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Nigel Saul.
English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages: History and Representation.
Publisher: Oxford University Press.
Publication due: July 2011.
Size: 234x156mm.
Page count: 432pp.
Illustrations: 78 black and white.
Publisher's recommended price
Paperback ISBN 9780199606139, £24.99
Hardback (published 2009) ISBN 9780199215980, £75.00
Description:
English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages offers a comprehensive survey of English church monuments from the pre-Conquest period to the early sixteenth century. Ground-breaking in its treatment of the subject in an historical context, it explores medieval monuments both in terms of their social meaning and the role that they played in the religious strategies of the commemorated.
Attention is given to the production of monuments, the pattern of their geographical distribution, the evolution of monument types, and the role of design in communicating the monument's message. A major theme is the self-representation of the commemorated as reflected in the main classes of effigy-those of the clergy, the knights and esquires, and the lesser landowner or burgess class, while the effigial monuments of women are examined from the perspective of the construction of gender.
While seeking to use monuments as windows onto the experiences and lives of the commemorated, it also exploits documentary sources to show what they can tell us about the influences that helped shape the monuments. An innovative chapter looks at the construction of identity in inscriptions, showing how the liturgical role of the monument limited the opportunities for expressions of self. Nigel Saul seeks to place monuments at the very centre of medieval studies, highlighting their importance not only for the history of sculpture and design, but also for social and religious history more generally.
Readership: Students and scholars of social and religious history; art historians and those interested in monuments.
Contents:
1: The Study of Monuments
2: Commemoration in Early Medieval England
3: The Market: Fashion, Geography, and Clientele
4: The Production of Monuments
5: Choosing a Monument
6: Function and Meaning
7: Composition and Design
8: The Monuments of Ecclesiastics
9: Military Effigies
10: The Monuments of Civilians
11: The Monuments of Lawyers
12: The Monuments of Women
13: The Cult of the Macabre
14: Inscriptions
15: Prospect and Retrospect
Appendix: List of Sculpted Effigial Monuments of Civilians in England to c.1500
Bibliography