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MEDIEVAL TIMES - SOUTH-WEST EUROPE - Pilprim badge, 12th - 14th century
height 55mm. ; lead ; 51,24gr.
This example has ribbing on the obverse and a round medaillon with W on the reverse. Two ringlets / lug-handles at the sides.
This ″flask and shell-shaped″ lead-aloy ampulla pilgrim badge refers to Saint James (Pecten Jacobaeus). Abandoning one′s daily life to go on pilgrimage to a shrine of a saint was an act of religious devotion performed by a substantial number of medieval Christians. One of the most popular souvenirs were ampullae, small vessels containing oil or water sanctified at a pilgrimage shrine. These souvenirs often were mass-produced casts in lead or its alloys. Many of these ampullae are said to be ″shell-shaped″, assuming the shape and treatment referred in the medieval mind to the scallop, the symbol initially of one of the greatest medieval pilgrimages, to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, and eventually of pilgrimage generally. The ″shell-shaped″ ampullae exhibit a wide range of styles and features.
literature; Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio, U.S.A.), Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, Ampullae, re-imbured: a formal analysis of medieval ″shell-shaped″ lead-alloy pilgrim ampullae by Greg Campbell. provenance; a Dutch private collection Rare and very interesting object of medieval Christianity. intact |
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NOORDELIJKE NEDERLANDEN (NORTHERN NETHERLANDS) - Bronze wax seal stamp of St. Barbara, 14th / 15th century
messing Ø 26mm. ; weight Ø 15,47gr.
Saint Barbara standing left, holding martyr-palm in right hand and with tower building in front. Unidentified text around.
Saint Barbara was born in the third century in Nicomedia, today′s Izmir, Turkey. Died in 306 AD in Nicomedia. Patron Saint protecting against a sudden and unexpected death, patroness of miners, stone cutters, artillerymen, firefighters, bell-founders, blacksmiths and further branches of human activities.
St. Barbara′s curriculum is completely covered with legends. They say that the girl lived in the end of the third century as a daughter of wealthy Dioscuros in Nicomedia, today′s Izmir, Turkey. It was the time of the prosecution of Christians by the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Barbara′s exceptional beauty was admired everywhere, as well as her scholarship and bright intelligence. The richest and most handsome boys of the town sued for beautiful daughter from the pagan house, but she felt, that there must be something else in the life, so far uncovered to her, and refused every man.
Again and again left Barbara for the group of Christians living hidden, in permanent fear of Emperor′s persecutors. In the course of long talks the young girl tried to understand the faith and teaching of those people and more and more she became convinced that her further way of life is shown here. Barbara′s Father Dioscuros, Christians′ fanatic enemy, became aware of the change with his daughter and decided to prevent his daughter from contacts with Christians. He had a tower built at his house to put Barbara there. When he returned from a short journey he could see that Barbara had directed the bricklayers to brick in three windows into the tower instead of two windows, planned by him. Wild with rage, Dioscuros asked his daughter about the meaning of that change and Barbara answered him it was a symbol of the Holy Trinity. When Barbara told him that in the meantime he had been away she adopted Holy Baptism in secret, Dioscuros flared up with anger. He stepped to her wanting to beat her, but suddenly a crack opened in the earth and hid the girl. Then Dioscuros dragged his daughter to the Prefect, a wrathful persecutor of Christians. The Prefect had Barbara scourged, beaten with clubs, burned with torches and cut her breasts away. When the Prefect learned that he reached nothing through that torture, he ordered that Barbara be beheaded. Dioscuros carried out that execution over his daughter with his own hands. No sooner had Dioscuros laid down the killing tool when he himself was struck with lightning and killed.
Saint Barbara became the Patron Saint in the end of the Middle Ages; the patronage relates to the legend, that a rock suddenly opened rendering a cover for Barbara on her run from her Father. There is also a song among the miners devoted to Barbara ″Song to St. Barbara″. To avoid disaster and death in mines, the miners light the ″Barbara′s Light″.
Since the fourteenth century Saint Barbara has belonged among the most popular and presented Saints. Also in the Netherlands Saint Barbara was worshiped. The feast of Saint Barbara falls on December 4th.
provenance; found in Netherlands in Leiden with a metal detector, mid 1980′s
Highly interesting and rare. intakt |
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