Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans
Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans

Author: James G. Clark

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 1009

ISBN-13: 1783270764

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Deeds of the abbots of St Albans records the history of one of the most important abbeys in England, closely linked to the royal family and home to a school of distinguished chroniclers, including Matthew Paris and Thomas Walsingham. It offers many insights into the life of the monastery, its buildings and its role as a maker of books, and covers the period from the Conquest to the mid-fifteenth century. The Deeds of the abbots of St Albans is the longest continuous chronicle of a medieval monastery in England, following its fortunes from its first foundation in the wake of the first Viking raids to its status as a proud and prosperous pillar of the church establishment more than six centuries later. More than merely a common, conventual annal, the Deeds drew contributions from the most accomplished chroniclers of the St Albans school including Matthew Paris, Thomas Walsingham and perhaps William Rishanger. It is a history of one of the most important abbeys, under royal patronage and always at the apex of the church hierarchy; it also offers a glimpse of life inside the monastic community from the Conquest to within a century of the Dissolution. There are detailed descriptions of the building, and rebuilding, of the abbey church, and recounts the abbey's commitment to the making of books, from thefirst flowering of the scriptorium in the twelfth century - when a famous psalter was made for the anchorite Christina of Markyate - to its Indian summer in the years before 1400 under Thomas Walsingham himself. There are rare snapshots of the daily routine of the monks, their liturgical observances, their interactions with their staff, tenants, townspeople and guests. And it captures the colour and character of the celebrated figures seen at the abbey, from King John to Edward the Black Prince.

Manuscripts from St. Albans Abbey, 1066-1235: Text
Manuscripts from St. Albans Abbey, 1066-1235: Text

Author: Rodney M. Thomson

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9780859910859

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The manuscripts produced and kept at the great English Benedictine house of St Albans between the Norman conquest and the floruit of its notable historian Matthew Paris, about the middle of the thirteenth century, are of remarkable quality. Students of monastic art and culture have often commented on St Albans' patronage of fine books during the twelfth century and later, but there has not until now been a comprehensive and detailed study of how this patronage was organised. This study focuses on the sixty-five manuscripts produced both at and for the abbey during the period, but it also takes into account manuscripts owned by the abbey's dependant cells, and those which it seems to have produced for other patrons - the latter including famous examples of Romanesque manuscript illumination. The development of "house styles" in script and decoration is traced, and so are the travels of the professional artists responsible for the adornment of de luxe books ordered by this and other houses in England and overseas; and last but not least, the St Albans books are related to the abbey's intellectual and religious life, and to the monastic contribution to the twelfth century renaissance. RODNEY M. THOMSON is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Tasmania.

The St. Albans Psalter
The St. Albans Psalter

Author: Kristen M. Collins

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 1606061453

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This publication is issued in conjunction with the exhibition Canterbury and St. Albans: Treasures from Church and Cloister, on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, from September 20, 2013, to February 2, 2014"--Colophon.

Alban's Buried Towns
Alban's Buried Towns

Author: Rosalind Niblett

Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

St Albans has a long tradition of archaeological investigation dating back to the 18th century. What has been lacking however, is a detailed synthesis and interpretation of the accumulated information. This book is intended to meet that need, and comes out of a project set up by English Heritage in 1992 designed to promote 'intensive' urban archaeological strategy. This volume is a critical assessment of the current archaeological information from an area of 12 square kilometers centred on medieval and modern St Albans and its Roman predecessor, Verulamium. There is evidence of scattered occupation in the area from the Mesolithic period onwards, but it was only towards the end of the 1st century BC that a settlement was established to the south of the modern town. This was superseded by the development of the Roman town of Verulamium on the south side of the River Ver, but by the 8th century settlement had become focused on the shrine of the late Roman martyr, Alban, on the hill to the north of the river. In the late Saxon period an Abbey was established close to this shrine, and after the Norman conquest, settlement concentrated in the area north of the Abbey. Most of the monastic buildings were demolished shortly after the dissolution of the monastery in 1539, but on the whole St Albans retained its medieval form until the 19th century. The papers in this volume look at the development of this important city throughout its long history, bringing its Roman and Medieval past to life.

The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science

Author: Seb Falk

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2020-11-17

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1324002948

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Named a Best Book of 2020 by The Telegraph, The Times, and BBC History Magazine An illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk. "Falk’s bubbling curiosity and strong sense of storytelling always swept me along. By the end, The Light Ages didn’t just broaden my conception of science; even as I scrolled away on my Kindle, it felt like I was sitting alongside Westwyk at St. Albans abbey, leafing through dusty manuscripts by candlelight." —Alex Orlando, Discover Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks. As medieval thinkers sought to understand the world around them, from the passing of the seasons to the stars in the sky, they came to develop a vibrant scientific culture. In The Light Ages, Cambridge science historian Seb Falk takes us on a tour of medieval science through the eyes of one fourteenth-century monk, John of Westwyk. Born in a rural manor, educated in England’s grandest monastery, and then exiled to a clifftop priory, Westwyk was an intrepid crusader, inventor, and astrologer. From multiplying Roman numerals to navigating by the stars, curing disease, and telling time with an ancient astrolabe, we learn emerging science alongside Westwyk and travel with him through the length and breadth of England and beyond its shores. On our way, we encounter a remarkable cast of characters: the clock-building English abbot with leprosy, the French craftsman-turned-spy, and the Persian polymath who founded the world’s most advanced observatory. The Light Ages offers a gripping story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in a precarious world and conjures a vivid picture of medieval life as we have never seen it before. An enlightening history that argues that these times weren’t so dark after all, The Light Ages shows how medieval ideas continue to color how we see the world today.

Sacred Heritage
Sacred Heritage

Author: Roberta Gilchrist

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-01-02

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1108496547

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Forges innovative connections between monastic archaeology and heritage studies, revealing new perspectives on sacred heritage, identity, medieval healing, magic and memory. This title is available as Open Access.