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.


Sunday, 25 May 2025

Papal heraldry


The website of the Liturgical Arts Journal has in interesting article  about the way in which different heraldic artists have rendered the arms of the successors of Pope Pius XII. 

The author, Marco Foppoli, is an heraldic designer and artist and his critique is good as to unimaginative design and execution, as well as his comments about the lamentable abandonment of the Papal tiara - monarchs who do not have coronation ceremonies still have crowns over their shields, even if no physical crown exists at all, as in Belgium and Monaco. 



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