Series 2 > Rentale Dunkeldense

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RENTALE DUNKELDENSE
may be gathered that the panelled front of this gallery or loft had
figures of the twelve apostles at intervals, and paintings between
them, and that the corresponding part behind the screen facing
the choir was painted with kings, benefactors, and bishops. The
reference to the painting of the upper parts of the choir stalls
may refer to colouring the canopies, or to the painting of scenes
or figures in the panels above the stalls. By this time we may be
fairly certain that the old stone arcading of the thirteenth century,
which may have been used for stalls at one time, was covered up
by the new work.
The arrangement of the choir must have been more or
less like that of the stalls that still remain at King’s College
chapel, Aberdeen, or in many cathedrals and churches in
England. According to the Sarum plan, the dean occupied the
stall on the right inside the doorway through the screen and
facing the altar, the precentor (chanter) that on the left. The
chancellor’s stall was at the extreme east end of those on the
south side, the treasurer’s opposite on the north side. The
archdeacon sat on the dean’s right, the sub-dean on the arch¬
deacon’s right, the succentor (sub-chanter) on the precentor’s
left. The other canons sat in order, beginning from the west end
of the choir next the sub-dean’s and succentor’s stalls respectively.
The vicars choral sat in the second form, the next row of seats
below the canopied stalls, and the boys in front of the vicars.
The ‘ rulers,’ rectores ckori, led the choir, standing at a desk in
the middle, and facing east. The bishop’s throne was beyond
the chancellor’s (i.e. the eastmost) stall on the south side. The
following diagram will make the arrangement clear (see opposite
page).
Myln speaks of a tabernacle, tabernaculum, for the high altar
among Bishop Brown’s gifts, and in the accounts paid in 1508
(p. 2) occurs the sum of £46, 5s. as the price of it, including the
freight by sea to Dundee, whence it came from Flanders. In
1510 £4 is paid for freight for a tabernacle, apparently the same;
in 1506-7 (p. 92) there is charged ‘expenses of the accountant
and the rest carrying a tabernacle from Dunde to Dunkeld, 3
lib. 17s.’ evidently for another one. Tabernacle, tabemaculum,
was a word commonly used for a carved canopy, especially one
containing imagery. Here it seems to indicate a carved wooden
canopy or tester for the high altar, placed above the reredos and
projecting over the altar. There was a canopy of this kind over
the high altar of Glasgow Cathedral, if we may judge from instruc-