Why Is the Reading Stand Shaped Like an Eagle? A Bird Carrying Words

The requirement is simple and the constraints are not. A book must be held at a height and angle where a standing reader can see it clearly and read aloud without stooping, in a building where the reader needs to be visible and audible to a congregation. Medieval manuscripts were large and extremely heavy, frequently weighing several kilograms, bound in wooden boards covered with leather and sometimes with metal fittings, so holding one in the hands for a long reading was impractical. A sturdy stand solved both problems at once, and because it stood in a prominent position it became a substantial piece of furniture rather than a functional item.

Several designs recur across churches:

• •The eagle, with a book resting on outstretched wings, in brass or carved wood
• •The pelican, less common and carrying its own distinct symbolism
• •A plain sloping desk on a column, which is the oldest and simplest form
• •Double-sided rotating versions, allowing several books to be used in turn
• •Chained versions, where a valuable book was secured to the stand
• •Modern adjustable forms in wood or metal, found in halls and lecture theatres

The bird carries two associated meanings and both are documented in medieval sources. The eagle is the traditional symbol of John the Evangelist, one of the four figures assigned to the gospel writers, and it was the bird said to fly highest and to look directly at the sun, which was read as a figure for a gospel dealing in the loftiest matters. Separately the image of a bird carrying the word outwards to the world suited the function of reading scripture aloud to a congregation. The design became standard in England and across northern Europe from the fourteenth century, and large numbers of brass examples were cast, principally in the Low Countries and exported widely.

A church interior contains several pieces of furniture that are frequently confused, and distinguishing them clarifies what each is for. A pulpit is raised and enclosed and is used for preaching rather than for reading scripture, which is why churches commonly have both. A prayer desk is low and used kneeling. A choir stall seats singers and clergy along the sides of the chancel. A credence table holds the vessels used at communion. A font stands near the entrance for baptism. Each occupies a fixed position for reasons of function, and the arrangement of a church interior therefore records how services were conducted when the furniture was installed, which is why reordering a church is contentious.

Brass examples were valuable as metal, which determined their survival. Many were seized and melted during the reformation and the civil war, and others were hidden by parishioners and recovered later, with several documented cases of stands buried or sunk in ponds and retrieved decades afterwards. Some were sold abroad. Those that survive are studied closely, since the casting technique, the style of the bird and the form of the base allow them to be dated and attributed to particular workshops, and a small number of fifteenth century examples remain in use in the churches they were made for. The Victorian restoration of churches produced enormous numbers of new ones imitating the medieval form.

A stand holds a heavy book at a readable height for somebody reading aloud to a congregation, which medieval manuscripts made necessary. The eagle form draws on the bird as the symbol of John the Evangelist and on the image of carrying the word outwards, and became standard from the fourteenth century. Brass examples were melted for their metal during the reformation, with several documented cases of parishioners hiding them.