Actual specimens of ancient flabella are almost non-existent, although a few have been preserved on the Continent; one of the most famous being that of the abbey church of Tournus, on the Saône, south of Chalon, at present in the Carrand collection, Museo Nazionale, Florence. This remarkable example, which may be taken as a characteristic type, is formed of a strip of vellum folded _à la cocarde_, painted on both sides with figures of St. Philibert and other saints divided by conventional trees. The outer borders consist of a continuous scroll of Romanesque ornament interspersed with figures of animals. Latin hexameters and pentameters are inscribed on the three concentric borders of the fan, as follows:— [+] FLAMINIS HOC DONUM, REGNATOR SUMME POLORUM, OBLATUM PURO PECTORE SUME LIBENS. VIRGO PARENS XPI VOTO CELEBRARIS EODEM, HIC COLERIS PARITER, TU FILIBERTE SACER. [+] SUNT DUO QUAE MODICUM CONFERT ESTATE FLABELLUM; INFESTAS ABIGIT MUSCAS ET MITIGAT AESTUS, ET SINE DAT TEDIO GUSTARE MUNUS CIBORUM. PROPTEREA CALIDUM QUI VULT TRANSIRE PER ANNUM, ET TUTUS CUPIT AB ATRIS EXISTERE MUSCIS, OMNI SE STUDEAT AESTATE MUNIRE FLABELLO. [+] HOC DECUS EXIMIUM PULCHRO MODERAMINE GESTUM, CONDECET IN SACRO SEMPER ADESSE LOCO; NAMQUE SUO VOLUCRES INFESTAS FLAMINE PELLIT, ET STRICTIM MOTUS LONGIUS IRE FACIT. HOC QUOQUE FLABELLUM TRANQUILLAS EXCITAT AURAS, ÆSTUS DUM SEVIT VENTUM FACIT ATQUE SERENUM, FUGAT ET OBSCENAS IMPORTUNASQUE VOLUCRES. The handle is formed of four cylinders of white bone, two being ornamented with semi-naturalistic vine foliage running spirally round the stem, the two lower fluted. These cylinders are united by nodes or pommels, tinted green; on the middle node the inscription MICHEL · M ·, on the upper [+] IOHEL ME SCAE FECIT IN HONORE MARIAE. The stem is surmounted by a capital with four figures of saints, whose names appear on the node immediately beneath: S · MARIA · S · AGN · S · FILIB · S · PET. On the capital rests the guard or box which receives the flabellum when closed; the four sides are of elaborately carved white bone with green-tinted borders; the front and back panels, betraying evidence of a different hand, are now in the Musée de Cluny, Paris, and consist of arabesques of foliage with figures, birds, animals, etc., modelled with great spirit. The two lateral panels or faces form the richest portion of the fan, and are carved with six subjects from the _Eclogues_ of Virgil. Three seated senators with other figures, two shepherds with oxen; three shepherds, two of whom are playing pipes, some sheep in the foreground; a seated shepherd blowing a horn; another shepherd with oxen and goats; a shepherd and satyr with dog and goats; and a seated shepherd with two oxen. [Illustration: Photo by Alinari. The Flabellum of Tournus. IX. cent. Museo Nazionale, Florence.] [Illustration: Photo by Alinari. The Flabellum of Tournus, details. Museo Nazionale, Florence.]