Language, text, image. The mute child in the collections and stained glass of the Miracles of Our Lady of Chartres

The window of the Miracles of Our Lady from the Chartres Cathedral has always attracted the attention of scholars. However, the iconography of its authentic fragments still keeps its mysteries. I think that the panel 8 represents the miracle II of the Latin Book of Miracles of Our Lady of Chartres (miracle IV in the version of Jean le Marchant). This story plays a significant role in both books, since it has a special consequence in the history of the reconstruction of the cathedral, which is in the heart of the two books. It would be equally well placed in the window, whose most important part represents the situation referred to in the text: the influx of the faithful to the cathedral and the multiplication of miracles. The panel would be a version of the history reduced to the essence, but its spirit, based on the Christian inversion of values, would be quite similar to that spoken by the two texts. It is not sure, though, that the panel can be considered as the illustration of the text because it is more or less contemporary to the Latin version; the text as well as the image would be some reflections of oral stories that were to proliferate during the reconstruction of the cathedral.