Amiens No. 1

Rivoire (1806) notes St. Salve miraculously discovered the remains of St. Firmin on 13 January 613, upon which he set to build a church to house the relics, a church chiefly of wood that housed the large baptismal font now in the present cathedral, dating thus the present font to the early-7th century. [NB: Salve (+615) was bishop of Amiens; the legend of the discovery of St. Firmin's remains has several versions, some of which have the church built prior to the discovery of the saint's relics]. An 1835 lithograph of this font in context by Bohomme, printed by Thierry Frères, is in the Archives et Bibliothèque patrimoniale d’Abbeville, 1Fi31/58 [https://patrimoine.abbeville.fr/collection/item/26384-cathedrale-d-amiens-fonts-baptismaux-et-pierre-de-granit?offset=7] [accessed 9 February 2025]. Ruprich-Robert (1855) mentions a noteworthy font here, without further details. Noted in Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionnaire... (1875), as being of the 12th century except for the shafts of the base which he dates to the 13th. He identifies the four corner figures as the "quatre évangélists" despite the inscribed names, and gives the measurements of the basin as 160 cm (long) x 60 cm (wide) x 50 (deep) [NB: on-site measurements taken in our July 2000 visit were 240 x 94 x 37]. He attributes the shape and size "afin probablement de permettre de coucher et d'immerger entièrement l'enfant qu'on baptisait". Noted and illustrated in Brutails (1893) who suggests provenance from the old cathedral and a date in the 12th century. Addison (1914) writes: "The old font at Amiens is very ancient, older than the church. It is seven feet long, and stands on short square peers: it resembles a stone coffin, and was apparently so made that a grown person may be baptized by immersion, by lying at full length. Angels holding scrolls are carved at its four corners, otherwise it is very plain". Lasteyrie (1929) describes it as a former stone trough [="des auges en pierre dure"] and dates the basin tentatively to the second half of the 12th century and the legs to the 13th. Illustrated, with a brief description in André, in Bouilleret's edited volume on the cathedral of Amiens (2012); André suggests the font is probably 11th or 12th-century, and was originally from the old cathedral building that was destroyed in 1218; André further suggests that the five shafts on which it now stands were added in the 13th century to accommodate the old immersion font to the more prevalent practice of baptism by infusion, an example of which he points out in the arch of the cloister that contains the scene of the infusion baptism of Atille by St. Firmin. André mentions that the trough-shaped object had served as baptismal font since time immemorial [="Cette grande cuve de pierre an forme d'auge servait, de temps immémorial, de fonts baptismaux"]. On-site notes: a massive rectangular basin (240 x 94 cm) but relatively shallow (37 cm) dating probably from the 12th or 13th century, like the fabric of the cathedral, which is also massive, the largest of French cathedrals. The corners of the basin have human figures with scrolls; the names which appear next to the figures may very well have been added at a later date. The upper and lower borders of the basin are ornamented with a horizontal line that has two crenellations on each of the long sides. The interior is lined with lead and there is central drain. The basin has a square plugged hole towards the bottom of one of the narrow sides which may or may not be related to drainage. The base consists of a central column and four colonnettes, all square, all adorned with four petal flowers. The plinth is even larger (370 x 198 cm). The wooden lid is flat, probably from the 19th century. Some have suggested that the font was only used for multiple baptisms on special occasions.