First modern study devoted to one of the twelfth-century's most enigmatic, influential and fascinating figures. Henry of Blois (d. 1171) was a towering figure in twelfth-century England. Grandson of William the Conqueror and brother to King Stephen, he played a central role in shaping the course of the civil war that characterized his brother's reign. Bishop of Winchester and abbot of Glastonbury for more than four decades, Henry was one of the richest men in the kingdom, and effectively governed the English Church for a time as Papal Legate. Raised and tonsured at Cluny, he was an intimate friend of Peter the Venerable and later saved the great abbey from financial ruin. Towards the end of his life he presided, albeit reluctantly, over the trial of Thomas Becket. Henry was a remarkable man: an administrator of exceptional talent, a formidable ecclesiastical statesman, a bold and eloquent diplomat, and twelfth-century England's most prolific patron of the arts. In the first major book-length study of Henry to be published since 1932, nine scholars explore new perspectives on the most crucial aspects of his life and legacy. By bringing ecclesiastical and documentary historians together with archaeologists and historians of art, architecture, literature and ideas, this interdisciplinary collection will serve as a catalyst for renewed study of this fascinating man and the world in which he operated.

This book offers an analysis of Giotto's painted architecture, focusing on issues of structural logic, clarity of composition, and its role within the narrative of the painting. Giotto was the first artist since antiquity to feature highly-detailed architecture in a primary role in his paintings. Francesco Benelli demonstrates how architecture was used to create pictorial space, one of Giotto's key inventions. He argues that Giotto's innovation was driven by a new attention to classical sources, including low reliefs, mosaics, mural paintings, coins, and Roman ruins. The book shows how Giotto's images of fictive buildings, as well as portraits of well-known monuments, both ancient and contemporary, play an important role in the overall narrative, iconography, and meaning of his works. The conventions established by Giotto remained at the heart of early modern Italian painting until the sixteenth century.

The resonant ruins of Pompeii are perhaps the most direct route back to the living, breathing world of the ancient Romans. Two million visitors annually now walk the paved streets which re-emerged, miraculously preserved, from their layers of volcanic ash. Yet for all the fame and unique importance of the site, there is a surprising lack of a handy archaeological guide in English to reveal and explain its public spaces and private residences. This compact and user-friendly handbook, written by an expert in the field, helpfully fills that gap. Illustrated throughout with maps, plans, diagrams and other images, Pompeii: An Archaeological Guide offers a general introduction to the doomed city followed by an authoritative summary and survey of the buildings, artefacts and paintings themselves. The result is an unrivalled picture, derived from an intimate knowledge of Roman archaeology around the Bay of Naples, of the forum, temples, brothels, bath-houses, bakeries, gymnasia, amphitheatre, necropolis and other site buildings - including perennial favourites like the House of the Faun, named after its celebrated dancing satyr.

Originally published in 1926, this book analyses the role of the Abbey of St Gall in the development of German arts in the Middle Ages. Clark examines the various influences on the abbey from other European traditions and the importance of its manuscript collection for medieval learning. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in medieval Europe and the role of the Church in the transmission of learning.

The Book of Kells, dating from about 800, is a brilliantly decorated manuscript of the four Gospels. This new official guide, by the former Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College Library, Dublin, provides fascinating insights into the Book of Kells, revealing the astounding detail and richness of one of the greatest works of medieval art. The illustrations in the guide include reproductions of complete pages, and details that allow one to marvel at the intricacy of the decoration. The Book of Kells is explored through its historical background; its structure; its decorative elements, including the richness of its symbols and themes; the scribes and artists who worked on the manuscript; and the tools and pigments used in its creation.

Originally published in 1950, this book examines the art of the Cluniac religious order, specifically the sources of Cluniac iconography and the ways in which the life, practices and needs of the Order influenced the development of its art. Evans details the influence that liturgical dramas, Roman ruins and numismatic imagery held over the artists of the Order, and illustrates her text with over 200 photographs of Cluniac manuscripts, sculpture and architecture. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Cluniac art and its roots.

Originally published in 1922, and first delivered in a slightly altered form as lectures at the University of London in 1911, this book gives a general review of 'the Church-Building Arts of England' from the Roman occupation until 1540. Prior studies the effects of major political and social events on English church art and architecture, and the ways in which art, particularly art located in churches and cathedrals, served as 'the vehicle of medieval civilization'. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in English medieval art and history.

Originally published in 1931, this was the first comprehensive textbook on the development of French medieval sculpture to appear in the English language. Detailed yet accessible, it was designed to 'cater for the intelligent tourist as well as the student'. Numerous photographs are contained throughout, the majority of which were taken by the author during various church visits. Examples are drawn from more genuine and less restored pieces, and where restoration is obvious it is pointed out in the text. This is a beautifully presented book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in medieval France, church architecture and sculpture.

Charles Locke Eastlake (1833-1906), an interior, furniture and industrial designer, showed talent as an architect and was awarded a Silver Medal in 1854 by the Royal Academy. He is known for influencing the style of later nineteenth-century 'Modern' Gothic furniture with his Hints on Household Taste (1868), but his passion for medieval architecture developed much earlier while he was in Europe during the 1850s. In 1866 he became Secretary to the Royal Institute of British Architects, and it was in 1872 that this work was published. The book is notable for being released at the height of the Gothic Revival movement in the later nineteenth century. It includes detailed comments on the architects, societies, literature and buildings that formed the cornerstones of the Gothic Revival, primarily in Britain, from around 1650 to 1870. A valuable mine of information, it remains a key source on the topic.

The ways of war in the Middle Ages never cease to fascinate. There is a glamour associated with knights in shining armour, colourful tournaments and heroic deeds which appeals to the modern imagination. Because medieval warfare had its colourful side it is easy to overlook the face that war was a very serious business in an age when brute force was the recognised way of settling a quarrel, and conflict formed a normal way of life at every level of society. This book illustrates the art of war with dozens of medieval images from books and manuscripts, and reveals a wealth of social and military background on heraldry, armour, knights and chivalry, castles, sieges, and the arrival of gunpowder. This new edition is completely revised with a selection of new illustrations from the British Library's medieval manuscripts.

Sir Steven Runciman's History of the Crusades (1951-4) remains widely read and influential but represents only a part of his wide-ranging, erudite and immensely readable literary activity. His early work focused on Byzantium in the tenth century (The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus) and the history of the first Bulgarian empire. Later he wrote with authority on ecclesiastical relations between the eastern and western Churches (The Eastern Schism), more generally on Byzantine culture (Byzantine Style and Civilization), with forays into medieval diplomacy (The Sicilian Vespers) and British colonial society (The White Rajahs). With a diplomatic past which informed his studies, he was the doyen of Byzantine studies in Britain. This volume of essays explores topics relevant to Sir Steven's interests, long planned in his honour by British Byzantinists of all generations, and includes a memoir of his life and a full bibliography of his work.

First published in 1951, as the revised edition of a 1935 original, this volume provides a historical study of English sculpture during the medieval period. It was created as a response to the increasing popularity of art history, providing students with a detailed, yet accessible, introduction to its subject. The text is particularly distinguished by its comprehensive range of illustrative material, containing 683 high-quality photographs from a broad range of sources. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in religious art and the development of medieval sculpture.

An important trade centre in the Medieval Mediterranean, Amalfi and the surrounding region of southern Italy sustained strong art production and patronage from the eleventh through to the thirteenth centuries. Merchant patrons realised a wide variety of religious and residential complexes that were evocative of Byzantine, Islamic, Western, and local traditions. With the rise of the Angevin kingdom, a demise of this eclectic art tradition took place and by the fourteenth century, Amalfitan painting and sculpture reflected compromises between local and Neapolitan styles, demonstrating the erosion of its autonomy. Originally published in 2004, this book evaluates the Amalfitan art production in terms of moral, economic, and social structures, including investment strategies, anxieties about wealth and salvation, and southern Italy's diverse religious communities. Historiographical analyses and postcolonial models of interpretation offer further insight into Amalfitan art and its ever-shifting relationship to the visual cultures of sovereign authorities in southern Italy.

A sweeping history of premodern architecture told through the material of stone Spanning almost five millennia, Painting in Stone tells a new history of premodern architecture through the material of precious stone. Lavishly illustrated examples include the synthetic gems used to simulate Sumerian and Egyptian heavens; the marble temples and mansions of Greece and Rome; the painted palaces and polychrome marble chapels of early modern Italy; and the multimedia revival in 19th-century England. Poetry, the lens for understanding costly marbles as an artistic medium, summoned a spectrum of imaginative associations and responses, from princes and patriarchs to the populace. Three salient themes sustained this "lithic imagination": marbles as images of their own elemental substance according to premodern concepts of matter and geology; the perceived indwelling of astral light in earthly stones; and the enduring belief that colored marbles exhibited a form of natural-or divine-painting, thanks to their vivacious veining, rainbow palette, and chance images.

Nicola Pisano was a much admired thirteenth-century Italian sculptor and architect, often considered to be the founder of modern sculpture. Within this 1938 text, G. H. and E. R. Crichton begin by giving a biographical background of Pisano, before looking at those early sculptors whose works may have inspired him. In the book's second part, the Crichtons write in detail about the sculptures of Pisano, describing the pulpits at Pisa and Siena as well as the Fountain at Perugia. The Crichtons also discuss those pieces often accredited to Pisano which seem unlikely to be his. Finally, they share their conclusions on Pisano's influence on Italian sculpture. These fascinating accounts of Pisano's life and works are supplemented by numerous illustrative plates. This book will appeal to scholars of art and sculpture in general, as well as of Pisano and thirteenth-century sculpture more specifically.

Originally published in 2001, this book examines the Venetian colonies of the Eastern Mediterranean and how their built environments express the close cultural ties with both Venice and Byzantium. Using the island of Crete and its capital city, Candia (modern Herakleion), as a case study, Maria Georgopoulou exposes the dynamic relationship that existed between colonizer and colony. She studies the military, administrative, and ecclesiastical monuments set up by the Venetian colonists which served as bold statements of control over the local Greek population and the Jewish communities who were ethnically, religiously, and linguistically distinct from them. Georgopoulou demonstrates how the Venetian colonists manipulated Crete's past history in order to support and legitimate colonial rule, particularly through the appropriation of older Byzantine traditions in civic and religious ceremonies.

In the first full-length study of Judith of Flanders (c. 1032-1094), Mary Dockray-Miller provides a narrative of Judith's life through analysis of the books and art objects she commissioned and collected. Organizing her book chronologically by Judith's marriages and commissions, Dockray-Miller argues that Judith consciously and successfully deployed patronage to support her political and marital maneuverings in the eleventh-century European political theater. During her marriage to Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria, she commissioned at least four Gospel books for herself in addition to the numerous art objects that she gave to English churches as part of her devotional practices. The multiple treasures Judith donated to Weingarten Abbey while she was married to Welf of Bavaria culminated in the posthumous gift of the relic of the Holy Blood, still celebrated as the Abbey's most important holding. Lavishly illustrated with never before published full-color reproductions from Monte Cassino MS 437 and Fulda Landesbibliothek MS Aa.21, The Books and the Life of Judith of Flanders features English translations of relevant excerpts from the Vita Oswinii and De Translatione Sanguinis Christi. Dockray-Miller's book is a fascinating account of this intriguing woman who successfully negotiated the pitfalls of being on the losing side of both the Norman Conquest and the Investiture Controversy.

The Shaping of Art History examines art history's formation in the German academy in the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the work of Wilhelm Voege and Adolph Goldschmidt, two influential scholars of medieval art, Kathryn Brush analyses their methods and particularly those scholarly projects that were critical to the development of their approaches. Her work combines intellectual and institutional history with the study of artistic monuments and biography. It considers how the study of the pioneering scholarship in the field of medieval art is critical to an understanding of the formulation of art historical method as a whole.

This 1988 volume, collected here are the principal essays of Elizabeth Salter published between 1966 and her death in 1980, together with three chapters of a book on the literary culture of England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on which she was working in the last years of her life, and a version of her brilliant lectures on the theme of the Annuciation to the Shepherds in literature, drama and art given during those years. Elizabeth Salter is recognised as one of the most distinguished medieval scholars of her generation, particularly noted for her work on Langland and Chaucer, and on the relationship of literature and the visual arts. The strength and consistency of her views, the persistent and urgent nature of her preoccupations, and the depth of scholarship and skill of presentation, all emerge more clearly than ever in this volume.

The Thomson Collection contains examples of the highest quality of most types of medieval ivory carving, both secular and religious. These include large statuettes of the Virgin and Child intended to stand on altars in chapels, small versions for private use in the home, and folding tablets or diptychs with scenes from the life of Christ carved in relief.

Mr Strachan was asked if he could identify or explain the illustrations in an edition of the English Great Bible of 1541. Some were simple, others quite baffling. He set out to discover their meaning and history, and succeeded in tracing their derivation. At each stage a possible influence or explanation pointed a stage farther back; in the end he found that he had to cover virtually the whole history of illustration in printed bibles during their first century. He has set down his findings in this study. There is a considerable detective interest; one sees how successive renderings of a subject produced strange garblings, until certain pictures became apparently meaningless. It is all quite easy to understand, now that Mr Strachan has explained it; but he was working backwards in time, and it was a feat of ingenuity and perseverance to have reached his conclusions. All the more so in that he had to survey the entire range of bible-printing in every important European country.

This book explores the complex interrelationship between texts and drawings in the late tenth or early eleventh-century Junius II manuscript, the only surviving illustrated Anglo-Saxon poetic manuscript. The book, which contains a plate section of sixty-one illustrations, focuses on the way in which the drawings both illustrate the text and translate it into a new visual language. Poems and illustrations work to create a carefully crafted and unified manuscript, but both also use formulaic language, iconography and compositions to construct a web of intertextual and intervisual references that open the poems to readings far more diverse than those of the biblical books on which they are based. Together poems and drawings create a new and unique version of biblical history, and suggest ways in which biblical history relates to Anglo-Saxon history and the manuscript's Anglo-Saxon audience - a process which has been extended by the manuscript's many editors to include contemporary history and the contemporary reader.

This book provides a major study of the drawings, paintings and carvings of the crucifixion from tenth- and eleventh-century England, placing these works of art within the context of the tenth-century monastic revival. The drawings and paintings of the crucifixion are discussed in relation to the literature, theology, liturgy and devotional practices of the late Anglo-Saxon period in order to reveal the richness and subtlety of religious belief at this time. Late Anglo-Saxon religious art is shown to have played a central role in the monastic life; it called to mind the gospel events and set out their theological significance; it demonstrated the truth of the gospel message; it moved men's hearts, allowing them to experience the presence of Christ and to respond as though they had actually been present at His death.

Latin paleography of the classical period and beyond the Carolingian era has been well studied and described. But from about 1100 onwards we find a period of increasing national divergence in the character of book-hands used for writing, formal MSS. In this book Professor Thomson provides 132 characteristic specimens of the period 1100 1500, reproduced by lithography (in all cases in the original size). He excludes curial or chancery hands. Opposite each plate is a transcription of several lines. Above this, Professor Thomson provides comments on the distinguishing characteristics of the script. Cumulatively, the effect of these analyses is to provide a method of dating late medieval MSS and ascribing them to their country of origin.

Graffiti ('drawings or writings scratched on a wall or other surface') are to be found incised on the walls and pillars of innumerable cathedrals and churches in Great Britain. Most were done between the twelfth and early fifteenth centuries; many are valuable as examples of medieval art; and some are important for their preservation of particular styles of epigraphy. In this work, Mrs Pritchard has studied the inscriptions and drawings in a large number of churches, mostly within a radius of sixty miles of Cambridge. These graffiti are far from mere scratchings performed by unskilled hands; they are highly imaginative, boldly executed drawings, combining freedom of line with occasional fussiness of detail, and inscriptions whose clarity and precision of lettering equal in execution the contemporary manuscript. Many were subsequently covered by medieval wall paintings; others have been partly defaced by cleaning and restoration of the original stone. Mrs Pritchard illuminates a neglected corner of medieval art; and her skilful rubbings (over two hundred of them illustrate this book) preserve these curious relics of medieval artistry against the erosion of time and restoration.