Couville / Kalvilla

One-piece rectangular basin mounted on five columns, the outer cylindrical ones are all the same size and type, while the central one is square and of a different stone. The basin sides are ornamented (L->R) with an interlace of four loops crossed by a circle on the first narrow side; the next side, a long side, contains a winged dragon facing left (Vivier-Seguin describe it as a "chimère avec gueule dentée et langue saillante, ailes ouvertes, le corps appuyé sur les deux pattes et la queue enroulée"- Vivier, 1941); the next side, narrow, contains a five-point star; a blind arcade of three arches appears on the next long side. Thiebot (1988) suggests that the four motifs stand for the four eras of the world: Creation, the Fall of humanity, Israel and, finally, the New Jerusalem. The columns of the base are rather slender and all of the same type and size. A legend (cf. Thiebot, 1988: 7-8) refers to the fact that this font was not meant for Couville but, when it was being carried past Couville, the oxen pulling the cart stopped and refused to go any farther, which was interpreted as a sign that the font should stay there [this legend occurs throughout most of Europe, with a variation on the object carried and the place-names]. The font has a rectangular wooden dome cover of later date, topped with a cross finial on it. V-S also quote Montier's hypothesis that perhaps this font is the one used by prêtre Berthevin in Merovingian times and, since they suggest different dating for the basin (earlier) and the base (later), the basin would go back to the 7-8th century (Vivier, 1941). The entry by M. Le Légard in the Dictionnaire des églises... (1966- ) gives the period of the font as "d'époque pré-romane ou du premier art roman". [NB: given the similarity of these ornamentations to other early Norman art, such an early dating is unlikely; we would suggest the late 12th or early 13th century as a more likely date for this font]. Described and illustrated in Les siècles romans en Basse-Normandie (1985: 133 no. 370 and ill. on p. 135) as a rectangular basin raised on four colonnettes [NB: there are actually five columns supporting this basin: one at each corner and a broader one in the centre, a common arrangement in Romanesque baptismal fonts with columnar bases]. Lsted in Palissy [ref.: PM50001411] with date in the 12th century.