Typological Exegesis and Medieval Architecture in Honorius Augustodunensis’s Gemma animae

In 1226, the French cardinal Odo of Châteauroux gave a sermon in which he recounted an experience from his boyhood. He described how, when looking at a window, he could not identify the subject in the stained glass, only that it was some sort of ‘parable or story’.¹ A young man nearby explained that it illustrated the Good Samaritan, and continued his commentary by saying that the story demonstrated that lay people and not priests were more likely to offer charity. Odo’s sermon was no doubt rhetorically inflected for the sake of his audience, and perhaps the young man’s comment...