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The Development of Stained Glass in Gothic Cathedrals
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsIn this research paper, I will be primarily focusing on the stained glass windows and architectural styles employed in five gothic buildings in France, each having their own unique and notable attributes pertaining to the development of stained glass windows. -
From Montpèlerin to Tarabulus al-Mustajadda: The Frankish-Mamluk Succession in Old Tripoli
Posted on April 21, 2013 | No CommentsModern Tripoli still shows the division into two different urban areas existing since the Middle Ages. Until the arrival of the Crusaders Tripoli merely consisted of the ancient town on the coast. -
The Cathedral of Bourges: A Witness to Judeo-Christian Dialogue in Medieval Berry
Posted on April 1, 2013 | No CommentsPositing any kind of Jewish-Christian “golden age” in Western Europe during the medieval centuries may seem somewhat foolish in light of what happened to Jews between 1240 and 1492: expulsions, forced conversions, social and political ostracism, deprivation of income and compa- rable economic oppression, accusation of and prosecution for so-called “crimes” against Christians, periodic rampages by Crusaders, and other attacks—both physical and mental— which functioned as insults to Judaism. -
Brick making in Britain during the later medieval period
Posted on March 9, 2013 | No CommentsThis essay aims to briefly examine the mechanisms of how brick making arrived in England and to describe the manufacturing process from documentary and archaeological evidence from a selected number of sites. -
Master builder of the Middle Ages and design build of today: an analysis and comparison
Posted on February 17, 2013 | No CommentsEuropean architecture went through a period of great development and building between 1150 and 1450. -
The origins and development of English medieval townhouses operating commercially on two storeys
Posted on February 15, 2013 | No CommentsThere can scarcely be a type of building more central to the function of the medieval town than the house used for selling -
Hidden in Plain Sight: The “Pietre di Paragone” and the Preeminence of Medieval Measurements in Communal Italy
Posted on February 11, 2013 | No CommentsPropelled by an active engagement with measurements, the medieval communes devised a revolutionary method to preserve these measurements, which I call Pietre di Paragone. -
Norwich Cathedral Yields its Medieval Secrets
Posted on February 4, 2013 | No CommentsA new archaeology project has begun to bring to light hundreds of secretive inscriptions that have lain hidden on the walls of Norwich Cathedral for many centuries. -
The Church Atrium as a Ritual Space: The Cathedral of Tyre and St Peter’s in Rome
Posted on January 31, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper will attempt to outline a perspective on ritual and space regard ing the Early Christian atrium by confronting two cases of early church atria: one known from a literary source, the other from its archaeological reconstruction. -
Conservation at Ani Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Savior
Posted on January 20, 2013 | No CommentsAni, a dramatic, windswept archaeological site in eastern Turkey, was once a thriving medieval city on the trade route through Central Asia. -
On The Move: A Brief Overview of the Mobile Homes of the Middle Ages
Posted on January 16, 2013 | No CommentsThe shape people most often associate with the Middle Ages is the pavilion. Circular with a conical roof ending in a point, these tents began to appear in western European artworkin the 13th century. -
The Mystery of the Marble Man and his Hat: A Reconsideration of the Bari Episcopal Throne
Posted on December 31, 2012 | No CommentsUntil the twentieth century, the throne was universally held to have been sculpted in or immediately before 1098 for Elias, the abbot of San Nicola and archbishop of Bari and Canosa. -
Church Wall Paintings and Mosaics: Principles of their arrangement and relationship to church architecture
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsThe history of Orthodox church wall-painting and mosaics, East and West, is a very rich one. On the one hand it reveals tremendous creativity in the Church’s response to architectural and pastoral changes. On the other hand it shows how consistently it has been faithful to unchanging spiritual principles. -
The Architectural Setting of the Mass in Early-medieval Ireland
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsSurviving churches and documents are analysed for what they may reveal about the architectural context of the mass in early-medieval Ireland. -
The Duomo: The Touchstone of Florence
Posted on December 4, 2012 | No CommentsThe Duomo, 'cathedral' in Italian, is the touchstone of Florence’s architectural achievements and was built to serve forever as a symbol of Florence’s power and prosperity to the surrounding Tuscan communities. -
The Royal Abbey of Fontevrault: Religious Women and the Shaping of Gendered Space
Posted on December 3, 2012 | No CommentsThis article examines the religious and architectural history of the Royal Abbey of Fontevrault, in the French province of Anjou, investigating the active and deliberate role women played in shaping the physical and symbolic space of this female monastic community. -
The Meaning of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the Tenth Century
Posted on December 2, 2012 | No CommentsThe Great Mosque of Cordoba is universally recognized as one of the most singular monuments of medieval architecture. Celebrated for its harmony, balance, dramatic use of light and decoration, and its overall unity and aesthetic sensitivity, the monument belongs to an established functional type, the hypostyle mosque, but amounts to more than a mere variant of this type. -
A Marginal Occupation? The Medieval Laundress and her Work
Posted on November 22, 2012 | No CommentsThe wider study of an ostensibly menial activity that, with certain notable exceptions, offered insecure and poorly paid employment to illiterate women of low status is certainly beset with problems. -
The Archaeology of Colonialism in Medieval Ireland: Shifting Patterns of Domination and Acculturation
Posted on November 19, 2012 | No CommentsThis project seeks to identify the processes at work in Scandinavian and Anglo- Norman colonialism in Ireland, and their interaction with the landscape, by examining the impact of each phase of activity on the settlement pattern in two representative case-study regions. The successes, failures, similarities and differences of Scandinavian and Anglo-Norman settlement and society in Ireland are examined and compared in this project in terms of three sub-phases of the overall process, namely expansion, consolidation and domination, within an overall developmental diachronic framework. -
Gargano Comes to Rome: A Revision of Castel Sant’Angelo’s Historical Origins
Posted on November 14, 2012 | No CommentsThis article explores the early medieval transformation of a pagan Roman monument, Hadrian’s tomb, into a Christian fortress consecrated to St Michael. -
‘In the Beginning’: The London Medieval Graduate Network Inaugural Conference
Posted on November 13, 2012 | No CommentsThis is a summary of the The London Medieval Graduate Network Inaugural Conference by Rachel Scott. The conference was held on November 2nd at King's College London. -
Some Notes on Gothic Building Processes: the Expertises of Segovia Cathedral
Posted on October 28, 2012 | No CommentsMore concrete information can be found in expertises. During the construction of a cathedral, sometimes, the Chapter considered it necessary to call in a foreign expert to assess the state of the work or to discuss erection problems. This was the case in Segovia Cathedral, where several expertises from the beginning of the sixteenth century have been preserved. -
Mega-Structures of the Middle Ages: The Construction of Religious Buildings in Europe and Asia, c.1000-1500
Posted on October 18, 2012 | No CommentsHow did medieval builders manage to construct Gothic cathedrals—buildings which are still among the tallest structures in the world—without access to the modern engineering theories? -
Mont Orgueil wall painting
Posted on October 7, 2012 | No CommentsVisitors to Mont Orgueil Castle can now see the remains of an ancient wall painting that has been uncovered in the Medieval Great Hall. David Park, Emily Howe and Sharon Cather, of the Coutauld Institute of Art, investigate the origins of this mysterious, exceptional work. -
Townscape as text: the topography of social interaction in Fethard, county Tipperary, AD 1300-1700
Posted on October 6, 2012 | No CommentsThe idea that complex social order in the past can be ‘read’ in the built environment, and indeed in material culture - tangible artefacts and landscape phenomena - in general, is a foundation of contemporary archaeology and historical geography.