I - “THE BIBLE OF AMIENS”: being Part I. of “Our Fathers” (1880–1885)

Summary

[Bibliographical Note.—The Bible of Amiens was intended to be, and is described on the title-page as, Part I. of a series of sketches of Christian Art and History, entitled Our Fathers have Told Us; but no other Part was issued by Ruskin, though some chapters intended for the work were printed (see below, p. 190).

A lecture on “Amiens” was given by Ruskin at Eton College on Saturday, November 6, 1880. The minute-book of the Eton Literary and Scientific Society contains the following account of the lecture:—

“On Saturday, November 6th, Professor Ruskin gave a most interesting lecture on ‘Amiens.’ After premising that, the written lecture not having arrived, he could hardly do justice to his subject (a prediction which was by no means realized), the lecturer described first the position held by Amiens in the Middle Ages, as the Venice of France, and proceeded to draw out the contrast between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, which “the intelligent traveller sees so strongly marked nowadays in passing through the town in the shape of fifty black smoking chimneys, and in the midst a tall fair minaret, that does not smoke.’ Then after dwelling for a little on the general features of the Cathedral, the lecturer passed on to describe the statues of the Apostles in the Central Porch of the West Front, each statue with its representative virtue and opposite vice below it. […]