Neuville-sous-Corbie / La Neuville de Corbie / La Neuville-lès-Corbie

Malézieux (1873), in an article about the fonts at Berthenicourt and Saint-Germain (nr. Guise) in Aisne, includes a number of fonts of similar date and design at "Vermand, La-Neuvelle-la-Corbie, Vendeuil, Saint-Simon, Marle, Montdidier, Ver", and fragments in the churches of "Etreillers, Ribemont, Fonsomme, Gauchy, Marteville". Described and illustrated in Brutalis (1893-1899), with an interesting reference to the lead holy-water container found in this church, a citation to Corblet's history of the sacrament of baptism in which the use of this type of container is accounted for between the 4th and 9th centuries, and may have been used also in the early Christian catacombs; this source does not claim the antiquity of the Corbie lead tank would go that far back. Noted and illustrated in Enlart (1895). Listed by Cloquet (1895) -after Enlart- in a list of northern French fonts made of blue Tournai marble. Enlart (1902) lists it as Tournai with a five-column base and ornamented with pairs of facing lions; the font is illustrated with a photograph by Enlart in Mémoire [MH0029401] [accessed 2 January 2013]. In Bond (1908), after Enlart. Also in Ruprich-Robert's Architecture normande (1884-1889) and in Lasteyrie (1929), who describes the ornamentation as archaic and mediocre, after him. Described in Oursel (1994) as a Tournai font. the basin sides decorated with pairs of sides: 1)dragons , and 2)two facing lions drinking from the same cup, and 3)two facing birds doing the same from a chalice. The fourth side, which is difficult to access due to its proximity to the wall, has three birds: one has a multi-layer feathered collar, another has a serpent (?) coiled around it. Described and illustrated in Drake (2002) as a Tournai font; Drake identifies the birds as doves. The table-top section is original, but most of the base is a modern replacement [NB: the bases of these Tournai fonts were often made locally and, even when they were made of the same black-blue Tournai limestone, they were left unpolished]. The spandrels and upper surface area of the basin may have been decorated, but the surface appears now damaged. Listed with date in the 12th century in Palissy [ref.: PM80001450]. There are a several more illustrations of this font in the 19th-centuryliterature, some of which are in the collections of the Bibliothèque municipale d'Abbeville, with digital images in their web site [www1.arkhenum.fr]: lithograph by L. Haghe of a drawing by Louis Duthoit (in 'Voyage pittoresque' by Baron Taylor en Picardie); lithograph by Day et Haghe; lithograph by H. Wagon; lithograph by H.W. in 'La Picardie historique et monumentale'; etc. Some of these show a lead-tank removable insert used as a liner for the stone well of the font.