medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John
How very, very good of you!
To confuse matters further, I too will be in Bristol (Goldney Hall)
giving a paper on the Friday, before heading to Oxford for that evening.
I've accepted a very late emergency approach (the subject being neither
medieval nor religious, or not in the narrow sense), and the combination
is currently giving me sleepless nights, so forgive any ramblings that
result...
Stuart will indeed demonstrate what you say: unless his thesis has
changed dramatically in the last two years, the paper includes
convincing reconstructions of the Galilee both before and after its
move. One memorable point is that the weathering so obvious on the
purbeck shafting therein is from the period exposed to Northumbrian rain
between the eastern chapel being taken down and the western one
re-erected. (If memory serves)
I agree with you about the Willis and Hearn paper - it has many, er,
lacunae, in which are a few nuggets (eg the idea of Augustinian
communities being linked to 'shoulder' Lady Chapels on the Walsingham
model is intriguing with reference to the Bristol Elder Lady Chapel but
seems to me to fall down as a generalization) - and it also includes the
reference I mentioned concerning the whole community attending Lady Mass
at Salisbury.
Oddly enough I was going to post this this week, as promised. Hearn and
Willis give a quote whose Latin does not seem to me to be as unequivocal
about all-community attendance as their English statement. But that is
because my Latin is quite frankly appalling. Any comments?: 'in parte
orientali in honorem sanctae et individuae trinitatis et omniem
sanctorum , super quo de cetero cantabitur misa de beata virgine
singulis diebus' - the Register of st Osmund ed W H Rich Jones, Rolls
Series lxxviii 1883-4 ii 38, quoted here on p 45.
On this theme, the number of stalls at Henry VII's [Lady] Chapel at
Westminster Abbey, when put together with known practice at the
community, has been used to suggest that only half a dozen monks and the
professional choir were present for the daily Marian offices there - but
that the whole community did indeed attend for Principal Feasts of the
Virgin celebrated there. Such a model would work in many places, though
this is a reasonable guess for just one place.
I'm interested in this question because on 'theme' I will be proposing
is that Lady Chapels can have a corporate dimension, embodying the
community as a whole seeking the Virgin's protection.
The question of the origin of lady chapels vis a vis liturgy - indeed
the origin of the axial lady chapel per se - has been absorbing much of
my time. John's suggestion that the chapels stimulated the office,
rather than vice versa, seems to me to be taking things too far: but I
take from it a very valued point [for which thanks], that the
relationship may have been symbiotic: both liturgical practice and
architecture developed and proliferated very rapidly and very possibly
stimulated each other.
The roots of many such questions lie in the pre-Conquest traditions of
English Marian architecture and practice, and I have found it hard not
be overly diverted by this subject in preparing the paper. It richly
deserves a new and full treatment, building on recent work by John Blair
and Mary Clayton.
But if I explain further, there won't be a paper!
Thank you once again.
-----Original Message-----
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John
Briggs
Sent: 03 April 2006 10:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [M-R] Lady Chapels
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
Good luck to Jon Cannon for his paper at the Lady Chapels Conference in
Oxford this coming weekend - and too to Cathy Oakes (who keeps a fairly
low
profile on this list!) I shall be very sorry to miss this conference,
but I
shall be otherwise engaged at what I believe to be Jon's more usual
stamping
ground (Burwalls)!
Stuart Harrison's paper should be quite dazzling - I believe he will
demonstrate that the Durham Lady Chapel was moved to the west end and
re-assembled in a quite different way.
It will be interesting to see if any light is thrown on the knotty
problem
of which came first, the Lady Chapel or the daily Lady Mass. I have
rather
belatedly found a reference touching on this (albeit one with which I
disagree pretty comprehensively):
M.F. Hearn & L. Willis, "The iconography of the Lady Chapel of Salisbury
Cathedral", in L. Keen & T. Cocke (eds), Medieval Art and Architecture
at
Salisbury Cathedral (1996) pp.40-45 (British Archaeological Association
Conference Transactions XVII).
John Briggs
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