Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

The central section of the Central Library has three oriels with above in the tympanum are reliefs. Each of the releifs shows seven figures with the main figure in the center: Bede, Alfred the Great and Chaucer.

Left: Geoffrey Chaucer with characters taken from his Canterbury Tales, on his left the Prioress, the Knight and the man of law, and on his right the wife of Bath, the merchant and the miller.

Central: The venerable Bede, on his left St. Cuthbert, St. Paulinus, and Cadman (Cædmon) with his harp; and on his right St. Augustine, St. Chad, and St. Aidan.

Right: King Alfred, on his left William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, and Wace the Norman minstrel; and on his right St. Gildas, Cynwulff (Cynewulf) the wandering bard, and a minstrel on the right.

• Geoffrey Chaucer (London c. 1343 – 1400), English poet and author. Widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, he is best known for The Canterbury Tales (Wikipedia).
• Bede (c. 673 - Jarrow 735), English Benedictine monk at the monastery of St. Peter and its companion monastery of St. Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles (Wikipedia).
  • St. Cuthbert (c. 634 – 687), monk, bishop and hermit (Wikipedia).
  • St. Paulinus of York (d. 644), Roman missionary and the first Bishop of York (Wikipedia).
  • Cædmon (fl. c. AD 657–684) is the earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known (Wikipedia).
  • St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604), Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury (Wikipedia).
  • St. Chad of Mercia (d. 672), abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and of the Mercians and Lindsey People (Wikipedia).
  • St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (c. 590 - 651), Irish monk and missionary (Wikipedia).
• Alfred the Great (847/49 – 899), King of Wessex from 871 to c. 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 to 899 (Wikipedia).
  • William of Malmesbury (c. 1095 – c. 1143), the foremost English historian of the 12th century (Wikipedia).
  • Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), monk of Worcester, who played some part in the production of the Chronicon ex chronicis, a Latin world chronicle (Wikipedia).
  • Wace (c. 1110-after 1174), Norman poet (Wikipedia).
  • St. Gildas (c. 500-c. 570), 6th-century British monk (Wikipedia).
  • Cynewulf (circa 9th century), Anglo-Saxon poet (Wikipedia).

Sculptor

• Charles Pibworth (Barton Regis, Gloucestershire 1878 - 1958), English sculptor from Bristol (Mapping of Sculpture).

Sources & Information

• Wikipedia, Bristol Central Library.
• Historic England, Database.
• Western Daily Press, Thursday 21 December 1905 (British Newspaper Archive).

Tags

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