Saint-Jean-le-Thomas
INFORMATION
Font ID: 03339JEA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 17th century[Vivier-Seguin], Renaissance
Workshop/Group/Artisan: double-font
Cognate Fonts: Champcey and Céaux, also in Manche
Church / Chapel Name: Église paroissiale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Saint‐Jean‐le Thomas
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. John the Baptist
Church Notes: the original church may have been Carolingian; documented in donation documents of the early-10th, 11th and 12thC donations; restored 2019-2023 -- listed in Mérimée [ref.: PA00110580]
Church Address: All. du Presbytère, 50530 Saint-Jean-le-Thomas, France -- Tel.: +33 2 33 48 80 37
Site Location: Manche, Normandie, France, Europe
Directions to Site: Located off the D241, 17-18 km NE of Avranches
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocèse de Coutances et Avranches
Font Notes:
Click to view
Vivier-Seguin (1941) describe this font as rectangular, made of granite and with a groove parallel to the sides and bottom of the basin in each side of the basin; the underbowl has the shape of a smaller rectangle and the base is equally shaped. V-S date this font to the 17th century. The entry for this church in the French Wikipedia [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Église_Saint-Jean-Baptiste_de_Saint-Jean-le-Thomas] [accessed 29 March 2025] reports a listed 17th-century font made of granite: "les fonts baptismaux du XVIIe en granite avec deux cuves et leurs couvercles en bois, inscrits". Listed in Palissy [ref.: PM50002630]: "Fonts baptismaux et leurs deux couvercles [...] 17e siècle [...] H = 73 ; l = 110 ; pr = 77 [...] Fonts baptismaux en granite et leurs deux couvercles en bois. Cuve rectangulaire dont la base présente des pans coupés, ornée de plates-bandes sur chaque face, reposant sur un pied pyramidal plus étroit. Elle est creusée d'une double cuvette et possède deux couvercles, chacun étant doté d'une serrure [...] Bas de la nef [...] On retrouve le même type de fonts baptismaux à Champcey et Céaux".
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 609284 5398501
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 48.729943, -1.513869
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 48° 43′ 47.8″ N, 1° 30′ 49.93″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, granite
Font Shape: double-font, rectangular, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: double-basins
Basin Exterior Shape: double basin, rectangular (both)
Font Height (less Plinth): 73 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 77 x 110 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * Palissy [cf. FontNotes]
LID INFORMATION
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
- France, Ministère de la culture, Inventaire Général, Palissy (France, Ministère de la culture), France, Ministère de la culture. URL: http://www.culture.fr/public/mistral/palissy.
- Vivier, Em., Les Anciens fonts baptismaux du Département de la Manche, Avranches: Presses de "L'Opinion de la Manche", 1941, p. 75