Noah's Ark and the Tabernacle

In the four spaces besides the two doors, the "Sacred factories", which are the most significant buildings in Israel's history, are represented.These latter were a major subject to study and search for the monks, namely because of their symbolic and historical relevance. The pictures representing Noah's Ark and the Tabernacle are both literally copied from Book VII of the Apparati inclueded in Montano's Bible, which was a very up-to-date source for the frescoes' themes (the frescoes were painted no later than two years after the publication of Montano's Bible), and its pictures, reproduced in the Library, aimed at joining the didactic aspect (the visual representation helped the monks studying the Scriptures to better understand some very complex and obscure biblical texts) and the symbolic aspect (the presence in the Library's privileged space of those basical expressions of God's wisdom, which are revealed to men through their holy structures). In these representations on the right of the northern door, as well as in Montano's Bible, one is certainly struck by the antropomorphism characterizing the Ark, which proportions are compared with Christ's body. This feature also emerges in the Tabernacle's boards, as it shows from some indefinite human shapes one can distinguish inside it.