Meetings 2021

Online seminar: 13 December 2021 [video]: Member's night

  • CYNDY AINSWORTH on the Ros Tapestry

  • DICK JONES on Mathematical representations of arches

  • ELAINE KREIGH on A closer look at the roof bosses of Norwich Cathedral 1300-1500

  • LINDA PAPANICOLAOU on the poetry form of pre-modern Japan

Online seminar: 15 November 2021 [video]

  • ROBERT BORK (U of Iowa): Geometry, Structure, and Competition: Rethinking French Gothic, 1130-1230

  • This talk offers a fresh perspective on the first century of French Gothic architecture, foregrounding the geometrical methods used by the designers. This approach, when applied to buildings from Saint-Denis Abbey to Reims Cathedral, reveals in new detail how Gothic builders reacted to each other’s innovations during this period, pioneering and perfecting new forms such as the flying buttress along the way. It also reveals how several of the most famous cathedrals in France evolved dramatically in the course of construction, taking on appearances very different than their original designers had foreseen.

  • More details about Robert's research interests: https://art.uiowa.edu/people/robert-bork

Online seminar: 11 October 2021 [video]

  • BOB SCOTT: Medieval Crime and Punishment and its Role in the Life and Times of Jonathan Wild

  • This talk begins with an introduction to crime and punishment during medieval times as prelude to talking about the notorious Jonathan Wild, an absolute scoundrel who plied the criminal trades in London in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It explains how the criminal practices Wild employed in the early modern period were made possible by practices for dealing with crime that originated during the medieval period.

Online seminar: 10 May 2021

  • Prof. JACQUELINE JUNG (Yale's Department of the History of Art): The Making of Eloquent Bodies: The Pleasures and Perils of On-Site Research in the Era of Physical Travel

  • In her talk, Prof. Jung presented an overview of her latest book through an illustrated discussion of the challenges she faced making the images on site, and the ways that that process of documentation helped her to think afresh about Gothic sculpture and its communicative power.

Online seminar: 12 April 2021: a virtual visit to Stanford Libraries Special Collections [video]

  • BEN ALBRITTON (the Rare Book Curator for Stanford's Special Collection): his theme was Virtual Voyages, focusing on manuscripts and early printed materials dealing with travel — real and imaginary.

  • List of items that were shown.

Online seminar: 15 March 2021

  • ALLAN LANGDALE (Univ. of California-Santa Cruz): In the Wake of Crusade: the Gothic Abbey of Bellapais, Cyprus

  • The monastic orders accompanied knights and adventurers on the first crusade (1096-99), transplanting European institutions, and their architecture, into the unlikely sands of the Middle East. Yet even after the reconquest of Jerusalem for Islam, and the expulsion of Europeans from the Middle Eastern mainland, crusader culture lived on for centuries more on the island of Cyprus, where the Lusignan dynasty that had ruled Jerusalem took up permanent residence. This presentation focuses on the history and the architecture of the Premonstratensian Abbey today known as Bellapais, (a corruption of Abbey of Peace; Abbaye de la Pais) which survived remarkably intact until the late nineteenth century. Even today impressive parts linger, including one of the best-preserved refectories found anywhere, a cloister, dormitories, and the monastery church. Significant portions of medieval sculpture also survive, giving an indication of the splendor that could have been found here, and also indicative of the royal patronage enjoyed by the monastery in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Online seminar: 15 February 2021 [video]

  • BOB NYDEN on Ships in the Viking age

  • A look at the building and sailing of Viking longships: how they were different and special, how they were built and used, and how the Viking communities provided the necessary materials and components.

  • Bibliography

Online seminar: 11 January 2021 [video]: Sarum members night

  • LARRY JONES: A Personal Guided Tour of Vezelay
    Vezelay, located in the heart of Burgundy, has one of the world's most beautiful Romanesque churches. Please join me for a tour of the church and the surrounding countryside.

  • DICK JONES: Better Thoughts on Lincoln Cathedral's Missing Spire.
    This talk covers recent insights on Lincoln's missing spire in the context of a variety of papers on spires starting 22 years ago (1999).

  • LINDA PAPANICOLAOU: Survivals and Revivals of Medieval Poetry
    Part 2 of my talk last year on medieval poetic forms as adapted in modern English Language poetry: This year we’re going “Global Middle Ages” by looking at two Islamic forms: Rubaiyat and Ghazal. You may see some surprises.

  • ANDREW CORCORAN: Establishing Churches in Mercia AD 653 - AD 700
    Based on my recently published paper on the little known medieval history of an area of England called South Derbyshire. This talk will explain how my research started and relate how it bears upon the history of Lichfield Cathedral, the church of Breedon-on-the-Hill, the Anglo Saxon church of Sawley, and the expansion of the Kingdom of Mercia.