Alchemical symbolism at Notre Dame de Paris

[Paul Ferguson]

https://lanuitlanuit.wordpress.com/2019/...-de-paris/

https://www.deepl.com/translator


   

[Carl Lavoie]

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That imperious dame on the carving, that they call " l'Alchimie ", is really an allegorical depiction of Philosophy, as she appeared to Boethius while jailed in The Consolation of Philosophy. 

Now, I guess one could stretch it to include Hermetic Philosophy.

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Prose I


Philosophy approaches Boethius: the form of her appearance is allegorical


"While I was pondering thus in silence, and using my pen to set down so tearful a complaint, there appeared standing over my head a woman's form, whose countenance was full of majesty, whose eyes shone as with fire and in power of insight surpassed the eyes of men, whose colour was full of life, whose strength was yet intact though she was so full of years that none would ever think that she was subject to such age as ours. One could but doubt her varying stature, for at one moment she repressed it to the common measure of a man, at another she seemed to touch with her crown the very heavens: and when she had raised higher her head, it pierced even the sky and baffled the sight of those who would look upon it. Her clothing was wrought of the finest thread by subtle workmanship brought to an indivisible piece. This had she woven with her own hands, as I afterwards did learn by her own shewing. Their beauty was somewhat dimmed by the dulness of long neglect, as is seen in the smoke-grimed masks of our ancestors. On the border below was inwoven the symbol Π (Pi), on that above was to be read a Θ (Theta). And between the two letters there could be marked degrees, by which, as by the rungs of a ladder, ascent might be made from the lower principle to the higher. Yet the hands of rough men had torn this garment and snatched such morsels as they could therefrom. In her right hand she carried books, in her left was a sceptre brandished."

[Carl Lavoie]

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I wonder if any of those sculpted reliefs and statues listed have been damaged in the April 2019 fire.
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