Books in the Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture series

New insights into inscribed and stone monuments from across Europe in the early middle ages.

A fresh appraisal of the art of Anglo-Saxon England, focusing on art as an aesthetic vehicle and art as an active political force.

Examinations of the use of diagrams, symbols etc. found as commentary in medieval texts.

Richly-illustrated consideration of the meaning of the carvings of non-human beings, from centaurs to eagles, found in ecclesiastical settings.

First full-length survey of Reading Abbey, one of the most important ecclesiastical buildings of the Middle Ages.

Pioneering investigation of the popular "double tomb" effigies in the Middle Ages.

A fresh approach to the construction of "Anglo-Saxon England" and its depiction in art and writing.

Essays showing how the stuff of Norman Sicily, its mosaics, frescoes, art and architecture, was used to construct its history.Material culture played a crucial role in developing the cultural narrative of Norman Sicily. The essays in this book consider how images, designs, artifacts, structures and objects were used to help create the story of the medieval kingdom, and what they reveal about the complex political and social dynamics that underpinned the so-called "e;multicultural"e; state. Arguing that a visual language developed in medieval Sicily and southern Italy in this period,the contributions journey through both familiar and unexplored aspects of Siculo-Norman art, in particular those areas which have only been made possible with recent advances in technology and international academic collaboration.Topics addressed include manuscripts and mosaics, textile diplomacy, the drama of coins and trade, new readings of old buildings, and the insights of archaeological excavations into everyday life. All of the ideas presented in this volume converge on the central theme of how material culture helped to develop story and society in the medieval kingdom of Sicily. EMILY A. WINKLER is a Fellow of St Edmund Hall and member of the History Faculty atthe University Oxford; LIAM FITZGERALD is a PhD student at King's College London; ANDREW SMALL is a DPhil student at Exeter College, University of Oxford. Contributors: Martin Carver, Emma Edwards, Liam Fitzgerald, Katherine Jacka, Alessandra Molinari, Lisa Reilly, Fabio Scirea, Margherita Tabanelli, William Tronzo, Sarah Whitten, Emily A. Winkler.

The first full-scale study of the medieval funerary monuments of South Wales.South Wales is an area blessed with an eclectic, but largely unknown, monumental heritage, ranging from plain cross slabs to richly carved effigial monuments on canopied tomb-chests. As a group, these monuments closely reflect theturbulent history of the southern march of Wales, its close links to the West Country and its differences from the 'native Wales' of the north-west. As individuals, they offer fascinating insights into the spiritual and secular concerns of the area's culturally diverse elites. Church Monuments in South Wales is the first full-scale study of the medieval funerary monuments of this region offering a much-needed Celtic contribution to the growingcorpus of literature on the monumental culture of late-medieval Europe, which for the British Isles has been hitherto dominated by English studies. It focuses on the social groups who commissioned and were commemorated by funerary monuments and how this distinctive memorial culture reflected their shifting fortunes, tastes and pre-occupations at a time of great social change. Rhianydd Biebrach has taught medieval history at the universities ofSwansea, Cardiff and South Wales and edited the journal Church Monuments. She currently works for Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales.

An exploration of how power and political society were imagined, represented and reflected on in medieval English artImages and imagery played a major role in medieval political thought and culture, but their influence has rarely been explored. This book provides a full assessment of the subject. Starting with an examination of the writings of late twelfth-century courtier-clerics, and their new vision of English political life as a heightened religious drama, it argues that visual images were key to the development and expression of medieval English political ideas andarguments. It discusses the vivid pictorial metaphors used in contemporary political treatises, and highlights their interaction with public decorative schemas in English great churches, private devotional imagery, seal iconography, illustrations of English history and a range of other visual sources. Meanwhile, through an exploration of events such as the Thomas Becket conflict, the making of Magna Carta, the Barons' War and the deposition of Edward II, it provides new perspectives on the political role of art, especially in reshaping basic assumptions and expectations about government and political society in medieval England. LAURA SLATER is a Fulford Junior ResearchFellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford.

Essays on aspects of iconography as manifested in the material culture of medieval England.Professor Jane Hawkes has devoted her career to the study of medieval stone, exploring its iconographies, symbolic significances and scholarly contexts, and shedding light on the obscure and understudied sculpted stone monuments of Anglo-Saxon England. This volume builds on her scholarly interests, offering new engagements with medieval culture and the current scholarly methodologies that shape the discipline. The contributors approach several significantobjects and texts from the early and later Middle Ages, working across several disciplinary backgrounds and periods, largely focusing on the Insular World as it intersects with wider global contexts of the period. The chapters cover a wide range of subjects, from the material culture of baptism, to the material, symbolic and iconographic consideration of the artistic outputs of the Insular world, with essays on sculpture, metalwork, glass and manuscripts,to ideas of stone and salvation in both material and textual contexts, to intellectual puzzles and patterns - both material and mathematic - to consideration of the ways in which the conversion to Christianity played out on the landscape. MEG BOULTON is Research Affiliate and Visiting Lecturer in the History of Art Department at the University of York; MICHAEL D.J. BINTLEY is Lecturer in Early Medieval Literature and Culture at Birkbeck, University of London. Contributors: Elizabeth Alexander, Michael Brennan, Melissa Herman, Mags Mannion, Thomas Pickles, Harry Stirrup, Heidi Stoner, Colleen Thomas, Philippa Turner, Carolyn Twomey,

New interpretations of an art form ubiquitious in the Middle Ages.English alabasters played a seminal role in the artistic development of late medieval and early modern Europe. Carvings made of this lustrous white stone were sold throughout England and abroad, and as a result many survived the iconoclasm that destroyed so much else from this period. They are a unique and valuable witness to the material culture of the Middle Ages. This volume incorporates a variety of new approaches to these artefacts, employing methodologies drawn from a number of different disciplines. Its chapters explore a range of key points connected to alabasters: their origins, their general history and their social, cultural, intellectual and devotional contexts. ZULEIKA MURAT is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the History of Medieval Art at the University of Padua. Contributors: Jennifer Alexander, Jon Bayliss, Claire Blakey, Stephanie De Roemer, Rachel King, AndrewKirkman, Aleksandra Lipinska, Zuleika Murat, Luca Palozzi, Sophie Phillips, Nigel Ramsay, Christina Welch, Philip Weller, Kim Woods, Michaela Zoschg