Aims
This course aims to:
• provide a general overview of the history of medieval England, using key illuminated manuscripts as an entry point to some of the issues in each period
• provide an introduction to the use of illuminated manuscripts as historical evidence
• provide an introductory overview of English medieval art history and book production
Content
The course will proceed chronologically, from the post-Roman period to the 16th century, and will look in depth at two to three key manuscripts per 100-150 years as points of entry to the main issues of each era. These manuscripts each contain evidence of the stories of their makers and users who serve as guides to their own circumstances and societies. Other related manuscripts and artworks will also be discussed and the cultural history they illustrate will be set in the wider historical context.
The main foci will be:
• The age of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints
• The English and the Northmen
• The age of scholasticism and mysticism
• England on the eve of the Black Death
• The Wars of the Roses to the Reformation
Presentation of the course
The course will be taught by lectures, richly illustrated by PowerPoint slides and readings from contemporary sources, followed by discussion.
Course sessions
1. The 8th Century:
Bishop Eadfrith’s Desert Of The Book
The Lindisfarne Gospels
(British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IV)
The 9th Century:
Bishop Æthelwald’s Prayerbook
The Book of Cerne
(Cambridge University Library, MS Ll.1.10)
2. The 10th Century:
King Ætelstan’s Offering to a Shrine
Bede’s Lives of St Cuthbert
(Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 183)
The 11th Century:
Queen Emma’s ‘Apologia’
Encomium Emmae Reginae
(British Library, Add. MS 33241)
The 12th Century I:
Christina of Markyate’s Gift
The St Albans Psalter
(Hildesheim Dombibliothek)
3. The 12th Century II:
Gerald Of Wales and The Topography Of Ireland
Topographia Hibernica
(British Library, Royal MS 13 B VIII)
The 13th Century:
Matthew Paris’s Chronicle
Chronica Majora
(Cambridge, Corpus Christi College,
MSS 16 and 26 and British Library,
Royal MS 14 C VII ff. 157–218)
4. The 14th Century I:
John Fifhide’s ‘Poor Man’s Bible’ Picture Book
The Holkham Bible
(British Library, Add. MS 47682)
The 14th Century II:
Sir Geoffrey Luttrell’s Pyramid
The Luttrell Psalter
(British Library, Add. MS 42130)
5. The 15th Century I:
Abbot Bruyning’s Mega-Missal
The Sherborne Missal
(British Library, Add. MS 74236)
The 15th Century II:
Anthony Woodville’s Present
For Doomed Royals
The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers
(Lambeth Palace Library, MS 265)
The 16th Century:
Musician, Monarch, Womanizer
The Psalter of King Henry VIII
(British Library, Royal MS 2 A XVI)
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to gain or reinforce a broad general understanding of the history of medieval England, using key illuminated manuscripts as an entry point to some of the issues in each period
• to receive an introduction to illuminated manuscripts as historical evidence
• to obtain an insight into a key area of English medieval art history and into the study of book production
