Colleagues and friends,
my apology for late reply as I have been away from my computer in the last
four days. Many thanks for Jim, Pat C. and Pat S., Nancy, Tom, Olfried,
Aleks, Beth, Carolyn, Christopher, and Kathryn. Your contributions are
greatly appreciated and have added many dimensions for my search.
Pat Cullum mentioned that there are many byways that the question could
lead to. I like to go to one of the byways...
For several years I had a question which I have not yet had a satisfactory
answer from many colleagues I asked, neither I came across a good reference.
The question is what form of control or censorship existed in the medieval
time if the work of art deviated from the acceptable teaching of the day.
To put the question in different way, if the artist(s) or the patrons tried
to create a different form that can be interpreted differently to the
doctrine or belief of the day; i.e. could be heretical, or simply
unacceptable. What could happen? Are there any examples?
One answer I had from Dr. Eamon Duffy during a coffee break in one of the
conference that different bishops in different regions behaved differently.
Example English bishops did not censor many of the manuscript's
illustrations, but some continental bishops censored only the illustrations
for the locally used or produced manuscripts. Unfortunately I did not have
the chance to discuss this further, I appreciate any though or comments from
my learned colleague in the list.
Ghazwan Butrous
Canterbury UK
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