The White Mantle of Churches
The White Mantle of Churches

Author: Nigel Hiscock

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13:

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When a monk living at the beginning of the last millennium described Europe 'cladding itself everywhere in a white mantle of churches', he precipitated several questions for historians to answer. Was there a surge in church-building at the time? If so, what were the causes of this, and what were the purposes? Does it help to explain our understanding of Romanesque architecture and art? Was there a connection between the 'white mantle of churches' and the millennium? Did people believe the world was coming to an end? The supposition of apocalyptic expectations at the time was until recently dismissed as romantic myth, but the arrival of our new millennium has brought a revival in interest in the dawn of the second millennium, and new evidence of millennial fears. Yet millennial studies and architectural history largely continue to follow separate, parallel paths. This book therefore aims to add the architectural evidence to the millennial debate, and to examine this formative period in relation to the evolution of Romanesque architecture and art. As our own millennium gets under way with continuing hesitancy between European aspiration and national identity, it is also of interest to compare our time with the Europe of a thousand years ago. Nigel Hiscock is an architect and senior lecturer in architectural history, theory, and design at Oxford Brookes University. His interests include medieval architectural design and practice, and has published and presented papers widely on this subject.

Liturgy and Architecture
Liturgy and Architecture

Author: Allan Doig

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1351921851

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In this book Allan Doig explores the interrelationship of liturgy and architecture from the Early Church to the close of the Middle Ages, taking into account social, economic, technical, theological and artistic factors. These are crucial to a proper understanding of ecclesiastical architecture of all periods, and together their study illuminates the study of liturgy. Buildings and their archaeology are standing indices of human activity, and the whole matrix of meaning they present is highly revealing of the larger meaning of ritual performance within, and movement through, their space. The excavation of the mid-third-century church at Dura Europos in the Syrian desert, the grandeur of Constantine's Imperial basilicas, the influence of the great pilgrimage sites, and the marvels of soaring Gothic cathedrals, all come alive in a new way when the space is animated by the liturgy for which they were built. Reviewing the most recent research in the area, and moving the debate forward, this study will be useful to liturgists, clergy, theologians, art and architectural historians, and those interested in the conservation of ecclesiastical structures built for the liturgy.

Before the Gregorian Reform
Before the Gregorian Reform

Author: John Howe

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1501703706

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Historians typically single out the hundred-year period from about 1050 to 1150 as the pivotal moment in the history of the Latin Church, for it was then that the Gregorian Reform movement established the ecclesiastical structure that would ensure Rome’s dominance throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. In Before the Gregorian Reform John Howe challenges this familiar narrative by examining earlier, "pre-Gregorian" reform efforts within the Church. He finds that they were more extensive and widespread than previously thought and that they actually established a foundation for the subsequent Gregorian Reform movement. The low point in the history of Christendom came in the late ninth and early tenth centuries—a period when much of Europe was overwhelmed by barbarian raids and widespread civil disorder, which left the Church in a state of disarray. As Howe shows, however, the destruction gave rise to creativity. Aristocrats and churchmen rebuilt churches and constructed new ones, competing against each other so that church building, like castle building, acquired its own momentum. Patrons strove to improve ecclesiastical furnishings, liturgy, and spirituality. Schools were constructed to staff the new churches. Moreover, Howe shows that these reform efforts paralleled broader economic, social, and cultural trends in Western Europe including the revival of long-distance trade, the rise of technology, and the emergence of feudal lordship. The result was that by the mid-eleventh century a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church was assuming a leading place in the broader Christian world. Before the Gregorian Reform challenges us to rethink the history of the Church and its place in the broader narrative of European history. Compellingly written and generously illustrated, it is a book for all medievalists as well as general readers interested in the Middle Ages and Church history.

Mother of God
Mother of God

Author: Miri Rubin

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2009-04-21

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 0300156138

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A sweeping, ambitious study of the Virgin Mary’s emergence and role throughout Western historyHow did the Virgin Mary, about whom very little is said in the Gospels, become one of the most powerful and complex religious figures in the world? To arrive at the answers to this far-reaching question, one of our foremost medieval historians, Miri Rubin, investigates the ideas, practices, and images that have developed around the figure of Mary from the earliest decades of Christianity to around the year 1600. Drawing on an extraordinarily wide range of sources—including music, poetry, theology, art, scripture, and miracle tales—Rubin reveals how Mary became so embedded in our culture that it is impossible to conceive of Western history without her.In her rise to global prominence, Mary was continually remade and reimagined by wave after wave of devotees. Rubin shows how early Christians endowed Mary with a fine ancestry; why in early medieval Europe her roles as mother, bride, and companion came to the fore; and how the focus later shifted to her humanity and unparalleled purity. She also explores how indigenous people in Central America, Africa, and Asia remade Mary and so fit her into their own cultures.Beautifully written and finely illustrated, this book is a triumph of sympathy and intelligence. It demonstrates Mary’s endless capacity to inspire and her profound presence in Christian cultures and beyond.

Romanesque Architecture and its Sculptural in Christian Spain, 1000-1120
Romanesque Architecture and its Sculptural in Christian Spain, 1000-1120

Author: Janice Mann

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2009-04-08

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1442691921

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The decades following the year 1000 marked a watershed in the history of the Iberian Peninsula when the balance of power shifted from Muslims to Christians. During this crucial period of religious and political change, Romanesque churches were constructed for the first time in Spain. Romanesque Architecture and Its Sculptural Decoration in Christian Spain, 1000-1120 examines how the financial patronage of newly empowered local rulers allowed Romanesque architecture and sculptural decoration to significantly redefine the cultural identities of those who lived in the frontier kingdoms of Christian Spain. Proceeding chronologically, Janice Mann studies the earliest Romanesque monuments constructed by Sancho el Mayor (r.1004-1035) and his wife, daughters, and granddaughters, as well as those that were built by Sancho Ramírez, king of Aragon (1064-1094). Mann examines groups of buildings constructed by particular patrons against the backdrop of changing social conditions and attitudes that resulted from increased influence from beyond the Pyrenees, the consolidation of royal power, and intensified aggression against Muslims. An in-depth study of the rise of an architectural style, this is the first book to examine early Romanesque architecture and sculpture of the Iberian Peninsula as it relates to frontier culture.

Devotional Interaction in Medieval England and its Afterlives
Devotional Interaction in Medieval England and its Afterlives

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-06-05

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 9004365834

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Devotional Interaction in Medieval England and its Afterlives examines the interaction between medieval English worshippers and the material objects of their devotion. The volume also addresses the afterlives of objects and buildings in their temporal journeys from the Middle Ages to the present day. Written by the participants of a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded seminar held in York, U.K., in 2014, the chapters incorporate site-specific research with the insights of scholars of visual art, literature, music, liturgy, ritual, and church history. Interdisciplinarity is a central feature of this volume, which celebrates interactivity as a working method between its authors as much as a subject of inquiry. Contributors are Lisa Colton, Elizabeth Dachowski, Angie Estes, Gregory Erickson, Jennifer M. Feltman, Elisa A. Foster Laura D. Gelfand, Louise Hampson, Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger, Kathleen E. Kennedy, Heather S. Mitchell-Buck, Julia Perratore, Steven Rozenski, Carolyn Twomey, and Laura J. Whatley.

Art and Architecture for Congregational Worship
Art and Architecture for Congregational Worship

Author: Richard S. Vosko

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2019-08-01

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0814684955

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A deep strain of tribal politics is dividing societies around the globe. Organized religions are also coping with scandals, disappointments, and polarizing ideologies. The history of Christianity reveals that such frictions deeply wound the church. Fr. Richard S. Vosko recognizes that liturgical buildings are metaphorical expressions of the people of God. He proposes, in a relational way, that when all physical and psychological boundaries in a place of worship are removed people will discover a common ground. Building on theological foundations and design principles, Vosko envisions what an egalitarian “servant church” can look like. In a bold but thoughtful manner, he presents progressive insights into the fields of church art and architecture.

King's Lynn and the Fens
King's Lynn and the Fens

Author: John McNeill

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1351561340

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The fourteen papers collected in this volume explore the medieval art, architecture and archaeology of King's Lynn and the Fens. They arise out of the Association's 2005 conference, and reflect its concern to engage with a broad range of monuments and themes, rather than focusing on a single major building. Within King's Lynn contributors consider the superb 14th-century enamelled drinking vessel popularly known as 'King John's Cup', the former Hanseatic 'Steelyard', the Red Mount Chapel, and the oak furnishings of the chapel of St Nicholas, while the pine standard chest from St Margaret's church is assessed in terms of the importation and distribution of similar chest across England as a whole.Outside King's Lynn there are articles on the historical manipulation of landscapes and buildings at Kirkstead, the 13th-century architecture and sculpture of Croyland Abbey, the 14th-century parish church of St Mary at Snettisham, the tomb of Sir Humphrey de Littlebury at All Saints, Holbeach, the overlooked medieval wall paintings in the Prior's Chapel at Castle Acre, and the late medieval stained glass at Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen. Finally, there are three papers that look at particular aspects of the ways in which parish churches were financed, embellished and used across the region - in terms of late-12th and early-13th-century patronage, their 12th-century deployment of architectural sculpture, and the types and arrangements of choir stalls that appeared at a parochial level during the later Middle Ages.

Architecture and Interpretation
Architecture and Interpretation

Author: Jill A. Franklin

Publisher: Boydell Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 1843837811

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Essays centred on the methods, pleasures, and pitfalls of architectural interpretation. Architecture affects us on a number of levels. It can control our movements, change our experience of our own scale, create a particular sense of place, focus memory, and act as a statement of power and taste, to name but a few. Yet the ways in which these effects are brought about are not yet well understood. The aim of this book is to move the discussion forward, to encourage and broaden debate about the ways in which architecture is interpreted, with aview to raising levels of intellectual engagement with the issues in terms of the theory and practice of architectural history. The range of material covered extends from houses constructed from mammoth bones around 15,000 years ago in the present-day Ukraine to a surfer's memorial in Carpinteria, California; other subjects include the young Michelangelo seeking to transcend genre boundaries; medieval masons' tombs; and the mythographies of early modern Netherlandish towns. Taking as their point of departure the ways in which architecture has been, is, and can be written about and otherwise represented, the editors' substantial Introduction provides an historiographical framework for, and draws out the themes and ideas presented in, the individual contributors' essays. Contributors: Christine Stevenson, T. A. Heslop, John Mitchell, Malcolm Thurlby, Richard Fawcett, Jill A. Franklin, StephenHeywood, Roger Stalley, Veronica Sekules, John Onians, Frank Woodman, Paul Crossley, David Hemsoll, Kerry Downes, Richard Plant, Jenifer Ní Ghrádraigh, Lindy Grant, Elisabeth de Bièvre, Stefan Muthesius, Robert Hillenbrand, AndrewM. Shanken, Peter Guillery.