The Augustinian Canons in Britain – Architecture, Archaeology, Art, and Liturgy 1100-1540

Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford

Fri 7 to Sun 9 Nov 2014
The Augustinian canons are very much the Cinderellas of medieval monastic history. In Britain, despite their prolific numbers, the not inconsiderable quantity and quality of their archives, and the fame and celebrity of much of their surviving architecture, the canons continue to stand in the shadow of the more familiar and generally better-researched monastic groups, most notably the Benedictines and the Cistercians.

Encouragingly, in recent years, a new generation of monastic historians has been working hard to redress this balance, but much remains to be done. In particular, the buildings of the Augustinian canons, their architecture, art, and the liturgy within, all remain woefully neglected areas of study. This is surprising, given the celebrity of English sites such as Bolton in Wharfedale, St Frideswide’s in Oxford (now the cathedral church), St Bartholomew’s in London, Hexham, Waltham and Walsingham; or Llanthony and Bardsey in Wales; or Jedburgh and St Andrews in Scotland.

This conference presents a major opportunity to consider the buildings at these and many other Augustinian sites across the country – more than 200 in all. It brings together an impressive body of historians, architectural and art historians, and archaeologists, whose principal focus will be the canons in Britain. However, the conference will also provide some contextual Continental background, and will further consider comparative material in Ireland.

It will be the first ever conference to consider the Augustinian canons in Britain from this perspective.

FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2014

6.00pm Registration (for those who have booked meals and or accommodation)

7.00pm Dinner

8.00pm Registration (for those who have booked as non-residential without meals)

8.15pm- What Augustinian architecture?
9.30pm DR DAVID ROBINSON

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2014

8.00am Breakfast (residents only)

9.15am The Augustinians in England and Wales
PROFESSOR JANET BURTON

10.15am Architecture and Augustinian communities in the Mediterranean c.1080 – c.1200
JOHN MCNEILL

11.15am Coffee / tea

11.45am Aesthetic restraint in a regional frame: Augustinian architecture in France from the eleventh to the fourteenth century
PROFESSOR SHEILA BONDE and PROFESSOR CLARK MAINES

12.45pm Lunch

2.00pm The aisleless cruciform church and the first Augustinian canons in Britain
DR JILL FRANKLIN

3.00pm Greater twelfth-century Augustinian churches in Britain
RICHARD HALSEY

4.00pm Tea / coffee

4.30pm The Augustinians as guardians of pre- and post – Conquest cults
DR DAVID ROBINSON

5.00pm A twelfth-century Augustinian cloister in its liturgical and theological context
THE REVD JEFFREY J WEST

6.00pm Break / bar open

7.00pm Dinner

8.15pm-9.30pm Eastern extensions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
DR NICOLA COLDSTREAM

SUNDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2014

8.00am Breakfast (residents only)

9.15am The architecture of the Augustinian canons in Ireland
PROFESSOR ROGER STALLEY

10.15am The liturgical books of the English Augustinians
PROFESSOR NIGEL MORGAN

11.15am Coffee / tea

11.45am The place of patronage in the study of Augustinian art and architecture
DR JULIAN LUXFORD

12.45pm Lunch

2.15pm Meet at Christ Church for an afternoon visit to the Augustinian priory of St Frideswide

4.00pm Course disperses, or you may wish to stay for Evensong which is at 6.00pm

As of 20th Oct 2014 some non-residential places are still available.

To book: – http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/O14P101ARR