Meetings 2011

Seminar: Monday, December 12, 2011, 7-9 pm at CASBS (6-7 brown-bag)

  • Virginia Jansen (Art Historian Emerita, UC Santa Cruz) "Chaotic or Planned? City Development in the Middle Ages - A Discussion Masquerading As a Travelogue"

Medieval Matters lecture: Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 7:30 pm at Geology 105, Building 320, Stanford. Free and open to the public. (Members-only reception 5:15-6:30 at Memorial Church Round Room) [audio] [flyer]

  • Anthony Grafton (Historian, Princeton University): "Jewish Ritual in Christian Eyes - how Medieval and Renaissance Christians came to value the role of Jewish traditions in their own rituals and architecture.
Grafton talk

Seminar: Thursday, October 13, 2011, 7-9 pm at CASBS

  • Tim Tatton-Brown (Cathedral Archaeologist, Salisbury, England): Westminster Abbey - The Marble and Porphyry Pavements & Deconstructing the West Front (detailed plans plus image of Cosmati "Great pavement")

Special seminar/forum: Sun Oct 2, 2011, 11:30-12:30. Parish Hall, Foothills Congregational Church, Los Altos

  • Ann Jones. Layers of Medieval Krakow. This forum will explore the many layers of Krakow’s legends, history, art, and architecture. Medieval Krakow was an important center of religion, government, trade, and education. By the year 1000, a bishopric was established. In 1038, Krakow became the seat of the Polish government. By 1100, the city was a leading center of trade. The largest market square in medieval Europe was laid out in 1257. The University of Krakow, the second oldest in central Europe, was established in 1364. What makes Krakow unique is that we can still see traces and remains from these early times. The last serious damage to the city was from the Mongols in 1259.

Seminar: June 6, 2011. 7-9pm, CASBS

  • Chet Van Duzer. Sirens, sea horses, Leviathan: sea monsters on Medieval and Renaissance maps.
  • Mr. Van Duzer is an independent researcher in the field of early maps and spoke about the origins of the sea monsters so often depicted on them.

Seminar: April 7, 2011

  • Ann Simonson: The Mourners - the tomb sculptures of the Duke of Burgundy that are currently on tour in the US.
Great pavement

Special seminar: Mar 17, 2011, Stanford Green LibraryJohn Mustain: Stanford Special Collections library.

  • (The image to the right is a page about constructing a glass furnace from De Re Metallica by Georg Agricola, 1556. Click on it for a large image. Click here for a listing of what we saw.)

Medieval matters lecture: Feb 23, 2011. 7:00-9:00 pm, Geology Corner (Bldg. 320), Room 105, Stanford. Free and open to the public. [audio]

  • Robert A. Scott: Miracle Cures: Saints, Pilgrimage and the Healing Powers of Belief.

Seminar: Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, 7-9pm at CASBS

  • Brian Catlos (UC Santa Cruz): Fear and Loathing in Medieval Spain? Vulnerability and Confidence among the Muslim Minority of Christian Aragon. Brian studies Christian-Muslim-Jewish interaction in medieval Spain, the Mediterranean and the Islamic world, focusing on social, political and economic relations.
De Re Metallica, 1556

Details of specific seminars

October 13, 2011, 7-9 pm. What follows is the handout.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

PRINCIPAL BUILDING PHASES

1. Edward the Confessor - Rebuilt earlier Anglo-Saxon church and monastic buildings, c. 1050-65

2. Late 11th century - early 12th century- abbey nave completed, and the two western towers added (c.1100) - also chapter-house, dormitory (with undercroft and barrel-vaulted through passages), reredorter, frater (and ? west range and original cloister west walk) and kitchen built-under abbots Vitalis (1076-c.85) and Gilbert Crispin (c. 1085-1111/18). ? Timber-building to south-west of kitchen (earth-fast post).

3. Later 12th century - Infirmary (? Hall) and chapel built, c1160-70 and ? parts of earlier abbot's lodging (in west range) by abbot Laurence (1158-73). Edward canonized 1161, and remains translated to new shrine (in ? rebuilt eastern arm) in 1163.

4. 13th century - new Lady Chapel started, 1220, and Miserecord made. New eastern arm of abbey church (presbytery, transepts and chevet) built for Henry III, 1246 - c. 1255, followed by 4 eastern bays of nave (for Choir), 1260s. New Shrine, with Cosmati work, c. 1268-9. Vestry, St. Faith's chapel, vestibule and chapter house built; by 1250s and north-eastern part of new vaulted cloister made.

[Great Fire -- 1298 -- destroyed roofs of dorter, frater, infirmary, etc..]

5. Earlier 14th century - dorter and frater rebuilt (new windows) and reroofed, and east cloister continued (south part) by abbot Byrcheston (1344-9). Also west doorway porch to nave/west front (1340s).

6. Later 14th century - South cloister rebuilt and vaulted (1351-66) followed up west walk after 1367. Abbots' house rebuilt (Jerusalem chamber' finished by 1372, and great ('college') hall and kitchen by 1375. Infirmary rebuilt, with lodging chambers, 1364-93. Continuation of western nave rebuilding c. 1375-1388. 'Cellarium' and 'Cawagium' rebuilt with northern gatehouse and passage to cloister (1387-1388 and 1390-1). Prior's house also built east of great kitchen, also Granary (1384-5), Brewhouse (1389-90), Malthouse (1390-5) and southern gatehouse (Mill Gate) with bridge over millstream (1385-6).

7. 15th century - work on nave triforia, 1413-22, but nave not completed till c. 1468-90 and 1501-6, and south transept cased up and new rose window and high gable built c. 1450-62.

8. Early 16th century - Nave clerestory and great west window glazed, 1507-10, and nave repaved in marble, 1510-17, and more work on western towers, 1513-16 and 1528-32, under abbot Islip (1500-32). Also chapel of St. Dunstan rebuilt (c.1500), and new Lady ('Henry VIII') chapel, 1503 - c.1510, and parts of abbots' house (Jerico Parlour, ? Chapel Pew, etc..).

TIM TATTON-BROWN