with the right wrist bone of Apostle Thomas in Koddungalloor. 

Another bone from the arm of Thomas is found in a relic in the church of Saint Nicholas in Bari, Italy. The Cronicon Bari mentions that a French bishop, cousin of Baldwin of Le Bourg, Lord of Edessa, returning in 1102 from the Holy Land and from Edessa, left the relic of St. Thomas the Apostle in the Basilica in Bari, The reliquary itself is dated to 1602-1618 and has the form of a right arm holding a spear in the iconography of the martyrdom suffered by the Apostle, and rests on a base containing a relic of the Magdalene. The bone of Thomas can be seen through a window of the reliquary. In 2009, the bone was measured and compared to the bones in Ortona. The upper arm bone has a length of 23 cm; this can be used to calculate the full body length, resulting in a length of 163.4 cm plus/minus 2 cm, more or less the same as the skeleton in Ortona. The left upper arm of Bari is missing in Ortona, so this bone could be from the same person. 

The reliquary S. Tommaso Apostolo in Bari. The central window shows a rectangular bone set.

On the long sides that surround the window, some words are carved: on the left side from bottom to top "Brachii SANCTI THOMAE Apostles" and on the right side in descending order "ECCLESIAE SANCTI NICOLAI BARENSIS".

Surprisingly, another arm bone of Thomas is found in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in the treasury of the Basilica of  St. Servaes. Curiously, the treasury text mentions this as the right arm bone of St. Catherine, but the text that can be seen through the window of the reliquary clearly state: St. Thomas Apollona (Apostle). Perhaps this is the missing right upper arm bone from the Ortona skeleton.

The reliquary containing a right arm bone of St. Thomas in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Also some finger bones are lacking in Ortona. The bone from the index finger of 'doubting' Saint Thomas, which touched the wound of Christ, can be found in the Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome Italy. Some say that this relic has been in Santa Croce from the time of St. Helen (third century, i.e. the time that the body was moved to Edessa). In the centre of the reliquary, remade after the French revolution,  is an oval case with both sides of crystal in which a holder in the shape of a finger with two openings in the side is placed. Through the openings the finger bone can be clearly seen. Some other finger pieces of Thomas did return from Edessa to India (instead of to Europe). A reliquary with some hand bones is preserved in the St. Thomas Museum in Milapore.

The index finger of St. Thomas in Rome, Italy.

Piece of a hand Bone of St. Thomas in the St. Thomas Museum in Milapore, India.

Finally, a second skull of Saint Thomas exists (really a miracle!) in the Greek orthodox monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the island on Padmos, Greece. It is kept in a large embossed silver goblet with a lid of silver with a very rich Venetian rug. Byzantine Emperor Alexios Kommenos (11th century) had the relic bound with silver strips, both lengthwise and over the top. Where the silver strips crossed, they were adorned with precious stones. After it was completed, it was presented to St. Christodoulos, the founder of the monastery.

The second skull of Thomas Apostle in an orthodox monastery on the island Padmos in Greece. 

Other Thomas artefacts

Some other artefacts related to St. Thomas are his tombstone, which made the same trip from Edessa to Ortona as the skeleton, and also resides in the Basilica San Thomasso Apostolo. The tombstone measures 137 by 48 cm and has a thickness of 48 cm and is made of chalcedone. This tombstone is actually a plaque used to cover a tomb made of lower quality material, a practise used in early Christian times. The plaque has an inscription and a bas-relief that similar to those in the Syrian Mesopotamian area (i.e. where Edessa is situated). The inscriptions are in Greek unicals and are dated from the 3rd to 5th century and mention 'thomas osios' (holy Thomas or Saint Thomas). More careful study of the inscription found some traced signs over the words, which would change the meaning slightly to that of 'the real Thomas'. The bas-relief depicts a religious figure with a halo in the act of imparting, with the right hand, the blessing (according to the rites of the Eastern Church and indicating the first two letters, in Greek, of the word Christ).  In the left hand he holds an object that could be a sword, which is a clear reference to the martyrdom of Saint Thomas. The lower part of the stone has two holes of different sizes, such as those found in various tombs of the early centuries of Christianity,  in order to introduce balms or make libations on the grave of the deceased. When it came to the tomb of a martyr, the broader was also used to provide relics from contact. 

 A close look at the tombstone from Edessa in the Basilica San Thomasso Aposotolo in Ortona. 

The following relic of Saint Thomas is a bit strange; it is said to be the tip of the lance that took the life of the saint. It was recovered from the (original Indian) grave during a Portuguese excavation in the 16th century and is now preserved in the Milapore St. Thomas Museum in India. However, it is also said (see above) that Saint Thomas was slain by a sword, which would mean this reliquary is a hoax. Death by the sword is also depicted on the Thomas Teppich in Wienhausen, Germany and in the windows of Chartres Cathedral in France.

The reliquary with the tip of the lance that took the life of St. Thomas 

in the Milapore St. Thomas Museum.

Modern science

Now imagine what you can do with all these bones using modern 21st century research techniques (not those employed 1983): check his exact age using C14 radiocarbon dating; extract some DNA from the bones or teeth and you would have the complete genome of the doubting Apostle himself. Having the genome, the geographic origin of the skeleton can be deduced (does he come from the Galilee region). As Thomas is sometimes called Dydimus ('the twin' - in fact the name Thomas means twin in Aramese), he is therefore by some thought to be the brother of Jesus (for instance in the Book of Thomas the Contender, one of the New Testament apocrypha represented in the Nag Hammadi library, a cache of Gnostic gospels secreted in the Egyptian desert). If one takes this to be true, then you would have the genetic material of Maria and Joseph as well (actually the brother idea might not be that strange: Joseph was a carpenter and likely would pass his knowledge to his siblings. If Thomas was given the woodworking knowledge by Joseph, his voyage to India to build a palace is less far-fetched as it seems). More down-to-earth, simple DNA fingerprinting (a now common forensic technique), would also allow to compare all the scattered arm bones of the saint. Check, for instance, if  the forearm in Bari and the index finger in Rome originate from the same person. 

And you could also use 3-D forensic facial reconstruction techniques to shape the face of Thomas in clay...

Sources used:

Website of the Basilica San Thomasso Apostolo.
The website of Keith Hunt on Doubting Saint Thomas in India
And many other internet sources, including some utterly confusing Indian ramblings on St. Thomas.