doodlebossUpdated
A GUIDE TO LOOKING UP
The best carving in a medieval building is often the furthest away.
In a stone vault, the ribs cross at a projecting stone called a boss. Masons often carved and painted them with leaves, faces, beasts and stories, high above everyone's heads.
LOOK UP where the ribs cross
Explore a timeline
THE SHORT ANSWER
Part structure, part decoration.
Easy to miss unless you know to look up.
WHAT IT IS
A University of Pittsburgh glossary of medieval architecture defines a boss as a projecting stone at the intersection of the ribs of a vault, often the keystone and frequently carved.
Why ribs need themTHE RECORD
Norwich Cathedral says its medieval roof bosses are the biggest collection of their kind in the world, spread across the nave and the cloister.
See the numbersTHE CLOISTER
The cloister bosses include the famous Green Man carvings, foliage such as hawthorn and oak, and odd hybrid creatures.
Explore the timelineA NORWICH TIMELINE
Pick a moment in the story of Norwich Cathedral's bosses. The bar shows roughly how far back it sits, from the Norman foundation to a modern way of getting close.
Dates from Current Archaeology's feature on the Norwich cloister bosses and from Norwich Cathedral's own pages.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
One figure on the size of the collection,
one on how keen people were to see it closer.
≈ 1,000
Sculpted and painted stone bosses at Norwich
Current Archaeology describes the thousand or so bosses on the vaults of the cloister, nave, presbytery and transepts as the largest surviving collection of such Gothic art from medieval Europe.
THE COLLECTION · CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY
≈ 10,000
Helter skelter riders in 11 days, 2019
Norwich Cathedral says about 10,000 people rode the helter skelter installed in the nave in August 2019, which was designed to bring visitors closer to the bosses.
GETTING CLOSER · NORWICH CATHEDRAL
Current Archaeology notes that the bosses survived the Reformation, the Civil War era and Second World War incendiary bombing, and that rising damp in the cloister has been a more recent concern.
FOUR WAYS TO SEE MORE
They are high, small and often in shadow. A few habits make them much easier to enjoy in any vaulted church, cloister or chapter house.
Trace the stone ribs across the ceiling. Wherever they cross or meet, look for a boss.
A small pair, or a phone's zoom, turns a dot of colour into a face, a leaf or a whole scene.
At Norwich the nave bosses tell stories from Creation to the Last Judgement, so it pays to read them bay by bay.
Alongside the stories are green men, leaf spirals and strange hybrid creatures, often in the cloister.
WHY RIBS NEED A BOSS
Britannica explains that medieval builders developed the rib vault, a skeleton of arches or ribs on which the masonry could be laid, using pointed arches that could rise as high over a short span as over a long one.
Where several ribs meet, a single stone has to receive them all. That junction stone, the boss, became an invitation to carve. At Norwich, one researcher found the cloister's east walk bosses were arranged in two sequences that diverge from outside the chapter house.
Questions
What is a roof boss?
A projecting stone where the ribs of a vault cross. A University of Pittsburgh medieval architecture glossary notes it is often the keystone and frequently carved.
Where is the biggest collection?
Norwich Cathedral describes its medieval roof bosses as the biggest collection of their kind in the world, in the nave and the cloister.
How many bosses does Norwich have?
Current Archaeology puts it at a thousand or so sculpted and painted stone bosses, across the cloister, nave, presbytery and transepts.
What do the carvings show?
At Norwich the nave bosses tell Bible stories from Creation to the Last Judgement. The cloister has foliage, Green Men and other figures, including a hybrid that one researcher reads as a symbol of gluttony.
Was there really a helter skelter in Norwich Cathedral?
Yes. For 11 days in August 2019 a helter skelter stood in the nave as part of the Seeing It Differently project, and about 10,000 people rode it.
ABOUT THIS NAME
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