Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 20 June 2022

St Alban in medieval art


Today, or, depending on which calendar you keep, the 22nd is the feast of St Alban, the protomartyr of Britain.  

Some years ago I posted about his medieval iconography in St AlbanThis is largely based upon the work of John Dillon and Gordon Plumb on the Medieval Religion discussion group. There is also a fifteenth century example in my post Humphrey Duke of Gloucester where St Alban is shown presenting Duke Humphrey to Christ as the Man of Sorrows.

St Albans Psalter of 1120/5-1140/5 has a striking illumination of the martyrdom which can be seen at Martyrdom of St Alban. St Albans Psalter. 1st half of 12th Century ...


There is more about the Psalter, with its rich and varied artistic palate, and which survived by being taken at the dissolution of the monasteries to Germany, where it remains at Hildesheim, in a series of linked posts from Medievalists. net at The St Albans Psalter now online This splendid manuscript, and associated with Christina of Markyate, was made just as the bulk of the present Cathedral and Abbey church - to use its current designation - was being completed. It is an indicator of the artistic culture of the monastic community there at that period, and the monastery continued to be a patron of art and learning, spiritual, scientific, literary and historical until its last years.

St Alban Pray for us


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