Pauline Stafford
@pstafford
Historian of early Middle Ages, Grandmother, Leftwing, Labour, Leeds, British, European. Emerita Prof University of Liverpool
It’s an amazing place - and I see you took in Chavigny too. Was anything said about the decoration of the pillars in both? I’ve never been able to find out whether it reflects the original or was later - 19C? Recently redone obviously. Gofridus certainly had reason to be proud of Chavigny capitals.
The great historian of Late Antiquity Averil Cameron, who has died, reminding us that class matters alongside gender in British society wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/05/22/s...
And in case, like me, you can’t be online this evening, RHS plan to record.
Withdrawal of need-based US assistance has opened the way for Russian and Chinese strategic aid designed to create permanent dependency and reduction of sovereignty. Total miscalculation of US interest on Trump’s part - quite apart from humanitarian disaster.
If this is the headline of a supposedly left of centre newspaper what chance is there of a serious conversation about the place of taxation in a civilised -let alone social democratic-country?
Recognition of significance of female figures - two female witnesses of Ascension of Christ in particular- + significant iconography of life and death of Mary taken to suggest female patron or person buried. Abbess? Of a female house linked to the double house at Repton, Mercian royal house. 2/
Weekend walking in the Peak gave an opportunity to revisit the Wirksworth slab. Probably late 8C and the coped top of a tomb from which scenes on the left have been lost. The iconography is connected to Eastern Mediterranean and has been much discussed. @ascorpus.bsky.social especially intriguing 1/
This graph from @ryanburge.bsky.social might be of interest to those who now fear the potential influence of the American Christian Right in U.K. politics. The context in the U.K. is very different
3 weeks in France. Among much else, saw these scenes of massacre of the innocents on Le Mans cathedral portal. Not an uncommon artistic theme- a type of martyrs - but these struck me as especially tender representations. If I remember correctly babies are small adults at Abbaye aux Dames Saintes.
Late 12C reliquary cross made to contain an earlier late11C/early 12C one. From the Cistercian abbey of La Valasse. The smaller cross is convincingly associated with Empress Mathilda, daughter of Henry I & mother of Henry II, married by her father to Henry V of Germany. The smaller cross may /1
Amazing that it has taken so long to recognise this great building, but very welcome nonetheless.
Do I detect the unerring accuracy of AI here? Scholar GPS rankings for ‘ Middle Ages’. ‘Powering Scholarly Analytics’. 😂
Sometimes I’m glad of cross posts from the other place. #Trump #Qatarplane
#VEday cartoon 1945. Thank you to the Daily Mirror for reminding us of this today.
Highlight in many ways Tewkesbury. Great round piers of nave more or less contemporary w nearby Gloucester but v different in feel - taller, with more austere treatment of triforium + overall wall elevation.(Mentally strip away 14C vault and its springing.) great W doorway like triumphal arch. 2/3
Regular Easter walk, slowly covering Midland waterways. Stretch of Avon/Severn/Gloucester and Sharpness canal this year. Deerhurst obligatory, of course. But 1/
And at the moment The Hepworth has a wonderful exhibition on Surrealist Landscapes. Just the time to visit.
Including some lovely woodwork - like these bench ends showing the Nativity, Magi and Annunciation.
Rotherham’s All Saints Minster - the finest Perpendicular church in the North of England? Certainly a gem. 1/
Feast of St Hild of Whitby, good day to post pictures of fragments of important cross shaft from nearby daughter house of Hackness. 7C-early9C it commemorated an abbess AEthelburh, early8C? ‘beata …. Mater amantissima’ whose prayers were sought. Significant inscriptions - 5 in 4 different scripts.
Saw this a couple of weeks ago. While you’re in Sofia don’t miss the Boyana church - later but still lots of evidence of Byzantine influence, including in frescoes which cannot be photographed.
First time I’ve eaten in a restaurant which included a prayer before - and after - the meal in the menu! Manastirska Magernitsa Restaurant in Sofia specialises in traditional Bulgarian food with a special line in monastic recipes. Tempted by the nettles but stuck with stirred large beans + prunes.
Early medieval houses built in ruins of its nave and by 10c a necropolis in its N aisle. Bird mosaics around the altar area may symbolise the Garden if Eden. Breath- taking.
Mosaics from the 4C basilica of Plovdiv (Philippopolis). At 83x36m the largest Early Christian church so far discovered in the Bulgarian lands, built over 2C temple, still outlined within its nave. Beautiful peacock, symbol of immortality, greeted worshippers in the Narthex. Abandoned in 7C .
Just posted this on X. My voice is small, but more influential ones could tempt even more people to make the move.