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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. -
Making the martyr: the liturgical persona of Saint Thomas Becket in visual imagery
Posted on February 10, 2013 | No CommentsHow was the historical figure of the worldly chancellor reconciled to the saintly archbishop who was martyred for his faith on the floor of Canterbury Cathedral? One of the most important vehicles of expression in the Middle Ages was the liturgy. -
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. -
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. -
Excavating All Saints: a medieval church rediscovered
Posted on January 1, 2013 | No CommentsWhen excavations started at the site of the ‘lost’ church of All Saint’s in York, archaeologists knew they would find burials. What they found was much more than expected: an Anchoress and the remains of soldiers who helped Oliver Cromwell take the city at the Siege of York in 1644. Lauren McIntyre and Graham Bruce explain the evidence. -
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 Troublesome bequest of Dame Joan: the establishment of the chapel of St Anne at Walsingham Priory
Posted on December 2, 2012 | No CommentsIn an act of both piety and remembrance, his widow, Dame Joan, ordered that his body should be buried within the great Priory church at nearby Walsingham and, above the tomb, there should be a chapel created in dedication to the mother of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Anne. -
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 Fake Medieval Images in Canterbury Cathedral
Posted on November 12, 2012 | No CommentsSome of the most iconic medieval stained glass images in Canterbury Cathedral are actually fakes created in the early twentieth century. -
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? -
Medieval Fairs: an archaeologist’s approach
Posted on September 30, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper intends to explore some of the possibilities offered by the physical and conceptual structures of fairs towards the interpretation of medieval culture from the viewpoint of an archaeologist working largely in southern Italy. -
Excavations of a Monastic Settlement and Medieval Church Site at Killevin, Crarae Gardens, Mid Argyll
Posted on September 29, 2012 | No CommentsAccording to local tradition, Killevin was the first parish church of Glassary before being succeeded by Kilneuair. Unfortunately, the lack of surviving evidence regarding the ecclesiastical history of the parish before the mid-14th century poses real problems for untangling the status of medieval Killevin. Even that of Kilneuair is shrouded in doubt. -
Construction Methods and Models of Cistercian Abbeys in North-Western Italy between XII and XIII Century
Posted on September 8, 2012 | No CommentsStudies on the so-called bernardine plan (plan bernardin, bernhardinischer Grundtypus), a rigid layout without bending elements (transept with squared chapels on the eastern and western sides, and a rectangular pro- jecting church), and the diffusion of this planning choice in the multiform world of the Cistercian architecture made remarkable progress in recent years, thanks to fine job of collecting and classifying examples of this in different European countries -
Construction evolution of medieval tuscan monasteries: The case of badia San Savino in Cascina (Pisa)
Posted on September 8, 2012 | No CommentsThe most important stage of this preliminary study has been the historical analysis: the history of the S. Savino complex is marked by many alterations and modifications to the original structures, presumably carried out to adapt them to the demands of different (Ceccarelli Lemut and Garzella, 1996 -Pazzagli, 1985- Redi, 1984). ages and different functions -
Project to restore York Minster windows halfway completed
Posted on August 16, 2012 | No CommentsConservators working on the restoration of the Great East Window at York Minster have completed the conservation of half of the panels in the stunning medieval window depicting the story of the Apocalypse. -
The Planning and Building Instruments of Architects in the Late Middle Ages
Posted on August 15, 2012 | No CommentsThe development of building techniques in the architecture of the late Middle Ages, which is considerably different from that of the previous centuries, seems to be the result of a natural evolution of building techniques rather than a continuous search for improvements to apply to better and more logical workmanship. -
Comparing Pilgrim Souvenirs and Trinity Chapel Windows at Canterbury Cathedral
Posted on August 5, 2012 | No CommentsThe story begins with two tin pilgrim ampullae2 made before 1220 in Canterbury, England, that were found centuries later, one in France (now in the Cluny Museum) and one in Norway (now in the Historical Museum in Bergen, Norway). -
The beginnings of Florence Cathedral. A political interpretation
Posted on July 19, 2012 | No CommentsThat the Cathedral project emerged in the context of the complex struggle between elite and popolo in 1293-95 already suggests its heavily politicized origins. -
Ring-givers and Romans : the cultural roots of Anglo-Saxon church architecture
Posted on July 17, 2012 | No CommentsThe stone churches of pre-Conquest England are markedly different from those of their continental contemporaries and Norman successors, yet generations of historians have viewed these differences as inferior attempts to replicate continental forms. -
The Commemoration of Saints at Late Medieval York Minster
Posted on July 5, 2012 | No CommentsIn what way are hagiographic texts, the liturgical commemoration of saints and the depiction of saints lives on the late medieval stained glass windows of York Minster related, how did they influence each other, and what role does the community of York Minster play in this? -
St Andrews Cathedral in Scotland recreated online
Posted on June 25, 2012 | No CommentsPeople can now explore St Andrews Cathedral, Scotland’s largest medieval church, as it looked in the Middle Ages, through a new online portal created by the University of St Andrews. -
Pilgrimage to Chartres: The Visual Evidence
Posted on June 24, 2012 | No CommentsReferences to Chartres Cathedral as the most important Marian shrine in Europe during the Middle Ages still abound. The historiography of this interpretation leads back to local chartrain histori- ans of the nineteenth century, among whom Lépinois was one of the most respected. -
The Heavenly Jerusalem: from Architectural Canopies to Urban Landscape in the Southern Portals of Chartres Cathedral
Posted on June 17, 2012 | No CommentsIt is the purpose of this article to study the urban forms sculpted on the southern portals of Chartres cathedral as representations of the Heavenly Jerusalem and to follow their development from the canopies over the jamb statues to the architectural frames of the small reliefs of the porch.