Alban and St Albans: Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology

by Lindley,Phillip

• ISBN13: 9781902653396
• ISBN10: 1902653394
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This lavishly illustrated volume, the transactions of a conference held in the summer of 1999, reviews religious activity at St Albans from the Iron Age until the end of the Middle Ages. For most of the Roman period Verulamium was a major pagan sanctuary, but in Christian times the focus of cult shifted to the site of the later church where it was associated with a Romano-British martyr. New evidence considered here ranges from the Biddles' epoch-making excavation of the Roman cemetery on the abbey site to a sensational new reconstruction of the early 5th century Passion of Alban by Richard Sharpe. Many contributions review the fabric and fittings of the medieval abbey. Studies of the former include papers on the re-use of Roman building materials in the Middle Ages, the Romanesque sculpture of St Albans and its environs, the lost 13th century west front, the Gothic reconstruction of the nave and presbytery and the 14th century timber roof of the central tower. Essays on the fittings of the church include a detailed investigation of a Coptic cross depicted by Matthew Paris and papers on the 12th century Purbeck-marble shrine table, the 15th century chantry of Duke Humphrey, and the magnificent great screen of the abbey. The historical aspects of research into St Albans also receive attention and there are papers on subjects as diverse as the late Saxon belief that King Offa refounded the abbey and the attempts of the monks to promote the cult of St Alban in the late Middle Ages, attempts whose tangible results at a popular level are reflected by pilgrim badges of St Alban found at London and elsewhere. Future research into the protomartyr of Britain as well as many other aspects of St Albans' history, archaeology and art will have to start with this volume.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Editors' Introduction	ix
List of Abbreviations	x
List of Illustrations	xi
Why Verulamium?
ROSALIND NIBLETT	1	(1)
Religion and Art in St Alban's City
MARTIN HENIG	1	(12)
The late antique Passion of St Alban
RICHARD SHARPS	13	(25)
Britain's Other Martyrs: Julius, Aaron and Alban at Caerleon
JEREMY K KNIGHT	38	(7)
The Origins of St Albans Abbey: Romano-British Cemetery and Anglo-Saxon Monastery
MARTIN RIDDLE AND BIRTHE KJOLBYE-RIDDLE	45	(33)
Offa, Alfric and the Refoundation of St Albans
JULIA CRICK	78	(7)
The Alban Cross
BIRTHE KJOLBYE-RIDDLE	85	(26)
Early Recycling: the Anglo-Saxon and Norman Re-use of Roman Bricks with Special Reference to Hertfordshire
TERENCE PAUL SMITH	111	(7)
The Medieval Building Stones of St Albans Abbey: A Provisional Note
TIM TATTON-BROWN	118	(6)
Remembering St Alban: the Site of the Shrine and the Discovery of the Twelfth-century Purbeck Marble Shrine Table
MARTIN RIDDLE	124	(38)
The Place of St Albans in Regional Sculpture and Architecture in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century
MALCOLM THURLBY	162	(14)
The Thirteenth-century West Front of St Albans Abbey
STUART HARRISON	176	(6)
The Gothic Reconstruction of the Nave and Presbytery of St Albans Abbey
LAWRENCE HOEY	182	(22)
A Survey and Dating of the Timber Structures in the Central Tower of the Abbey Church
GAVIN SIMPSON	204	(9)
Pilgrims' Souvenir Badges of St Alban
GEOFF EGAN	213	(5)
The St Albans Monks and the Cult of St Alban: the Late Medieval Texts
JAMES G. CLARK	218	(13)
The Chantry of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
JOHN GOODALL and LINDA MONCKTON	231	(25)
The Great Screen and Its Context
PHILLIP LINDLEM	256