Communication of Discoveries of Medieval Paintings,Etc

Abstract

Until 1965 Holy Trinity parish church, Much Wenlock (Shropshire), was believed to be wholly Norman and later. In that year it was proposed that the south chancel chapel and south nave aisle were Anglo-Saxon. Two vertical strips of squared stones, built into the upper part (a later heightening) of the aisle's south wall, were interpreted as Anglo-Saxon pilaster strips of the type later classified by Dr H. M. Taylor as ‘long-and-short’. If the upper part of that wall was Anglo-Saxon, the lower part must have been earlier Anglo-Saxon, and so must the chapel south wall, which is integral with the lower part of the aisle wall. The Norman nave and chancel must have been added to an-existing Anglo-Saxon structure.

We believe, however, that the aisle and chapel must have been added to an existing Norman structure, for the Norman nave had originally a south-east external clasping buttress. Structural and documentary evidence shows that the strips are probably of the later thirteenth or earlier fourteenth century. Moreover similar strips occur in another part of the church that is probably of that date or later. ‘Pilaster strips’ of ‘long-and-short’ appearance may evidently be looked for elsewhere in twelfth-century or later contexts, especially in the heightened parts of unsupported rubble walls.     

Recording and curating relics at Westminster Abbey in the late Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

Westminster Abbey’s relics, and objects functionally related to them, were kept in the shrine chapel of St Edward the Confessor, where the kings and queens of England were customarily buried. They constituted a discrete collection, curated by a dedicated monastic officer titled ‘the keeper of St Edward’s shrine and the relics of St Peter’s church’. Inventories of the chapel, made when the office changed hands, survive from 1467, 1479 and 1520. These documents are analysed here for what they reveal of the contents of the collection, monastic interest in it, and the way the relics and related objects were cared for. As an important aspect of the chapel’s spatial configuration, the problem of where precisely the relics were located is also investigated. By examining the routine management of a single, important collection, the article aims to contribute to a more holistic understanding of the cult of relics in the late Middle Ages.     

Grace Mildmay and the painted glass window in the Mildmay chapel at St Leonard’s church,Apethorpe, Northamptonshire

?????The 1621 painted glass window in the Mildmay chapel of St Leonard’s church, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire, belongs to the revival of figurative glass in churches during the first half of the seventeenth century. Its four subjects, the Fall of Adam and Eve, Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, and the Last Judgement, express orthodox reformed belief in original sin and salvation only through faith in Christ’s saving grace. But the window’s design and unusual iconographic details are atypical of the period. Theme and imagery closely parallel sixteenth-century bible illustrations and both can be understood in relation to the volume of meditations compiled over her lifetime by Grace, Lady Mildmay, who was the patron of the chapel. The paper argues for her close involvement in the evolution of the imagery; the window can be seen as a visual equivalent of her meditations, and expresses her preoccupation with sinfulness, redemption, resurrection, and the afterlife.     

The identification of the medieval church of St Sabas in Jerusalem in the light of new documentary evidence

ABSTRACT

For over a century the church that the Greek monks of Dayr Mar Saba are known to have possessed inside the walls of Jerusalem in the twelfth century has usually been associated with a chapel surviving inside the Disy family house opposite the police barracks south of the Citadel, while the Zāwiyyat al-Shaykh Ya?qūb (Ya?qūbiyya), on the east side of Christ Church, has been identified as having originally been built in the twelfth century, possibly by Monophysites, as a church dedicated to St James the Persian, or the ‘Cut-up’ (Intercisus). New documentary research, however, now makes it appear more likely that Mujīr al-Dīn was correct in attributing the building of the Ya?qūbiyya to the Greeks and that it was also the church referred to by pilgrims in the twelfth century as that of St Sabas. This means that the identity of the church in Dār Disy, if indeed it was a church, remains to be determined.     

Devotion to St James and family identity: the Thurns of Salzburg

Miles or knight referred in twelfth-century Salzburg to a servile retainer of a ministerial or noble. In the thirteenth century the knights coalesced with the lesser ministerials, who were the vassals of the great ministerial lineages, to form the estate of knights, the lowest strata of the Salzburg nobility. The Thurns are an example of lesser ministerials who belonged to the estate of knights and who rose to prominence in the thirteenth century by serving the archbishops of Salzburg. The founder of the lineage's fortunes was Werner I of Lengfelden (1230–1268), the master of the archbishop's kitchen, who built St Jakob am Thurn, south of Salzburg. The distinguishing characteristic of the lineage was its devotion to the Apostle James, a saint associated with knighthood. The Thurns adopted Jakob as their leading name, built the church of St James next to their tower, St Jakob am Thurn, and the church of St James in Faistenau, and were buried in the chapel of St James in Salzburg, which they endowed.     

Excavations at Bamburgh: New Revelations in Light of Recent Investigations at the Core of the Castle Complex

The article documents the results of a series of investigations undertaken by the Bamburgh Research Project (BRP) within the Inner Ward of Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland between 1997 and 2010, using resistivity, ground penetrating radar survey, and limited excavation. Throughout the course of the investigation around the ruins of the medieval chapel, material evidence was found of Romano-British activity. Furthermore, stone structures of pre-twelfth-century date were revealed. Two phases of a possible early medieval defensive wall were identified beneath the north wall of the current chapel structure, and a stone building was found beneath the main body of the church which may represent part of the church of St Peter, mentioned by Bede.     

Archaeological Intelligence

The county of Norfolk is well known for its huge number of ruined and abandoned medieval churches. ‘St Mary's Chapel’ at Ashwellthorpe has not usually been, reckoned among these. Although local tradition always maintained that it was the parish church of the lost village of Ashwell, some architectural historians have been sceptical, suggesting that it is merely a post-medieval domestic building on which part of a church roof has been re-used. Renovation of the property has not only confirmed its ecclesiastical origin, but revealed that it is the chancel of a church later used as a chantry chapel, with a major refurbishment in the fifteenth century.     

The British Archaeological Association Honorary Secretary’s Report For 1939

Abstract

In the Lady chapel at the east end of the north aisle of the church at Pucklechurch (Gloucestershire) are two effigial monuments, which have received little scholarly attention. The monuments are attributed to William de Cheltenham (d. between 1371 and 1374) and his wife Eleanor, and were set up in his lifetime within the chantry chapel dedicated to St Mary which William received licence to establish at Pucklechurch in 1337. Little remains of the chapel except an exquisite altar frontal. During the 19th century the two effigies were transposed. Various aspects of the conception and design of the Pucklechurch monuments reflect developments in monumental sculpture in Herefordshire.     

On Salisbury Cathedral

Abstract

In his last will and testament, dated January 1514, Sir Henry Vernon detailed his intent that a chapel should be founded at the collegiate church of St Bartholomew at Tong, as a final resting place for himself and his wife, and as a chantry for the souls of his family. Completed, it seems, by early 1519, the form of the chapel and its decoration indicates that Sir Henry was commemorated in the artistic language of the very finest contemporary chantry projects. Indeed, a number of the chapel's features are directly copied from the most illustrious of all late medieval chantries: Henry VII's chapel at Westminster Abbey. The chapel, physically and institutionally, also offers insight into the nature of late medieval piety. Unusually, the foundation makes no explicit charitable provision, long established as a central element of the contemporary doctrine of salvation. Yet the chantry-chapel was a physical and institutional appendage to a 'family' mausoleum, whose collegiate function had a strong charitable element. As such, the chapel suggests that, although chantries and tombs were themselves intensely personal, spiritual legacies were viewed in the same way as territorial interests: as inherited familial institutions, which could and should be augmented, rather than enterprises by, and limited to, individuals. In short, through its location, form and decorative scheme, the chapel demonstrates that, whilst numbering in their hundreds by the Reformation, such chapels were far from simply formulaic expressions of piety. Rather, they could serve as the vehicle for the creation of a very specific identity for the chapel's founder.     

The 14th-Century Rebuilding of the Collegiate Church of St Mary’s,Warwick

The 14th-century rebuilding of the collegiate church of St Mary’s by the earls of Warwick has received surprisingly little scholarly consideration, despite the status of its patrons and the distinctiveness of its architecture. This article uses drawings of the building before the fire of 1694, which destroyed its west end, together with the college’s extensive cartulary and other records, to reconstruct the 14th-century church. From this a timeline for the construction of the church is proposed. Regional, national and international stylistic precedents and antecedents are explored and used to test the validity of the ‘centre/periphery’ model of architectural change. The article concludes with a brief discussion of methodological insights drawn from the analysis.     

Practicing Faith in Public Life

Abstract

Miroslav Volf’s book, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good, offers a valuable guide to how people of faith can engage in politics by calling on the best of their traditions, holding modest expectations, and remaining nonviolent. From the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching, Volf’s model can be viewed as appropriately, but cautiously hopeful. Yet, given contemporary suspicion of religion in politics, the challenges of acting prophetically in a pluralistic society, and the responsibility of Christians to “be the church,” it may be wise to begin with local actions rather than hoping to change the world by political means.     

Imposed and Home-Grown Colonial Institutions: The Jesuit Chapels of St. Mary’s City and St. Francis Xavier,Maryland

We compare the settings and architecture of a small, community based church in Maryland (US), to that of the Jesuit church in the colony’s capital, St. Mary’s City. The State of Maryland researches and interprets St. Mary’s City, while the parish of St. Francis Xavier supports the search for its first sanctuary. We explore the differences between the sites and their institutions sponsoring the studies, and reflect on what these differences might mean for the relationship of church and state in twenty-first-century Maryland.     

Notes from County Correspondents.

In 1503, the canons of Ripon Minster initiated a building campaign to replace the church’s nave. Through a careful study of the documentary evidence, including sources that have not previously been considered, this article investigates how Ripon’s clergy organised and funded the project. It offers a more precise chronology of the works and an assessment of their impact on the use of the church by its parishioners. The article also considers the clergy’s motives for rebuilding, proving that the renovation was not a reaction to the old nave’s deterioration so much as an initiative to create a grander architectural setting for processions and more space for burial within the church.     

Remarks on an Ancient Reliquary,in the Possession of MR. George Isaacs

Abstract

This short paper reports the recent discovery of an oyster shell containing paint, within the fabric of the ruined north aisle wall of the Norman nave of St Mary's church, New Shoreham. Microscopic paint analysis has identified the pigment as pure yellow ochre, and subsequent radiocarbon dating has shown the shell itself to be mid- to late Saxon in origin. The shell represents a medieval colour-dish, used as such by a 12th-century artist at the church, prior to the reuse of the dish as mortared rubble in the nave wall. On current evidence, this colour-dish represents the oldest dated example, and the oldest dish found in physical association with a building, from medieval Britain.     

On the Horn-shaped Head-Dresses of the 13th, 14th,and 15th Centuries

Abstract

The excavation of the only Cistercian abbey firmly established on the Isle of Man produced clear evidence of its church plan, its various modifications and its modest architectural pretensions. The burials contained some grave goods and displayed early methods of burial. An unexpected feature was a chapel attached to the east end of the north transept north chapel.     

Account of a Roman Sepulchre at Geldestone,Norfolk

Rescue excavation between 1988 and 1990 in advance of river erosion examined a substantial part of the small medieval rural hospital of St Giles by Brompton Bridge and later post-medieval farm. Established in the latter half of the twelfth century for the infirm, including lepers, the hospital layout consisted of a detached stone chapel adjacent to the river crossing, with a timber hall to the west. This hall was destroyed by fire, and a sequence of timber buildings were then constructed in adjacent areas. By the fifteenth century these structures also included a stone building, possibly a refectory. The first small chapel was replaced in the thirteenth century by a larger structure, which went through a period of expansion and then subsequent contraction by the fifteenth century. Only in the fourteenth century were a hall, probably a guesthouse or the master's lodgings, and dovecote built adjacent to the chapel. The cemetery to the south of the chapel was partially examined. The site appears to have been a largely economically self-sufficient unit with an attached farm. The hospital was abandoned during the latter half of the fifteenth century, but the site and some of the buildings were subsequently reoccupied as a farm from the mid-seventeenth century. The farmhouse underwent conversion from a longhouse to a house of hearth-passage plan in the early eighteenth century. The former chapel was reused as a byre and additional stables constructed. The farm was moved to its present location to the south in the mid-eighteenth century and the former hospital site finally abandoned.     

The Communion of St Denis and the Feast of Corpus Christi in the 15th-Century Stained Glass of All Saints North Street in York

Abstract

A text scroll in a miraculous mass scene in the parish church of All Saints North Street in York contains a breviary text from the Communion of St Denis. English unfamiliarity with the Communion legend and the unusual iconography of this particular version have both contributed to earlier misidentifications of this scene as a St Gregory’s Mass. In fact, this window contains the only surviving example of the Communion of St Denis in English stained glass. The All Saints’ glass also contains evidence of a now-missing St Gregory’s Mass, arguably in the same window as the Communion scene. These mass scenes were occasionally used separately to signify the feast of Corpus Christi. Combining them in the same window would have created a potent set of images that showed different aspects of the Body of Christ. More complex cross-references between the texts and images in this glass suggest clerical involvement in a choice of iconographies that would have reflected the devotional interests of the probable lay donors, who were members of the York Corpus Christi Guild. Commissioning and funding the creation of this window may therefore have been a collaborative exercise.