Aydat
Lac d'Aydat. Source: Puy-de-Dôme, l'Auvergne des volcans.
The lake in June 2009. Picture Joop van Waarden
Saint Sidoine church (13th c., fortified 15th c., belltower 19th c.). Picture Joop van Waarden
Saint Sidonius window in the church (1867). Picture Joop van Waarden
HIC SUNT DUO INNOCENTES EST SANCTUS SIDONIUS Here are (the relics) of two infants and of Saint Sidonius. Picture Joop van Waarden
Riez
Baptistery in Reii (modern Riez). 12th century. This could be the place where Sidonius was baptized by bishop Faustus (Carm. 16.78-90). See footnote. All pictures of Riez by Loek van Arem.
Riez baptistery exterior
Riez baptistery interior: rotunda
Riez baptistery interior: cupola
Riez baptistery interior: baptismal font (4th/5th century)
Other places
Panorama of the Fourvière hill in Lyon. In the foreground to the right the primatial church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste on the bank of the Saône, where bishop Patiens built (or renovated) the predecessor cathedral for which Sidonius composed a verse inscription (Carm. 27 in Ep. 2.10.4). Close by was the funerary church of St Just, the place for the relaxed saint’s day described in Ep. 5.17.
Possible traces of the well in St Abraham’s monastery in the courtyard of Saint-Cirgues apartment building in Clermont-Ferrand. See Sidon. Ep. 7.17. Source LaMontagne.fr
The Pont du Gard, Nîmes. Sidonius’ relatives Ferreolus and Apollinaris owned estates on opposite banks of the river Gard. Sidonius describes his visit to them in Ep. 2.9.
The Saint-Maurin caves in the Gorges du Verdon, allegedly home to hermits and to Faustus of Riez in particular (Sidon. Carm. 16.92-94). Source Wikipedia. See also Bigot 2005.
Reconstruction of the Visigothic palace at Toulouse. © Christian Darles and Musée Saint-Raymond.
Île Saint-Honorat, the southernmost island of the Lérins group off Cannes. Here, ca. 410, Honoratus founded the monastery whose policy and spirituality were to be a decisive factor in the Gaul of the likes of Sidonius. Source Abbaye de Lérins.
Saint-Julien, Brioude (ancient Brivas). Excavations. Source D. Martinez and D. Morel, ‘L’architecture religieuse de l’Auvergne’ (2012).
Saint-Julien, Brioude. The saint’s shrine in the crypt of the present-day church. For the controversy concerning his relics, see Sidon. Ep. 7.1.7. Picture: Joop van Waarden.
The sarcophagus of bishop Mamertus of Vienne (see Ep. 7.1) in Saint-Pierre church, the archaeological museum of Vienne. Picture: Joop van Waarden.
Toulouse, Basilique Saint-Sernin, reliquary of Saint Saturninus (12-13th cent.), depicting his martyrium drawn by a bull (Sidon. Carm. 41.65-76).
Persons
Emperor Anthemius 467-472 CE, Solidus Rome (obverse). Source Münster University, Münze des Monats, October 2018.
Emperor Anthemius 467-472 CE, Solidus Rome (reverse). Source Münster University, Münze des Monats, October 2018, where see for the meaning of PAX.
Objects
Dice tower, device for rolling dice; see Ep. 8.12.5. Source: Roland Cobbett in Lucerna 58 (2020) 10-13: blogpost.
Open-air sauna; see Ep. 2.9.8-9. Source: Cod. Bodmer 135 f. 6r from 1450s: Peter of Eboli (early 13th c.), De balneis puteolanis, here.
Sidonius in art
Sidonius in Ms. Plut. 45.26, f. 1r, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.
Portrait of Sidonius in André Thevet’s 1584 Vrais Pourtraits et Vies des Hommes Illustres. See Reception/France page.
Portrait of St Sollius Sidonius in the Austrian National Library, inv. PORT_00082645_01. Probably by Balthasar Moncornet, c. 1650. Source Bildarchiv Austria.
Wolfgang Baumgartner (1702-1761), engraving Sidonius Apollinaris in Die tägliche Erbauung eines wahren Christen. See Reception/Germany page.
Saint Sidoine Apollinaire taking care of the poor on a 1886 stained glass window in the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand which represents the bishops of this town, executed by the glazier Félix Gaudin. © 2009 Henri Hours
Sidonius as bishop among the ‘Gloires du Lyonnais et du Beaujolais’ in the Assembly Room of the Hôtel du Département du Rhône in Lyon. He is seen, wearing a bishop’s hat with a staff in his hand, talking to Ambrose in the centre of the middle tier. The artist is the painter Louis-Edouard Paul Fournier (1857-1913). Source: leaflet Département du Rhône.
Source: Direction de la Communication et du Protocole, Département du Rhône
Detail: Sidonius and Ambrose. Source: Direction de la Communication et du Protocole, Département du Rhône
Bust of Sidonius, one of thirty-four famous Lyonnais who adorn the corridors of the Hôtel du Département du Rhône in Lyon. The artist is the sculptor Joseph Bourgeot (1851-1910). Source: Direction de la Communication et du Protocole, Département du Rhône.
Emerson Woelffer, collage Sidonius Apollinaris (1979) (source Widewalls; see also Artnet).
Bust of Sidonius in papier-mâché by Elin van Waarden, 2023.
Sidonius by Elin
Sidonius by Elin
Various
Statue of a seated old man, presumably Chrysippus, in the Louvre. Sidonius Ep. 9.9.14: ‘Chrysippus with his fingers bent to denote counting’. Picture 2012 Carole Raddato, Flickr.
Footnote
* For a description of this baptistery, see Jean Guyon in Noël Duval et al., La topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule. Des origines à la fin du VIIe siècle. Choix de notices, Fasc. 1, Paris 1980: 108-109 [typoscript]. On pp. 113-114, a discussion (inconclusive) of the rival interpretations of Carm. 16.83-84: visit by Sidonius to Faustus’ mother (Tillemont); Faustus making Sidonius a member of the church by baptism (Loyen) or by having him take holy orders (Krusch); Sidonius entering Faustus’ church (Solomé) or a nunnery where Faustus’ mother lived (Griffe, Prinz).
