Medieval Section Lecture – November 9th 2019

2pm at Swarthmore

Our speaker will be Dr Kate Giles, from the University of York

Shakespeare’s Guildhall, Stratford upon Avon

In this lecture, Kate will speak about her recent project at Stratford upon Avon, where she has been researching the history and archaeology of a complex of fifteenth century guild buildings, subsequently converted into Shakespeare’s School and recently the subject of a £1.4 million HLF project to open the building up to the public. Come and find out about Shakespeare’s medieval inheritance and hopefully be encouraged to visit the building yourself. 

IMS Open Lecture Series – Tuesday, 1 October at 17.30

The first lecture will take place on Tuesday, 1 October at 17.30, and will be given by Kathryn Rudy (Professor of Art History, University of St Andrews) on ‘Documentary Photography of Medieval Manuscripts and Its Embedded Assumptions’. The venue will be the Nathan Bodington Council Chamber on the first floor of the Parkinson Building, and following the lecture there will be a drinks reception in the Council Antechamber to which everybody is welcome to attend.

Kathryn Rudy is a manuscript historian at the University of St Andrews. She is best known for her forensic approach to medieval books, and has pioneered the use of the densitometer to measure the grime that original readers deposited in their books. She is currently developing ways to track and measure user response of late medieval manuscripts. More details can be found at < https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/art-history/people/kmr7>.

2019-2020 Programme

2019
October 12th John Collis on The death and rebirth of the Celts: from the Antique world to the Renaissance

November 9th Kate Giles on Stratford on Avon, Shakespeares Guildhall

December 14th William Flynn on Medieval Music for Advent and Christmas

2020

January 11th Mike Braddick on Fire & Fury – the English Civil war

February 8th Victoria Yuskaitis Anchorites, Archaeology, and Antiquarians: A New Archaeological Approach in Anchorite Studies

March 14th Peter Addyman Medieval York, the Historic Towns Atlas/ Merchant Adventurers of York/Yorkshire

April 4th Alan Murray Medieval warfare, chivalry

May 9th Martin Richards Archaeogenetics & human ancestry

Medieval Section Lecture – 9th March “Syon House archaeology, library, the Herbal, and medical practices”

Saturday 9th March 2019, 2.00 pm at Swarthmore

John Adams and Stuart Forbes: Syon House archaeology, library, the Herbal, and medical practices

The Syon Abbey Herbal, written by their last known librarian, was also the last herbal to be compiled before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, and gives an insight to the common ailments, their  treatment, and healthcare in general in the Tudor period. The library at Syon, almost completely lost, was one of the best in Europe, and contained a wide range of up to date printed medical and astrological-medical books unavailable elsewhere in Britain, as well as rare medical texts in English.

The speakers will discuss the archaeology of the site as well as the Herbal.

Medieval Section Lecture – 9th February 2019, 2pm at Swarthmore “Animal iconography on misericords”

On Saturday 9th February Paul Hardwick will be talking about “Animal iconography on misericords”

The main focus of Pauls research is upon English misericords in their devotional contexts. His monograph, English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning, was published by Boydell in 2011, with a paperback edition following in 2013.

The coffee bar will be open this week.

We will be holding the Annual General Meeting on Saturday 13th April, following the lecture.  Papers will be sent out nearer to the date.

The Newport Ship

Toby Jones on Saturday 12th January, 2019 – 2 pm at Swarthmore

The Newport Medieval Ship is a fifteenth century merchant vessel unearthed in the heart of Newport in 2002. Work on the Riverfront arts centre was paused while excavations could take place, and the timbers have since been undergoing a lengthy conservation process so the ship can be displayed to the public.

The ship was a formidable three-masted craft measuring over 30 metres in length and capable of carrying around 200 tons of cargo. Examination of the artefacts and remains found on board suggests that the ship probably sailed the Lisbon-Bristol trade route.

Through dendrochronology (the study of tree-ring data), it has been concluded that the trees used to construct the ship were felled around 1449 in the Basque Country, now split between modern Spain and France, where it was probably built. It was brought to Newport for repairs or refit in about 1469 but was instead deconstructed, meaning it had a working life of about 20 years.

It is thought that, whilst in Newport, the cradle supporting the ship in its pill collapsed. The hull was flooded and the majority of the ship was then taken apart, leaving only the lower hull that we have today.

The Newport Ship was built using the ‘clinker’ or lapstrake shipbuilding method, first used by the Vikings. This method is characterized by overlapping planks, each fastened to its neighbours, as opposed to the ‘carvel’ tradition in which the planks are butted smoothly against each other. The clinker method remained popular in northern Europe and the Basque Country well into the Renaissance period.

Jo Heron