Borromean rings in Christian iconography (original) (raw)

The mystery of the Christian Trinity is expressed in the Athanasian Creed: we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance. Trying to depict this triune nature without leaving oneself open to attacks of polytheism was problematic, and geometrical symbols became popular. The equilateral triangle, consisting of three equal parts, equally joined, was used as an early symbol of the Trinity. It was often inscribed in a circle, a symbol used to stand for God for many centuries. For the Greeks, the circle symbolised perfection; its never-ending form also encapsulates the idea of eternity.

Today, the Borromean rings are commonly used as a symbol of the Trinity. The earliest source for this that we are aware of was a thirteenth-century manuscript in the Municipal Library at Chartres. It contained four diagrams, one of which is shown above. In the centre, inside all the circles, is the word `unitas'; the three syllables of `tri-ni-tas' are distributed in the outer sectors. Unfortunately, the manuscript was destroyed in a fire in 1944. The copy shown here was reproduced in a manual of Christian iconography [Didron-Didron], along with descriptions of the other three. The labels on these other figures are shown below. They are:

• `God is Life' surrounded by `Father', `Son' and `Holy Spirit';
• `God is' surrounded by `Word', `Light' and `Life';
• the phrases `Trinitas Unitate' (three in one) and `Unitas Trinitate' (one in three) distributed over the diagram.

Circles in Christian Iconography

The association of rings with the Trinity can be traced back to Saint Augustin of Hippo (354-430). In his work De Trinitate [ix, 5, 7], he described how three gold rings could be three rings but of one substance.

A diagram in the Dialogi Contra Iudaeos (Dialogues against the Jews) by Petrus Alfonsi (1062-1110) has three circles connected in a triangle [Tolan]. Alfonsi is an interesting character. Brought up as a Jew in the Muslim part of Spain, he converted to Christianity and emigrated to Aragon, England and France. He was educated in Arabic and Hebrew and was interested in science, particularly astronomy. Originally called Moses, he took the name Peter at his baptism in 1106. Soon after this he wrote the dialogues, which take the form of a discussion between Moses and Peter, to show that his adopted religion was compatible with reason and natural philosophy.

In the sixth dialogue he discussed the Trinity. The sacred name for God was written with consonants alone in the Hebrew alphabet: Yod, He, Vav, He. Since it was forbidden to pronounce the name, it is unknown what vowels are omitted. Common expansions are Yahweh and Jehova. Alfonsi, writing the tetragrammaton as IEVE, split it to produce the names of the three persons: IE, EV and VE. These are written into his diagram.

Joachim of Fiore (1132-1202) took the splitting of the sacred name from Alfonsi, and arranged the labels on a design of three interlaced circles. The component rings are actually topologically equivalent to each other, although this is not apparent in Joachim's figure. It is more obvious when the link is redrawn as a symmetric diagram:

From Joachim's Liber Figurarum. MS CCC 255A f.7v, Bodleian Library, Oxford

It is suggested in [Reeves...] that this image of God as three interlaced rings inspired Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). At the climax of his Divina Commedia he reveals a vision of God: [Dante, Paradiso, §33, 115-120]

One medieval interpretation of the rainbow held that it was composed of three fundamental colours: red, green and blue. Reeves and Hirsch-Reich suggest that Dante saw the red, green and blue of Joachim's three circles as iridescent, each reflected in the others, together making one rainbow appearing as three [Reeves...]. Dante needed to be careful here as Joachim had been condemned by the fourth Lateran Council (1215) for giving the circles different colours and hence making them unequal.

With this progression in the right direction, it is not surprising to find that the Borromean rings finally appear as a symbol of the Trinity.

References

Dante,The Divine Comedy: Paradiso, vol 1 (Italian text with English translation by C. S. Singleton), Bollingen Series, Princeton Univ. Press, 1975.

Y. Delaporte,Les Manuscripts Enlumines de la Bibliotheque de Chartres, Chartres, 1929.

M. Didron,Iconographie Chretienne, Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 1843.

M. Didron and A. N. Didron,Christian Iconography, or the History of Christian Art in the Middle Ages, George Bell and Sons, London, 1886.

M. Reeves and B. Hirsch-Reich,The Figurae of Joachim of Fiore, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972.

J. Tolan,Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers, University Press of Florida, 1993.