Highly Commended in the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Prize 2007 The patronage of Benedictine art and architecture, and the circumstances that made it possible and desirable, reveal much about the ambitions, beliefs and allegiances of both the order and those who interacted with it; moreover, analysis of such patronage also improves our understanding of some of the most important and beautiful buildings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass and other artefacts surviving from the middle ages.In this survey, focussing on the Benedictine monasteries and nunneries in south-west England (including Glastonbury) during the 240 years leading up to the dissolution of the religious orders under Henry VIII, the author discusses the question in terms of 'internal' practice, initiated by Benedictine monks and nuns, and 'external' practice, for which non-monastic agents were responsible; and analyses the historical circumstances affecting the commission and the purchase of art and architecture. Throughout, he takes care to situate the study of buildings and their embellishment within the broader context of Benedictine culture. The text is lavishly illustrated with forty-five black and white plates of art, architecture and documents, many of which have not previously been reproduced. Dr JULIAN M. LUXFORD is Lecturer at the School of Art History, St Andrews University.

Examinations of the culture - artistic, material, musical - of English monasteries in the six centuries between the Conquest and the Dissolution. The cultural remains of England's abbeys and priories have always attracted scholarly attention but too often they have been studied in isolation, appreciated only for their artistic, codicological or intellectual features and notfor the insights they offer into the patterns of life and thought - the underlying norms, values and mentalité - of the communities of men and women which made them. Indeed, the distinguished monastic historian David Knowles doubted there would ever be sufficient evidence to recover "the mentality of the ordinary cloister monk". These twelve essays challenge this view. They exploit newly catalogued and newly discovered evidence - manuscript books, wall paintings, and even the traces of original monastic music - to recover the cultural dynamics of a cross-section of male and female communities. It is often claimed that over time the cultural traditions of the monasteries were suffocated by secular trends but here it is suggested that many houses remained a major cultural force even on the verge of the Reformation. James G. Clark is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: DAVID BELL, ROGER BOWERS, JAMES CLARK, BARRIE COLLETT, MARY ERLER, G. R. EVANS, MIRIAM GILL, JOAN GREATREX, JULIAN HASELDINE, J. D. NORTH, ALAN PIPER, AND R. M. THOMSON.

An investigation into the role of the high-ranking churchman in this period - who they were, what they did, and how they perceived themselves. High ecclesiastical office in the Middle Ages inevitably brought power, wealth and patronage. The essays in this volume examine how late medieval and Renaissance prelates deployed the income and influence of their offices, how they understood their role, and how they were viewed by others. Focusing primarily on but not exclusively confined to England, this collection explores the considerable common ground between cardinals, bishops and monastic superiors.Leading authorities on the late medieval and sixteenth-century Church analyse the political, cultural and pastoral activities of high-ranking churchmen, and consider how episcopal and abbatial expenditure was directed, justifiedand perceived. Overall, the collection enhances our understanding of ecclesiastical wealth and power in an era when the concept and role of the prelate were increasingly contested. Dr Martin Heale is Senior Lecturer inLate Medieval History, University of Liverpool. Contributors: Martin Heale, Michael Carter, James G. Clark, Gwilym Dodd, Felicity Heal, Anne Hudson, Emilia Jamroziak, Cédric Michon, Elizabeth A. New, Wendy Scase, Benjamin Thompson, C.M. Woolgar

Excavations at the site of the medieval chapter house of St Albans Abbey in 1978 uncovered fragments of decorated floor tiles of the Anglo-Saxon abbey and associated burials, along with the magnificent floor of relief-decorated tiles of the medieval chapter house, and the graves of 16 known figures of the late 11th-to 15th-century abbey.

"This dedicated volume of the Journal of the British Archaeological Association draws together ten papers which, collectively, explore something of the art and architecture, styles and uses, of the medieval cloister in England and Wales. Contributors consider the continental context, cloisters in English palaces, Benedictine and Augustinian cloister arcades in the 12th and 13th centuries, architecture and meaning in Cistercian east ranges, late medieval vaulted cloisters in the West Country, cloisters at the cathedrals of Old Sarum, Canterbury, and Lincoln, and assess the extent to which the cloister bosses at Norwich cathedral priory reflect contemporary religious politics. The volume also contains an extended consideration and gazetteer of all Cistercian cloisters in England and Wales."

This book was inspired by the records made by Carolyn Heighway during the thirty years when she was archaeological consultant at Gloucester Cathedral. The survival of so much of the abbey of 1089 is remarkable, and often not appreciated by the casual visitor since it is ingeniously overlaid by Gothic alterations. Since 2000, surveys have been produced which enable accurate plans and elevations to be made which clarify the late 11th and early 12th century appearance of the building; deductions have also been made from archaeological observations. Since there are almost no documents for the abbey before the 15th century which relate to construction matters, the building itself is primary evidence, and archaeology is an important element. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, plans and measured drawings including accurate reconstructions; comparative scale plans of Worcester and Tewkesbury are also included. The late 11th-12th century church is described in detail, along with the surviving claustral buildings. There is a chapter on polychromy and on the surviving 11th-12th century sculpture, and a full bibliography. The whole is set in context by Malcolm Thurlby, who comments on the wider sources and associations.

This book is the first major investigation of a subject of seminal importance in the study of church history and archaeology. The two stone thrones, at Wells and Durham, the three timber monuments, at Exeter, St Davids and Hereford, and the mid-14th-century bishop's chair at Lincoln, all come under a searching empirical enquiry. The Exeter throne is the largest and most impressive in Europe. It is a distinguished innovatory example of the English Decorated style, with antecedents passing back to the court of Edward I. It exemplifies most of the historical and formal strands that suffuse the entire book – visual appearance, distinctiveness within the building, prestige, construction, stylistic context, finance, and the patronage and personal role of the bishop himself; as well as the subtler issues of the personal and collective politics of bishop and chapter, the monument's liturgical applications, its relationship with the cathedral's relics, its symbolism and what it tells us about the aspirations of the institution within the existing ecclesiastical hierarchy. The thrones also reveal much about the personal circumstances of an individual bishop, and where he stood on the scale of a good diocesan on the one hand, and ambitious politician on the other, as exemplified at Exeter and Durham. The text is by the art historian, Dr Charles Tracy, a seasoned expert on church furniture both in Britain and on the continent of Europe. The chapter on the stone thrones was prepared by Andrew Budge who is currently preparing a Ph.D thesis on 'English Chantry Churches' at Birkbeck College. The polychromy authority, Eddie Sinclair, spent many hours on the scaffold to bring forward her remarkable report on the Exeter throne. Her full report is to be published online.The Exeter throne is also interpreted by the established timber conservation practitioner, Hugh Harrison, and the St Davids throne by the experienced draughtsman, Peter Ferguson. In an age of the CAD, his meticulous measured drawings of the Exeter and St Davids monuments are one of the most remarkable features of book. The architect, Paul Woodfield prepared the drawings for the Lincoln chair.

The construction of a church was undoubtedly one of the most demanding events to take place in the life of a medieval parish. It required a huge outlay of time, money and labour, and often a new organisational structure to oversee design and management. Who took control and who provided the financing was deeply shaped by local patterns in wealth, authority and institutional development - from small villages with little formal government to settlements with highly unequal populations. This all took place during a period of great economic and social change as communities managed the impact of the Black Death, the end of serfdom and the slump of the mid-fifteenth century. This original and authoritative study provides an account of how economic change, local politics and architecture combined in late-medieval England. It will be of interest to researchers of medieval, socio-economic and art history.

An account of Dominican activities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales from their arrival in 1221 until their dissolution at the Reformation

Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award What explains the layout of the cathedral and its close? What ideas and beliefs shaped this familiar landscape? Through this pioneering study of the development of the close of Norwich cathedral - one of the most important buildings in medieval England - from its foundation in 1096 up to c.1700, the author looks at changes in cathedral landscape, both sacred and social. Using evidence from history, archaeology and other disciplines, Professor Gilchrist reconstructs both the landscape and buildings of the close, and the transformations in their use and meaning over time. Much emphasis is placed on the layout and the ways in which buildings and spaces were used and perceived by different groups. Patterns observed at Norwich are then placed in the context of other cathedral priories, allowing a broader picture to emerge of the development of the English cathedral landscape over six centuries. ROBERTA GILCHRIST is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading and President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology. From 1993 to 2005 she was Archaeologist to Norwich Cathedral. She has published extensively on medieval monasticism and social archaeology.