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The representation of theoretical principles within tabular forms and wheel diagrams was common in medieval England, and also on the continent.¹ These forms were part of a long-standing tradition of accepted ways to display information, with their structure encoding information on how to read the contents.² This article will consider the reading strategies employed to access and understand tabular and circular, or diagrammatic, representations of the Pater Noster prayer. The Pater Noster was handed down by Jesus to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4) and was thought to contain the devotional material necessary to live a good Christian life. I propose to consider the different reading approaches available to and used by a medieval audience. My case study for this analysis will be the Pater Noster table found on f.231v in the Vernon manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet.a.1).³ There have been several previous studies of how tables can be read, although their focus tends to be on the tabular tradition and meaning rather than on strategies that can be employed to interpret tables in general and more specifically the Vernon manuscript Pater Noster table.⁴ This present argument is situated within the general area of research conducted by critics on interpreting religious tabular formats in medieval manuscripts. These include seminal works by Mary Carruthers who focuses on the mnemonic functions of tables and Lucy Freeman Sandler's discussion of the diagrams of the Speculum Theologie in The Psalter of Robert de Lisle.⁵

Considerable work on the Vernon manuscript Pater Noster table has been conducted by Avril Henry⁶ and Kathryn Vulic.⁷ Henry creates a physical description of the table and conducts a detailed survey of the decorative elements, describing the table as a commentary 'translated into the visual mode'.⁸ Vulic progresses to consider the meditative properties of the table whereas I propose to address the question of how different reading strategies can be successfully applied to the Pater Noster table and to consider whether analogies can provide context and wider application for these ideas. I will then proceed to give brief consideration to other tabular and wheel diagrams that I have encountered in my research. Finally, briefer links will be made to other medieval analogues including Last Judgement scenes, mazes and maps.

The Pater Noster played an important role in the devotional life of the medieval English church.⁹ From early in the church's history, the division of the prayer into seven petitions had encouraged associations with the seven capital or deadly sins, virtues, gifts of the Holy Spirit and Beatitudes. These linked sequences of septenaries were the basis of frequent verbal and visual catechetical schematisations.¹⁰ Diagrams and tables became important ancillary elements in educational practice during this period. These elements were developed to 'facilitate learning' and were based upon the meaning of scriptural material.¹¹ These tables and diagrams formed part of an influential repertoire of visual aids related to catechetical material.

To address the question of how different reading strategies can be applied to the Pater Noster table it is necessary to formulate a definition of reading. Previous studies on medieval reading methodologies have taught us that reading encompasses an individual activity involving comprehension of the text, although this implies that the individual was literate and capable of such a task.¹² For the illiterate, being read to as part of a congregation in church or as a participant in a reading circle may have posed a way of accessing religious and didactic material. In terms of religious orders, the pupil may have been taught from the open page before them, with the Priest or Ecclesiast explaining meaning and shaping understanding. Following on from these studies I use 'reading' to mean a holistic understanding of the words, script, syntax and physical layout used, of the inherent meaning of colour, of representations depicted in images, and of number symbolism.¹³ All of these elements subconsciously feed into our reading and understanding of tables and diagrams. Perhaps tables enhanced the reading potential of literate viewers, with the reading processes necessary to understand tabular representations requiring the development of skills that imply a quite sophisticated level of literacy.

The Vernon manuscript, dating to c.1390, contains the largest number of English works to be located in one codex and is probably the most important extant collection of Middle English religious and didactic texts.¹⁴ This authoritative compilation of vernacular material is large scale with each page measuring 544mm by 393mm. The entire volume weighs 22 kg and has 350 out of a possible 422 or 426 folios remaining. Due to its large size it is likely that the manuscript was used as a coucher or ledger book on a lectern or desk. The manuscript consists of five main sections. Sections one, two and three contain material from liturgical ceremonies, devotional items and prayers, all in verse. Section four consists of devotional items in prose, while the final section is made up of twenty-seven religious lyrics. Scholarly discussion of the readership of this manuscript has tended to focus upon a female audience. Doyle proposes that an 'amply grounded presumption...would be that any collection of vernacular religious literature of comparable scope was probably made for nuns or other devout women' due to a number of items included being composed for this kind of reader, including Aelred of Rievaulx's letter to his sister, Richard Rolle's English Epistles and Walter Hilton's Scale of Perfection and Mixed life.¹⁵ This idea has been accepted by Pearsall, although Doyle concedes that some items, including texts on how to hear mass, were couched specifically for lay listeners or readers.¹⁶ The Pater Noster table is located in section three between the Pope's Trental (ff.231r-231v) and Speculum Vitae (ff.231v-265r).

The table is ruled into nine vertical columns. These consist of five columns of decoration which alternate with four columns of text. The vertical columns are then divided into sixteen horizontal rows. This creates a grid-like pattern, similar in formation to a chequer board. In terms of reading this creates a quandary - which way do we read the table? In terms of a horizontal reading, is it left to right or right to left? In terms of columns, do we read from top to bottom or bottom to top? To use a contemporary example, stained glass windows were read from top to bottom, left to right.¹⁷ Vulic identifies both vertical and horizontal reading opportunities, but considers these in terms of individual meditation rather than shared reading, arguing that the table is a private devotional tool due to the abstract text resisting narration.¹⁸ Initially I will tackle the reading experience in terms of vertical and / or horizontal logic.

The top row of the table contains the title for each column, reading left to right horizontally the 'vii peticiones' of the Pater Noster, 'vii Dona spiritus sancti' ('gifts of the Holy Spirit') (Isaiah 11:2), 'vii Virtutes' ('virtues'), 'contra' ('against'), and the 'vii Vicia' ('vices'). The bottom row summarises the relationship of the columns of texts to one another, listing the items again from left to right.

A horizontal reading links one parallel theological concept from one column to another, through the connective phrases, to form an individual sequence which tells its own story independently from the rest of the table. The table is most likely to have been read from left to right as this was the normal method of reading derived from Latin and this is the only way that each horizontal row makes sense. Between the four main columns repetitive connective phrases are written to link the theological concepts together. For example, the first horizontal line of the table reads 'Þis prier - fadur þat in heuene þi nome is blessed - leduþ a man to - Drede of god - leduþ a man to - mekenesse and louenesse - is a3enst - Prinde & sownesse'. These connections are created through vernacular phrases which link together the English glosses. Each petition then reads '[the Lord's prayer] leduth a man to [a gift of the Holy Spirit]' which 'leduth a man to [a virtue]' which 'Is a3enst [a vice]'. From a horizontal logic, the structure and layout demonstrates that the Pater Noster table illustrates the consequences of praying the Pater Noster.

Another suggestion that left to right reading is indicated comes from the positioning of the prayer. The prayer is situated to the left of the table and is given visual dominance through the use of large illuminated initials which emphasise its importance. Its position suggests that it operates as the primary text, as reading from left to right, the prayer is the first thing we see. Here the direction of the reading is guided by the authority of the text. The fact that the prayer is on the opposite side of the table to the vices perhaps suggests a scale between heavenly and earthly concepts.

The integration of the final Latin line of instruction, 'Per peticiones peruenitur ad dona per dona ad virtutes & virtutes sunt contra vicia', within the structure of the prayer, marked by an illuminated initial, emphasises that connecting the petitions of the Pater Noster with three other septenaries is an intended part of the prayer, whilst its visual representation establishes a conceptual link between the prayer and its consequences. The line explains that by the petitions man is brought to the gifts, and by the gifts to the virtues, with the virtues counteracting the vices.

In terms of vertical readings the hierarchy of descent predominates due to the need to maintain the established and accepted order of the petitions of the Pater Noster. It would be unthinkable to subvert the meaning of the prayer by altering its traditional structure, spoken by God himself. The large decorated capitals of the prayer touch the left-hand border and an unusually large decoration springs into the left margin not from the border's central point, but from a point between the 'F' and 'P'. This emphasis is perhaps not accidental as it serves to emphasise the traditional division of the petitions into the three devoted to heavenly matters and the four devoted to earthly ones,¹⁹ or three heavenly and three earthly with Panem nostrum serving as a kind of boundary.²⁰

Each column contains one septenary broken down into its own individual parts or concepts displayed in both Latin and vernacular texts. The use of Latin and vernacular has implications for the manuscript's audience, but also represents contemporary changes within the hierarchy of medieval language. As Vincent Gillespie states, in relation to fourteenth- and fifteenth-century treatises, 'the older Latin expositions were reformulated for the needs and abilities of the new and expanding audience for vernacular didacticism'.²¹ This idea, of Latin meanings being re-modeled to suit expanding vernacular audiences and their desire for moral instruction, could also be applied to the design and contents of the Pater Noster table, so much so that Henry argues that the table could be followed in Latin or English alone.²² Vulic proposes that the 'pairing of the Latin phrases and English paraphrases seem to be one of the motivating forces behind this table's creation' and she proceeds to argue that the 'large expansive translations... reveal a consistent view of the methods of praying envisioned by the table's creators, thereby emphasizing the process of praying rather than the ultimate goals that prayer could conceivably attain'.²³

The page uses basic shapes to organise its written content. The overall architecture of the table, as identified by Henry, consists largely of rectangles and lines, but roundels appear at regular intervals and act as focal points amidst linear shapes.²⁴ Each column can be seen as comprising seven pairs of rows, the first row of each pair containing the Latin text in a rectangle and the second containing the vernacular paraphrase in a roundel, situated directly below it. The question arises: which do we read first, rectangle or roundel? Another consideration is whether the rectangles and roundels should be taken as individual commentaries or whether they comprise an inter-connected whole and should be read together. What is clear is that the roundels always contain vernacular material, whereas the rectangular forms are mainly dominated by Latin texts although they also incorporate the vernacular connective phrases. The roundels are also contained within a decorative square frame which may act as a means of incorporating the roundels into a grid-like framework and operate as a design feature enabling easy access to the explanatory gloss. The rectangle and roundel pattern, acting as pairs of septenary concepts suggest that the two languages of the same text, be it Latin name or English gloss, are connected and need to be read in conjunction with one another.

The English glosses in the roundels pose an interesting problem. On the one hand the simplicity of the script and the minimal space allotted to the glosses suggests that the designers of the diagram did not value the English text. On the other hand, the roundels grant the English text visual dominance over the surrounding text. Both Rudolph Arnheim and David Marr have written seminal texts on the psychology of visual perception and propose that disruptions in patterns attract the eye, and also that the eye is naturally drawn to curves in preference to lines.²⁵ Furthermore, the English glosses are considerably longer than the Latin they translate, with the interpretative work serving to specify how abstract principles, co-joined within the woven fabric of the table, can be put into practice in a Christian's life. As the writing within roundels consists of a high concentration of dark ink within a dense space, this allows their shape and darkness to attract the eye. This then suggests two contradictory functions for the English text; first, that the translations serve the Latin texts above them, and second, that the English in the roundels is perhaps one of the main elements of the table.

Consideration of the infill decoration could reveal further information on how to read and interpret the text. The table is unusual not only among the other works of art within the Vernon manuscript (all of which are figural), but also among works of art that embellish manuscripts in general, in that the diagram is almost entirely abstract in character, rather than figural. Within the infill of the table, there is one partial animal figure, whereas the remainder consists of geometric designs, bilateral symmetry and abstractions of organic shapes, including vines and leaves. Here we are not presented with scenes which mirror the text, but with decoration that connects directly with the function of the diagram. Perhaps the knot work, or large patterns between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the vices, functions as a non-verbal key to the table, with several strands being interwoven to comprise an interconnected whole. I would like to suggest that the positioning of the knot work, alternating with the repetitive and connective phrases, 'leduth a man to' is deliberate. These images not only bridge the progression from point to point, but symbolise the interwoven tabular nature of the table itself. The rectangular decoration above and below the Latin prayer petitions and between the 'Is a3enst' connective phrases, both alternating in colour between red and green-black, could have two possible functions. Perhaps they merely operate as filler decoration, covering the blank page with meaningless patterning, or perhaps they work as division markers identifying the divisions between sections and lines.

The table displays a visual pattern, with the alternation of red and green-black infill maintaining a vertical and horizontal balance. Avril Henry, however, suggests that the decoration within the table was intended to be an extension of its meaning, proposing that 'the harmony [of the table] is emphasised by small but marked and seemingly purposeful breakings of various regular patterns'.²⁶ Henry analyses the alternation of spandrel infills (corners of roundel-bearing squares) and concludes that the breaks in the repetitive and regular pattern represent deliberate symbolical interventions, rather than errors on the part of the designer or copier.²⁷

The column of virtues is entirely regular in its alternation of spandrel-colours from red to green-black, however, the column containing the vices does not conform to this regularity.²⁸ The disruption to the colour scheme is analogous to the disruptive affects of sin. For example, the square bearing 'Slowthe and heuinesse in godus seruise' has green-black infill in all four spandrels. Henry argues that this sin is literally central within the column as well as metaphorically central to the vices.²⁹ The breaking of the pattern creates variations in the expected alternation between spandrel colour in both the horizontal and vertical central lines.³⁰

Within the roundel squares in the gifts of the Holy Spirit column there are two variations from the normal pattern, again identified by Henry.³¹ The first is 'Drede of god' which has green-black on the left and red on the right. The second, in the square below containing 'Pite of his nei3bore', may be a consequence of the deviation of the first, in the sense that the expected diagonals of top left and bottom right green-black, top left and bottom right red does not occur. Here, the expected diagonals are reversed causing the whole row to have green-black spandrels in the top right-hand corner and bottom left-hand corner, and red in the top left-hand corner and bottom right-hand corner. This occurs instead of the infill in the gifts column alternating with the petition and virtue spandrel infill. Could these deviations from the expected pattern aim to draw attention to the two Gifts which echo the New Testament Commandments? Perhaps this presents a subtle, subliminal attempt to teach readers the tenets of the faith, suggesting that the infill could be read for meaning, similar to the text.

The inversion of textual colour may be significant also. The lines of the Latin Pater Noster are written in green-black ink, whereas wording from the Bible (Latin) is conventionally in red.³² The green-black ink is also used for the vernacular glosses. Within the table red is used abundantly in connective phrases, Latin septenary names and infill patterning, alongside the paler red which forms the background colour. This creates a setting in which the black-green ink stands out distinctively. The choice of ink therefore indicates the most significant text on the page, alongside the decorated initials and the spatial orientation (the left alignment of prayer). The fact that the English glosses are written in the same colour suggests that they were extensions of the meaning and intent of the prayer, and that the vernacular is on equal terms with its Latin equivalent.

I will now consider how the reading strategies applied to the structure and contents of the table can also be applied to other diagrammatic representations of the Pater Noster and related septenaries. The table can be linked to wheel of seven diagrams, of which a variety of examples, both text based and figuratively decorated, exist in medieval manuscripts.³³ For the purposes of this article I will focus on one example: Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg iv 32, f.12v. This example dates to c.1317 and is contained within a miscellany which also includes a manual for the use of priests and the Speculum Theologiae (added later in the fourteenth century). The wheel is composed of seven rings (from outside to in: seven petitions of the Pater Noster, seven sacraments, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven arms of justice, seven works of mercy, seven virtues, and seven vices) and seven radial segments and is accompanied by explanatory material. The geometry of the wheel suggests a tabular composition that has been manipulated into a circular shape, in which concepts are stratified and aligned, but lack the directional element of the table.³⁴ However, Sam Spears suggests that the clockwise reading of the diagram is indicated by the position and order of the petitions of the Pater Noster.³⁵ These petitions are presented in a conventional order, derived from Biblical accounts and Catechetical instruction. This order is unchangeable and traditionally defined. To express these petitions in any other sequence would subvert Biblical authority and change the sense and meaning of the prayer.³⁶ I would like to suggest that circles can therefore instigate directional information: when containing a starting point, the automatic response to reading Latin is to read to the right.³⁷

The wheel can indeed be read both horizontally and vertically. A horizontal reading is established through the concepts within each ring proceeding from one radial segment to the next segment on the right. The conjunctions repeated at the beginning of some segments: et ('and') and ita ('therefore') create horizontal conceptual links through linguistic relationships and suggest that the diagram can be read in this way and decoded to reveal the instructional message. A vertical reading is implied through the use of radial segments. Within each radial segment, the progression is naturally from outside to inner ring instead of top to bottom. In the wheel, the table's linear concepts, based on an equivalent number of segments, are replaced by the relationship between spatial and conceptual links represented radially.³⁸

As radial segments the wheel offers a gloss of the Lord's Prayer, with the inner rings of each radial segment contributing the example from their own lists of seven concepts that best correspond to the verse of the prayer in the outer ring. For example the first radial segment reads from outer to inner ring: 'Pater noster et cetera. Hic petimus esse filii dei patris - Hoc datur baptisma ad noticiam filii dei - Et spiritus sapiencie ad reuerenciam trinitatis - Et lorica humilitatis contra superbiam- Ita vestimus nudos temporaliter - Condolemus egenis spiritualiter - Ita accipitur prudencia - Euitatur superbia'. The prayer's petitions become the category that unifies a variety of concepts, drawn from septenaries, together. The theological concepts in the inner rings are presented as consequences of the petitions in the outer rings and also as expansions on the meaning of those petitions. In terms of reading, this requires a form of interpretation which combines an understanding of layout with the effect it has upon textual concepts, creating a unified whole.

Besides the wheels of seven, there are other possible analogues for the Pater Noster table which may help us to uncover the reading practices with which it was associated. The vices, presented on the right hand side of the Vernon manuscript Pater Noster table, may be placed in their position due to an association with the Last Judgment, where the righteous are conventionally seated at Christ's right hand and those in hell are depicted on his left side assuming that the figure of Christ is represented in the centre. This is suggested in Matthew 25:31-46:

The evidence of the pictorial association of the sinister side with evil is apparent in representations of the Last Judgement, where the damned are always on the observer's right. Within the artistic composition Christ is enthroned in the centre with the saved at this right hand (viewer's left) and the damned on his left (viewer's right). This can be seen in a miniature accompanying the text of the Somme le Roi (Cambridge, St John's College, MS B.9, f.185v (c.1325)), the west portal tympanum of the cathedral of St Lazare, Autun, France, (cc.1120-1135),³⁹ the painting of the Last Judgement by Giotto, Arena Chapel, Padua (c.1305),⁴⁰ and the painted wooden boards from Wenhaston, Suffolk,⁴¹ c.1480 to name but a few examples.

Using a different model, the layout of the table could be interpreted as analogous to a maze which leads closer and closer to God as the reader follows through the paths of righteousness and turns away from the vices encountered. The physical layout of the table, divided into horizontal and vertical paths, can be compared to several surviving contemporary medieval mazes including Julian's Bower, Lincolnshire,⁴² Chatres Cathedral,⁴³ the representation of Crete on the Mappa Mundi, Hereford⁴⁴ and a roof boss dating to 1330-1416 found in St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol.⁴⁵

Drawing upon spatial analysis, a methodology used by Alan Morinis in his book Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage, the layout of the table can be negotiated like a map. It crosses the boundaries of the familiar territories, although metaphorical, of literature and visual culture, perhaps merging the two forms into a new coherent whole which may require a new way of reading and experiencing that allows a greater understanding of the physical application of heavenly instruction.⁴⁶ The table is similar to a journey in the sense that there are many routes and directions which can be taken (horizontal, vertical, roundels, colour, decoration etc.) with the petitions acting as signposts along the road.

In conclusion, reading tables and diagrams requires a skill beyond linear reading, encouraging the viewer to draw upon all the elements which carry symbolism and meaning, and to combine them to form a complex religious exercise. I would like to suggest that reading the Pater Noster table in relation to its analogues suggests a contemporary context, firmly grounding the tradition of religious tabular and circular diagrams. Like any other diagram, the table was perhaps primarily a pedagogical or mnemonic tool, which organizes a variety of Christian theological concepts into an easily accessible visual programme. Its more profound purpose, however, was not only to group these concepts together but also to suggest abstract relationships between them. The interpretation of such a diagram could have been a spiritual exercise, whose purpose, paradoxically, would be to free the mind from its reliance on external images to enable self-exploration. In conclusion, reading tables and diagrams requires a skill beyond linear reading, encouraging the viewer to draw upon all the elements which carry symbolism and meaning, and to combine them to form a complex religious exercise. I would like to suggest that reading the Pater Noster table in relation to its analogues suggests a contemporary context, firmly grounding the tradition of religious tabular and circular diagrams. Like any other diagram, the table was perhaps primarily a pedagogical or mnemonic tool, which organizes a variety of Christian theological concepts into an easily accessible visual programme. Its more profound purpose, however, was not only to group these concepts together but also to suggest abstract relationships between them. The interpretation of such a diagram could have been a spiritual exercise, whose purpose, paradoxically, would be to free the mind from its reliance on external images to enable self-exploration.

Anna Gottschall, University of Birmingham

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NOTES

1. The Speculum Theologiae in Beinecke MS 416 is a website created in spring 2006 through a collaborate project by the undergraduate students in Brian Noell’s seminar ‘The Medieval World of Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose’ at Yale University. The website states that ‘The Speculum Theologiae explores the Beinecke Library’s manuscript 416, a late thirteenth-century or early fourteenth-century collection of mnemonic devices from the Cistercian abbey of Kamp in Western Germany’. http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/speculum/ [accessed 26th November 2007] states in relation to the ‘diverse contexts in which combinations of these diagrams [Speculum Theologiae] were copied, the genre was popular throughout Europe beginning in the thirteenth century and continuing until the age of printing’.

2. The tradition includes medical and astrological tables, genealogies, calendars and biblical canon tables.

3. A copy of the table can be found in Avril Henry, %93 The Pater Noster in a table ypeynted' and some other presentations of doctrine in the Vernon Manuscript', in Studies in the Vernon Manuscript, ed. Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990); A. I. Doyle, ed., 'The Vernon Manuscript. A facsimile of Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Eng. Poet. a1, (Cambridge: Brewer, 1987) f.231v.

4. Maurice Hussey, 'The Petitions of the Paternoster in Mediaeval English Literature', Medium Ævum, 27 (1958), 8-16; Mary J. Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 10 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.7-12.

5. Carruthers, Book of Memory, pp.7-12; Lucy Freeman Sandler, The Psalter of Robert de Lisle, (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 1999) pp.23-27, 54.

6. Henry, 'The Pater Noster in a table ypeynted' pp.89-113.

7. Kathryn Vulic, 'Prayer and Vernacular Writing in Late-Medieval England' (unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, 2004), especially chapter 2: 'Beyond words: The Paternoster diagram and meditative prayer', pp.105-185.

8. Henry, 'The Pater Noster in a table ypeynted', p.97.

9. For a discussion of vernacular Pater Noster texts see F. G. A. M. Aarts, Þe Pater Noster of Richard Ermyte (The Hague, 1967) pp.cii-cxiv; Hussey 'The Petitions of the Paternoster', pp.8-16; R. Raymo, 'Works of Religious and Philisophical Instruction', in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, ed. A. Hartung, vol.7 (1986), pp.2279-82.

10. Vincent Gillespie, 'Thy will be done: Piers Plowman and the Pater Noster,' in Middle English Religious Texts and Their Transmission: Essays in Honour of Ian Doyle, ed. by A. J. Minnis (Cambridge: Brewer, 1994), pp.95-119 (97).

11. http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/speculum/ [accessed 11th November 2007].

12. Michael Camille, 'Seeing and Reading: Some Visual Implications of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy', Art History, 8:1 (1985), 26-49; Suzanne Reynolds, Medieval Reading: Grammar, Rhetoric and Classical Text, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 27 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Paul J. Griffiths Religious Reading: The Place of Reading in the Practice of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); C. Annette Grise ‘Women’s devotional reading in late-medieval England and the gendered reader’, Medium Ævum, 71 (2002), 209-225. For number symbolism see Christopher Butler, Number Symbolism (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970).

13. For number symbolism see Christopher Butler, Number Symbolism (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970).

14. For further discussion of the manuscript see Henry, 'Pater Noster in a table ypeynted'; Gisela Guddat-Figge, Catalogue of manuscripts containing Middle English romances (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1976) no. 83, pp.269-279; A. I. Doyle, 'Introduction', in Vernon facsimile, pp.1-17; Derek Pearsall, ed., Studies in the Vernon Manuscript (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990).

15. A. I. Doyle, 'Introduction', in Vernon facsimile, pp.14-15.

16. Pearsall, Vernon Manuscript, pp.ix-xi; Vulic, 'Prayer and Vernacular Writing', p.108; Doyle, 'Introduction', Vernon facsimile, pp.14-15.

17. E. Mâle, Religious Art from the Twelfth to Eighteenth Century (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949); R. Homan, The Art of the Sublime: Principles of Christian Art and Architecture (Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006).

18. Vulic, 'Prayer and Vernacular Writing', p.109.

19. Augustine, Sermon 213, PL XXXVIII 1285. Augustine's (354-430) teaching on the Pater Noster is important as he was one of the most influential figures in the development of western Christianity and is considered to be one of the Latin Church Fathers. As an important theologian and writer, he divided the petitions into the three associated with heavenly matters (petitions 1-3) and the four associated with earthly matters (4-7).

20. Anselm, Enarrationes in Matthaeum, PL CLXII 1284. Anselm divided the petitions into three heavenly (petitions 1-3) and three earthly (5-7), using the fourth petition as a 'boundary'.

21. Gillespie, 'Thy will be done', pp.96-98.

22. Henry, 'The Pater Noster in a table ypeynted' p.93.

23. Vulic, 'Prayer and Vernacular Writing', p.107. For further discussion of the translation of the Latin into the vernacular see pp.125-155.

24. Henry, 'The Pater Noster in a table ypeynted' p.93.

25. Rudolph Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye (1956, London: Faber) p.174; David Marr, Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information (1982, New York; Oxford: Freeman) pp.215-233.

26. Henry, 'The Pater Noster in a table ypeynted' p.90.

27. ibid, pp. 90-105.

28. ibid, 94.

29. ibid, 94.

30. ibid, 94.

31. ibid, 96.

32. Vulic, 'Prayer and Vernacular Writing', p.166 argues that words from the Bible, and more specifically from Jesus’ mouth, are conventionally written in red. She argues that this rubrication is a standard feature of medieval textual production and artistry as noted by the Pardoner in his prologue ‘in Latyn I speke a wordes fewe, / To saffron with my predicacioun, / And for to stire hem devocioun’ (II.344-6), Larry D. Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) p.194.

33. See Lucy Freeman Sandler, The Psalter of Robert De Lisle in the British Library (London: Harvey Miller, 1999) pp.108-115 for a list of manuscripts containing wheels of seven.

34. Michael Evans, 'The Geometry of the Mind', Architectural Association Quarterly, 12/4 (1980), p.42.

35. Sam Spears, 'The Visual Dynamics of the Wheel of Sevens in the Speculum theologiae', Beinecke Library Yale University website on the Speculum theologiae (2006) http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/speculum/2v-wheel-of-sevens.html [accessed 11th November 2007] (paragraphs 4 and 5 of 15).

36. Evans, 'Geometry of the Mind' (paragraph 6 of 15).

37. However, Dr. Ian Johnson at the 2007 Quadrivium Symposium at the University of Birmingham suggested that a circle could be interpreted as a line which joins to itself, representing a linear progression (personal communication).

38. Evans, 'Geometry of the Mind' (paragraph 8 of 15), argues that in order to appreciate the wheel of seven the reader needs to move emphasis away from the tabular aspect of the diagram towards the circular aspect, the geometric relationship between literally parallel ideas.

39. For an image of the west portal tympanum of St Lazare Cathedral see http://vrcoll.fa.pitt.edu/medart/image/France/autun/autun-main.html [accessed 22nd November 2007] or http://www.britannica.com/eb/article.30376/Western-sculpture#401325.hook [accessed 22nd November 2007].

40. The Arena Chapel Last Judgement by Giotto can be seen via http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/giotto/padova/index.html [accessed 22nd November 2007] or http://www.artbible.info/art/work/giotto/html [accessed 22nd November 2007].

41. The painted wooden boards can be viewed at http://www.paintedchurch.org/wenhast.htm [accessed 22nd November 2007].

42. Arthur Mee, Arthur Mee's Lincolnshire (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1949).

43. Discussed in detail by Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress, Director of Veriditas, during an interview titled ‘Walking the Labyrinth: Reflections on Chatres’ given on 22nd November 1998. This can be accessed via http://www.gracecathedral.org.enrichment/forum/for_19981122.shtml [accessed 11 November 2007].

44. Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion Books, 2003) p.15.

45. The roof boss can be viewed at http://www.stmaryredcliffe.co.uk/ladychapel.htm [accessed 11th November 2007].

46. Alan Morinis, ed., Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage (London: Green wood Press, 1992) p.1.