Exeter Cathedral (Cathedral Church Of Saint Peter). The Longest Uninterrupted Mediæval Vaulted Ceiling In The World. (Part Five).

The Astronomical Clock in Exeter Cathedral.

Photo: 10 January 2017.

Source: Own work.

Author: DeFacto

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

Since the above list was compiled in 1921, research among musicologists has revised how some of the instruments are called in modern times. Using revised names, the list should now read from left to right gittern, bagpipe, shawm, vielle, harp, jew's harp, trumpet, organ, citole, recorder, tambourine, cymbals.[1

The Exeter Cathedral Astronomical Clock is one of the group of famous 14th- to 16th-Century Astronomical Clocks to be found in the West of England. Others are at Wells, Ottery St Mary, and Wimborne Minster.

The main, lower, dial is the oldest part of the Clock, dating from 1484.[5] The Fleur-de-Lys-tipped hand indicates the hour (and the position of the Sun in the sky) on a 24-hour analogue dial.

The 12th-Century South Tower, Exeter Cathedral, where the twelve Bells hang. Note the 14th-Century Crocketed Buttresses against the South Wall of the Nave.

Photo: 19 December 2006.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Derek Harper

(Wikimedia Commons)

The numbering consists of two sets of Roman numerals I to XII. The Silver Ball and inner dial shows both the age of the Moon and its phase (using a rotating Black Shield to indicate the Moon’s phase). The upper dial, added in 1760, shows the minutes.[5]

The Latin phrase “Pereunt et imputantur”, a favourite motto for Clocks and Sun-Dials, was written by the Latin poet Martial. It is usually translated as “they perish and are reckoned to our account”, referring to the hours that we spend, wisely or not. The original clockwork mechanism, much modified, repaired, and neglected, until it was replaced in the Early-20th-Century, can be seen on the floor below.

The door below the Clock has a round hole near its base. This was cut in the Early-17th-Century to allow entry for the Bishop’s cat to deter vermin that were attracted to the animal fat used to lubricate the Clock mechanism.[5]

Cathedral Church of Saint Peter 

(Exeter Cathedral) dating from 1400.

Photo: 18 July 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Peter_Glyn

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Library began during the Episcopate of Leofric (1050–1072) who presented the Cathedral with sixty-six books, only one of which remains in the Library: This is the Exeter Book (Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501) of Anglo-Saxon poetry.[16] Sixteen others have survived and are in The British Library, The Bodleian Library or Cambridge University Library.

A 10th-century Manuscript of Hrabanus Maurus’s “De Computo” and Isidore of Seville’s “De Natura Rerum” may have belonged to Leofric, also, but the earliest record of it is in an inventory of 1327. The inventory was compiled by the Sub-Dean, William de Braileghe, and 230 titles were listed. Service books were not included and a note at the end mentions many other books in French, English and Latin, which were then considered worthless.

In 1412–1413, a new Lectrinum was fitted out for the books by two carpenters working for forty weeks. Those books in need of repair were repaired and some were fitted with chains. A catalogue of the Cathedral’s books, made in 1506, shows that the Library, furnished some ninety years earlier, had eleven desks for books and records over 530 titles, of which more than a third are Service books.[17]

PART SIX FOLLOWS.