Unveil the mysteries of the ancient and medieval worlds with Encyclopedia of Antiquities and Elements of Archaeology: Classical and Mediæval by Thomas Dudley Fosbroke. First published in the early 19th century, this monumental work is a treasure trove of knowledge, offering an in-depth exploration of the artifacts, arc
The Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Blog is written by curators in the British Library's Department of History and Classics. It publicises all aspects of the Library's work on western manuscripts produced before 1600, including our digitisation and cataloguing projects, exhibitions and publications.
We're very grateful for the postive feedback we've received about our Harley Science Project, and are delighted to announce that another batch of manuscripts has been made available via the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site. In this update you can learn about the veterinary science of horses, courtesy of late...
The Hollow Crown
103 l. 16 x 24 cm
vi p., 1 l., 32 p., 33 l. 41 cm
Polychromatic ornament
The sallet was a war helmet that replaced the bascinet in Italy, western and northern Europe and Hungary during the mid-15th century. In Italy, France and
Helmet find from Ostrow Lednicki (district Gniezno) in the province of Poznań in Poland. Iron, 11th / 12th century Driven from one piece. Easily trapezoid nasal. Hook at the nasal.
The great mediæval abbey of St Mary once dominated the land now known as Abbey Fields. Kenilworth Priory was founded in the early 12th century, at about the same time as the nearby [[[2548674]]]. It was dedicated to St Mary and... more
King's Gate is one of two surviving mediæval gates to the city of Winchester (the other is the Westgate). It is on, or near, the site of one of the Roman gates to the city. The name was first recorded in 1148 although the... more
'Polychromatic decoration as applied to buildings in the mediæval styles. Thirty-six plates in colours and gold with introductory and descriptive text' by William Audsley (1833-1907). Publication date, 1882. London: H. Sotheran & Co. Plate 1 - Colours and tints most suitable for decorative painting. Accessed on February 21, 2023 from https://archive.org/details/polychromaticde00auds/
Paul and Bente R Withers, 2022. 2 volumes. Size A4 (210 x 297mm) 8.25 x 11.7 inches, Paperback. Over 2500 weights are illustrated in colour (with a few black and white), as well as line drawings or photographs of the coins which the weights were made to check. The mediæval weights are enlarged 2:1, the remainder 1:1. There are many hundreds of enlargements of countermarks.Covers front and back,
Dublin Cathedral (COI) was founded in 1191. Little now remains of the earliest work beyond the baptistry. The Lady Chapel was added around 1270 and the tower and west nave were rebuilt between 1362 and 1370. A major reconstruction in 1860–65 means that much of the current building and decoration dates from the Victorian era. Due to a lack of records, it is not known how much of the current building is genuinely mediæval and how much is Victorian pastiche.
[I continue uploading photographs from my “Grand Tour 2022”, a 10-day road trip around France undertaken at the beginning of June 2022.] Today, with these two photos we finish our tour of the Notre-Dame of the Miracles basilica in Mauriac, Cantal (Auvergne, central France). The true origins of the basilica are shrouded in the mists of time and legend. What has been established by archæologists is that the church was built around 1150–70. Like many of those large Romanesque churches in Auvergne, built with volcanic stone, it is generally austere and dark, forbidding and impressive. However, both outside and inside, there are amazing examples of Mediæval art that belie the overall darkness of the monument. The church looks like a severe visage, but with a corner smile and a blinking eye! Let us now leave Mauriac on this final little wink: even if the church façade in general gives the impression of an absence of decoration, the Devil (if I may say so) is indeed in the details: look at this sculpted column base, and how the devouring monsters there seem to be laughing and not taking their job too seriously... Scare you, but make you smile: this is the whole philosophy of this church, and it is one that can apply to Romanesque sculpture in general!
Melle is a small town of about 6,000 inhabitants in the département of Deux-Sèvres in the old province of Poitou, a few kilometers southwest of Poitiers in France. I drove there one day during the four days I was based in Poitiers in June 2022 because Melle boasts not one remarkable Romanesque church, but two! Melle is located on the Path to Compostela, more precisely the Via Turonensis which initially began in Tours (as the name indicates), but is today considered to be starting in Paris, and going then through Orléans, Blois, Tours and Poitiers before reaching Melle. As a consequence of this, the first of the two churches in Melle, Saint-Hilaire, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1998. It is also, of course, a French Historic Landmark, having been listed in 1914. The church was erected during the first half of the 1100s. It is overall a lean and elegant structure, as the often ungracious buttresses have been replaced along the nave walls by columns and blind arches that absorb the thrust and weight of the vaulting: an extremely clever device! The harmonious apse of Saint-Hilaire. Two interesting things can be seen here: first, a very clear illustration of how the Romanesque architects liked to “announce” on the outside the layout of the inside: here the various and successives volumes of the radiating chapels, the ambulatory and the choir are clearly visible on top of one another; and second, only the lower part of the bell tower is Mediæval. The top part was rebuilt in 1850 after a fire, the four faces being made identical and based on how the southern one looked like —the only one that survived the fire.
After Beaulieu and Carennac, I drove 90 minutes to the southernmost and westernmost point of this Grand Tour 2022 to reach the small town of Moissac, not far from Toulouse in the département of Tarn-et-Garonne. Dedicated to Saint Peter and located on the path to Compostela (and therefore a UNESCO World Heritage site), the Benedictine abbey of Moissac was founded in the 700s. According to legend, it was founded even earlier, in 506, by the freshly converted Clovis, King of the Franks, but there is no historical evidence that this ever happened. Affiliated to Cluny from 1047, it became the most powerful monastery of southwestern France and numbered over 1,000 monks —most likely including lay brothers, though. There is so much to say about the abbey of Moissac that I will, for the most part, refer my readers to the many lengthy internet pages that describe it, not to mention of course the Quercy roman book by Zodiaque. The most famous parts are the stunning tympanum, the iconic statue of Saint Jeremy and the Year 1100 cloister with its 76 capitals, most of them historied. All of those are masterpieces fo Romanesque art and known worldwide. The abbey was on the very first list of Historic Landmarks in 1840. It is an absolute must-see for all people interested in the Middle Ages, and we will devote quite a few days to its visit. Inside the church (the southern portal with its tympanum is to the right) is a sort of narthex with massive diagonal stone arches that support the Mediæval battlements and the bell tower above. Unfortunately, when I went to Moissac, those were being restored and hidden under a big tarp, therefore no pictures! In front of you are the two smallish doors into the nave itself.
