Venetian painting: a concise history

Book synopsis: The book is a collection of fifteen academic essays on medieval English cathedrals. Many facets of medieval life may be explored within the context of England's pre-Reformation cathedrals, and the dedicated communities, some monastic and some secular, responsible for their regular daily programme of worship. The cathedral buildings themselves, described and studied here in varying degrees of detail from as far back as the twelfth century, offer seemingly endless new aspects for investigation. Apparently routine matters relating to the fabric, such as arrangements for internal security, often shed unexpected light on the practicalities of a daily life centred on the performance of the liturgy. The massive loss of medieval service books at the Reformation and thereafter has presented scholars with the challenge of reconstructing a detailed and accurate picture of the liturgical exercises themselves. On a wider scale, legal and administrative records reveal the relationships of individual cathedral chapters, not only with their own - often distant - bishops, but also with society as a whole, while the identifiable activities of patrons and craftsmen offer a more detailed reflection of the interplay between the cathedral and its local congregation. The papers in this volume are dedicated to Pamela Tudor-Craig, also known as Lady Wedgwood, the scholar who initiated the Harlaxton Symposium in 1984 and who has ever since supported and encouraged it with imagination and enthusiasm