Refectory Bell

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The bell is inscribed in Latin TINNIO PRANSVRIS CENATVRIS BIBITVRIS (“I ring for breakfast, dinner, and drinks”). Smaller than the taller and more familiar church bell, this rare refectory bell evokes the sounds of life in the medieval cloister. In addition to the inscription, the bell is decorated with roundels depicting two angels, a winged lion and the Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God. The shape is without precedent in surviving bells, but it can be seen in a mid-thirteenth-century manuscript depicting bell ringing and other music making.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art