British Archaeological Association Study Day: Coventry (Friday 21 March 2025), deadline 7 February 2025

Locations: St Mary’s Guildhall, Holy Trinity Church, St Michael’s Cathedral

Late medieval Coventry was the fourth largest city in England with a population of around 10,000. It rivalled the other regional capitals of York, Bristol and Norwich. Henry VI set up court in Coventry in the 1450s during the early part of the Wars of the Roses. Coventry’s wealth from the sale of wool and woollen broadcloth at this time helped pay for a building boom and investment in remarkable art and material culture. A surprising amount survives to this day and deserves closer attention.

St Mary’s Guildhall is one of the most important medieval guildhalls in the country. It is the former guildhall of Coventry’s Holy Trinity Guild, formed in 1392 when Coventry’s four most prestigious guilds amalgamated. St Mary’s lies in the heart of Coventry’s medieval quarter, adjacent to the ruined St Michael’s parish church, Holy Trinity Church and the remains of St Mary’s Priory, Coventry’s first cathedral.

We will visit St Mary’s Hall in the morning to discuss an impressive early sixteenth-century Flemish tapestry in its original location. The tapestry has recently been subject to multi-disciplinary study, with the results published in a book edited by Dr Mark Webb, who will lead the session. There will also be a unique opportunity to observe an infra-red survey conducted by Dr Constantina Vlachou-Mogire, Heritage Science Manager at Historic Royal Palaces. Abi Brown (MA) will present some rare and relatively unknown fifteenth-century wood carvings currently on display in the Treasury. Dr Heather Gilderdale-Scott will lead a session analysing the medieval stained glass in the Guildhall. 

After lunch, we will reconvene at the nearby Holy Trinity Church for a talk on the Doom painting by Dr Miriam Gill. We will then explore the remains of the stained glass from the medieval cathedral of St Michael’s.

Find out more about the timetabling for the day over on the BAA website.

Travel and practicalities:

Trains run regularly from London to Coventry and the fast train takes just under an hour. Coventry is also served by regular trains from Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.

St Mary’s Guildhall is a 15 min walk from Coventry train station (see map below). There are regular buses (every 20 mins) that run from the station to the city centre (number 11, X30, 9 or 87). Holy Trinity Church is a 5 min walk from the Guildhall and well signposted. We will walk as a group from Holy Trinity Church to St Michael’s Cathedral (also a 5 min walk).

The cost of the day will be £25 for members. The event is free for students, for whom travel grants (to a maximum of £50) are also available.

Places are limited to 20, of which up to 10 are reserved for students.

To apply please e-mail studydays@thebaa.org by February 7th 2025. Please state in the email whether you are a member of the BAA or a student. All names will be entered into a ballot for the study day and the successful applicants will be notified by February 10th 2025. 

Essay competition: Church Monuments Society Essay Competition, deadline 31 January 2025

The Council of the Church Monuments Society offers a biennial prize of £500 called the Church Monuments Essay Prize, to be awarded with a certificate for the best essay submitted in the relevant year. The prize will only be awarded if the essay is considered by the judges to be of sufficiently high standard to merit publication in the peer-reviewed journal Church Monuments. Entries in addition to the winner may be considered for publication.

The competition is open only to those who have not previously published an article in Church Monuments. Entrants need not be members of the Church Monuments Society, but are recommended to familiarise themselves with Church Monuments: abstracts and indexes can be found on the website https://churchmonumentssociety.org.

The focus of the essay must be a monument/s in a church, churchyard or cemetery, of any period and location. Entries must be submitted in English.

The length (including notes) should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words, with a maximum of 10 illustrations.

The closing date for new entries is 31 January 2025.

Please contact the Hon. Journal Editor for a copy of the rules and the guidelines to contributors and/or for advice on the suitability of a particular topic.

Jonathan Trigg
jrtrigg@gmail.com

New Publication: ‘The Abbey Church of Cluny, The Context and Creation of the Surviving Great Transept’ by C. Edson Armi

At the end of the eleventh century, monks at Cluny commissioned the largest basilica in Christendom. Much has been written about the mother church of the Cluniac Order, with a focus on reconstructing missing parts of the church and making connections between Cluniac architecture and medieval culture. My approach is different in a number of ways — concentrating on the innovative and refined features of the surviving transept and placing them in a complex artistic context. It combines examination of archaeology, architecture and sculpture, interweaves analysis of aesthetics — light, space, articulation and decoration — with analysis of practicalities — function, construction and structure, and uncovers numerous sources of the building, piecing together influences from multiple directions. The photography is inclusive as well, documenting from various angles and distances, under different lighting conditions, the power and nuance of the monument.

Find out more about the publication on the publisher’s website.

New Publication: ‘The Visual Culture of al-Andalus in the Christian Kingdoms of Iberia’, edited by Inés Monteira

This book addresses the reception of Islamic visual culture by the northern Iberian kingdoms, by systematically comparing works of art from both sides and fleshing out their historical context.

This study includes figurative and iconographic motifs, architectural forms, and even the spolia from constructions and Arabic inscriptions that were embedded in Christian buildings. The Islamic visual culture of al-Andalus was often transformed as it was recreated by Christian hands, bringing to the fore various nuances in the relationship between the two religious communities. Artistic transfer was conditioned by social coexistence between Christians and Muslims—both in the caliphate al-Andalus and in the northern realms—and military conflict. To approach the different ways in which Andalusi visual culture was received in the northern kingdoms, while embracing the vast diversity of case studies available, this book is divided into three thematic sections: Reinterpretation, Appropriation, and Artistic Transfers.

Find out more about the book on the publisher’s website.

Fellowship: Jill Franklin Fellowship in Romanesque Architectural History, British Archaeological Association, deadline 31 December 2024

Applications are invited for the inaugural Jill Franklin Fellowship in Romanesque Architectural History at the British School at Rome. The fellowship is tenable for one month and must be taken in June 2025. The fellowship is a joint responsibility of the BSR and British Archaeological Association.

Find out more on the BAA website.

RATIONALE

The fellowship has been established in memory of Jill Franklin (1945-2023), a scholar best known for her work on the architecture of the Augustinian canons, principally of the 11th and 12th centuries, and for her contributions to the study of Anglo-Norman architectural sculpture. Jill was a council member and fieldworker for the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, and joint author of the catalogue of paintings in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries. Though undertaking work at or for various institutions, Jill spent most of her career as an independent scholar.

The aim of the fellowship is to provide an opportunity to spend a month in Rome pursuing research into Romanesque architecture and allied arts (architectural sculpture, fittings and furnishings, monumental painting). Architectural history is here interpreted broadly, to encompass settlement and distribution patterns, institutional and documentary histories (monastic, episcopal, urban), as well as research into specific and/or groups of buildings. Romanesque is similarly interpreted loosely, and although the core chronological range is c. 1000-1200, applications that run into the 10th or 13th centuries will be considered. Proposals do not need to be specific to Rome or central Italy. Indeed, the purpose could be to enjoy a month’s thinking and writing time with access to first-class libraries in pursuit of a research objective whose geographical parameters lie outside Italy.

ELIGIBILITY

Applications are open to British and Commonwealth citizens, and/or those attached to a British or Commonwealth university. The Fellowship is primarily aimed at independent scholars, students undertaking research degrees and early career art/architectural historians. Academics for whom research is a requirement of their employment contract are ineligible.

DURATION AND BENEFITS

The fellowship lasts for the month of June 2025 (30 nights). The British School will provide bed and board at the BSR (Via Gramsci), together with full access to the School’s facilities. A modest pot of spending money (approximately €900) is also provided, though successful applicants are responsible for their own travel to and from Rome.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Applications are assessed by the British Archaeological Association, and are to be sent as email attachments to secretary@thebaa.org All applicants should provide a research proposal, a short CV (no more than one page A4) and the name and contact details of a referee. The closing date for applications is 31 December, 2024. Interviews with applicants will be held by Zoom in January 2025.

Online Lecture: ‘Inscribing Sacred Matter: Reading and Writing Inscriptions on Byzantine Relics’, with Brad Hostetler, 5 December 2024, 12:00 PM (EST)

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in our 2024–2025 lecture series.

  • December 5, 2024 | 12:00 PM (EST, UTC -5) | Zoom

Byzantium was replete with inscriptions. Buildings, wall paintings, mosaics, and portable objects alike were adorned with words that labeled iconography, documented patronage, and articulated prayers. Little is known about what the Byzantines did with this rich culture of epigraphy. Did they read these inscriptions once or repeatedly, and in which contexts? This talk brings together literary and material sources that speak to the act of reading and writing inscriptions in situ, focusing on those that were attached to relics and reliquaries. Episodes from saints’ lives, miracle tales, and histories reveal the ways in which the Byzantines engaged with their epigraphic culture. Far from being a passive feature of relics, it is argued that inscriptions were an essential component to the identification and veneration of sacred matter.

Advance registration required. Register: https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/inscribing-sacred-matter

Speaker: Brad Hostetler, Kenyon College

Brad Hostetler is Associate Professor of Art History at Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio). He specializes in the art and material culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a focus on text and image relationships.

Online Conference: ‘Refinement and/or Reduction Revisited: Gothic Art, Architecture and Culture, c. 1250 to 1350’, 6 December 2024, 10am-5pm (GMT)

This one-day conference organised by the Architecture, Space and Society Centre aims at an interdisciplinary reassessment of Gothic art and architecture between c. 1250 and 1350 in a broad European perspective. In this period of increased diversity of patrons and new technical facilities, the design options for artists and architects alike extended to a virtuoso refinement across media. At the same time new modes of reduction emerged, probably originating in economic, technical or programmatic tendencies of the time. The study day – an extension of a larger international conference on his subject held at Halle University in June – will examine this paradox and its cultural context on series of outstanding examples across Europe.

Speakers:

  • Lindy Grant (University of Reading), The Aesthetics of Ascetism: Louis IX and Court Culture after the Return from the 1248-54 Crusade
  • Tim Ayers (University of York), Less is More: The Chapter House of York Minster
  • Tom Nickson (The Courtauld), Two for One: Berenguer de Montagut, Manresa, and Catalan Gothic
  • Jana Gajdošová (Sam Fogg), Transforming Tradition: The Šivetice Rotunda and its Architectural Innovations 
  • Michalis Olympios (University of Cyprus), Architecture and Ritual at the Laon Cathedral Chapels
  • Alexandra Gajewski (Burlington Magazine/Institute for Historical Research), Becoming Papal Residence: Churches and Chapels in Avignon, from John XXII to Clement VI
  • Zoë Opacic (Birkbeck), Erfordia turrita: ‘Reduktionsgotik’ and Urban Refinement in Fourteenth-century Erfurt

CFP: ‘Medieval Communities’, International Medieval Society Annual Conference, deadline 1 December 2024

The International Medieval Society invites paper proposals for their upcoming 18th annual conference (July 3-5, 2025). This year’s theme is “Medieval Communities.” Our keynotes are Sharon Farmer from the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Department of History, and Cécile Voyer from the Centre d’Etudes supérieures de civilisation médiévale, l’Université de Poitiers.

How did people in the Middle Ages define, create, and maintain a sense of community? The International Medieval Society, Paris (IMS-Paris) invites abstracts and session proposals for our 2025 symposium on the theme of Communities in Medieval France.

The word “community” may be defined as a group of people with shared characteristics, emotional values, or interests who perceive themselves as distinct from others. From communes, monasteries, and confraternities to soldiers, lepers, and the blind, medieval people formed close emotional ties and created rituals and other practices that constituted community. This symposium invites new lines of investigation that will deepen our knowledge of the medieval sense of community, broadly defined.

Proposals should focus on France during the Middle Ages, but do not need to be exclusively limited to this period and geographical area. We encourage proposals and papers from all fields of medieval studies, such as anthropology, archeology, history, economic and social history, art history, gender studies, literary studies, musicology, philosophy, etc.

Proposals of 300 words (in English or French) for a 20-minute paper should be e-mailed to imsparissymposium@gmail.com no later than December 1, 2024. Abstracts should be accompanied by full contact information and a short bio.

For more information, please visit: https://imsparis.hypotheses.org/383

The IMS-Paris is an interdisciplinary, bilingual (French/English) organization that fosters exchanges between French and foreign scholars. For more than a decade, the IMS has served as a center for medievalists who travel to France to conduct research, work, or study.

Murray Seminar: ‘The Market for Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts c. 1890-1929 and its Consequences’, with Dr Laura Cleaver, Birkbeck, 4 December 2024 (5-6.30pm GMT)

  • Location: Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square, Keynes Library and Online
  • Date and time: 4 December 2024, 17:00 — 18:30 GMT

In 1904 Charles Dyson Perrins, whose fortune derived from the Lea & Perrins business that made Worcestershire sauce, bought an illuminated medieval psalter for £5,250. This was an enormous sum at the time (roughly equivalent to £500,000 today) and one of the highest prices paid for a manuscript to that date. The price was justified by the aesthetic qualities of the manuscript and the circumstances of the sale: the book was new to the market, having been in a family collection since the sixteenth century. Another factor may have been the book’s English origin. Sydney Cockerell persuaded Perrins both to buy the book and to employ him to write about it. In 1908 Cockerell included the manuscript in his landmark exhibition of illuminated manuscripts held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club. The exhibition was not limited to English manuscripts, but made a ‘special effort’ to showcase English art. This paper will explore how rising prices for some manuscripts in the early twentieth century were intertwined with ideas about books as objects of national heritage, and the impact of this on the development of both scholarship and collections in Britain, Europe and America.

Laura Cleaver is Professor of Manuscript Studies at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. From 2019-2024 she was Principal Investigator of the Cultivate MSS project, funded by the European Research Council, which examined the trade in medieval manuscripts in the first half of the twentieth century. She is currently completing a monograph on the manuscript trade in Britain in the early twentieth century and its impact on the development of collections and scholarship.

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CFP: ‘Medieval Art on the Move’, PhD colloquium on medieval art, Courtauld Institute of Art, deadline 20 January 2025

The event will take place on Friday 28th March 2025 at the Courtauld Institute of Art. The colloquium looks to open new dialogues regarding the movement of medieval artworks, initiating discussions on how it affected an object’s reception.

  • Deadline for abstract submission: Monday 20th January 2025.
  • Submission guidelines: 250-word paper proposal and title, a short CV, together with their complete contact details (full name, email, and institutional affiliation)
  • Contact for inquiries: Sophia Adams (sophia.adams@courtauld.ac.uk) and Natalia Muñoz-Rojas (natalia.munozrojas@courtauld.ac.uk).
  • Find out more on the Courtauld website. 

Now entombed in airless glass vitrines, medieval objects in museums appear static and immovable. But in the Middle Ages artworks were active and mobile: they were manipulated in the hand, processed through towns, and traded or gifted across very large geographic areas. Viewers were also on the move: they carried artworks on their body or processed alongside them in religious ceremonies. Merchants, soldiers, and pilgrims travelled to new places and brought artworks home with them. This colloquium will explore medieval artworks as sites of sophisticated meaning-making through the theme of movement, on small and large scales.  Medieval works of art were often moved during ritual, and many artworks also integrated moving parts, such as wings or other hinged elements. In a broader context, artworks could travel huge distances, acquiring new significances as they transgressed political, cultural and religious borders. The Silk Roads exhibition currently open at the British Museum speaks to such journeys, presenting the people and objects travelling along overlapping and expansive networks of trade, and asking how these movements shaped meanings and cultures both along  the way and at their destinations. To that end, the colloquium looks to open new dialogues regarding the movement of medieval artworks, initiating discussions on how it affected an object’s reception.  

The colloquium will take place on Friday 28th March 2025 at the Courtauld Institute of Art’s  Vernon Square campus in London. Lunch will be provided for speakers, and the event will be followed by drinks at the Courtauld Research Forum and dinner for speakers.

We invite submissions for 20-minute papers that investigate the impact of movement on objects and their audiences. Respondents might consider themes including but by no means  limited to: 

  • The vehicles or mechanisms by which medieval objects moved across geographic and cultural boundaries, such as gifting, trade, theft, or war. 
  • Processions and ritual, versus more informal movements 
  • Distance and proximity.  
  • Motion and stillness.  
  • Intercultural exchanges and movement of ideas. 

We invite PhD candidates to submit an up to 250-word paper proposal and title, a short CV,  together with their complete contact details (full name, email, and institutional affiliation) by  20th January 2025. Please send these to both Sophia Adams (sophia.adams@courtauld.ac.uk)  and Natalia Muñoz-Rojas (natalia.munoz-rojas@courtauld.ac.uk). There may be some limited  funding to support travel and accommodation costs for those without institutional support. If  you would require funding support, please include a brief budget alongside your abstract.