Bury St. Edmunds: Medieval Art, Architecture, Archaeology and Economy

by Gransden,Antonia

• ISBN13: 9780901286888
• ISBN10: 0901286885
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The abbey of Bury St. Edmund's was one of the richest and most powerful of the monasteries of medieval England. The Libert of the Eight and a Half Hundreds, over which the abbot exercised the authority of Sherriff, covered all west Suffolk and survived as a separate administrative district until the country reorganisation of 1974. As its centre was an even more privileged area, the town and suburbs of Bury St. Edmunds, which grew up to service the abbey's worldly needs and remained under the abbot's absolute control; today it survives as the prosperous borough of Bury St. Edmunds. The abbey church itself was larger than Durham cathedral and housed the shrine of St. Edmund, king and martyr, who had been killed by the Danes in 870 when they invaded East Anglia, and whose cult was the abbey's raison d'etre . In April 1994 the British Archaeological Association held a four day conference at Culford School, near Bury St. Edmunds, which was devoted to the study of the abbey and town. Most of the conference papers are printed in the preent Transactions, with the addition of three specially commissioned papers. They cover a wide range of subjects and break much new ground. There are papers on the abbey's architecture and on the layout of the medieval town, studies on St. Edmund's shrine, relics and cult, and on the abbey's administration and economic history, including papers on the mint, which the abbot administered, on the abbey's woodlands, and on its salterns in Lincolnshire. An especial feature of the volume are the papers on the abbey's manuscripts, comprising studies on their art, palaeography, and bindings, and on the monastic library. The volume ends with the catalogue prepared for the exhibitions held in Cambridge for delegates to the conference, of Bury manuscripts owned by a number of Cambridge colleges and by Cambridge University Library. In all, these transactions make an important contribution to the study of medieval Bury St. Edmunds and will no doubt stimulate further research.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
List of Abbreviations	ix
Some Manuscript Sources	xii
The Romanesque Church of Bury St Edmunds Abbey
by Eric Fernie	1	(15)
Aspects of the Romanesque Church of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in their Regional Context
by Stephen Heywood	16	(6)
The West Front of the Abbey Church
by Philip McAleer	22	(12)
The Architectural Setting of the Cult of St Edmund in the Abbey Church 1095-1539
by John Crook	34	(11)
A Scientific Examination of the Relics of St Edmund at Arundel Castle
by Richard Gem with an Appendix by Tony Waldron	45	(12)
The Saint Edmund Cycle in the Crypt at Saint-Denis
by Pamela Z. Blum	57	(12)
Medieval Metalworking and Bury St Edmunds
by Marian Campbell	69	(12)
The Planning of the Town of Bury St Edmunds: a Probable Norman Origin
by Bernard Gauthiez	81	(17)
The Medieval Town of Bury St Edmunds
by Margaret Statham	98	(13)
The Mint at Bury St Edmunds
by Robin Eaglen	111	(11)
St Edmund in Lincolnshire: the Abbey's Lands at Wainfleet and Wrangle
by Arthur Owen	122	(6)
Mid-13th-Century Accounts from Bury St Edmunds Abbey
by P.D.A. Harvey	128	(11)
The Abbey Woods
by Oliver Rackham	139	(22)
The Lost Canterbury Prototype of the 11th-Century Bury St Edmunds Psalter
by William Noel	161	(11)
The Production and Artistry of the Bury Bible
by T.A. Heslop	172	(14)
The Provision of Books for Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the 11th and 12th Centuries
by Teresa Webber	186	(8)
Some 12th-Century Bindings from the Library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey: preliminary Findings. Appendix, Descriptions of Four Bindings from the Exhibition Catalogue (below)
by Jennifer M. Sheppard	194	(10)
Reconstructing the Medieval Library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey: the Lost Catalogue of Henry of Kirkstead
by Richard Sharpe	204	(15)
The Bury Artists of Harley 2278 and the Origins of Topographical Awareness in English Art
by Nicholas Rogers	219	(9)
Some Manuscripts in Cambridge from Bury St Edmunds Abbey: Exhibition Catalogue
by Antonia Gransden	228	(59)
PLATES	287