Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T05:37:15.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Auro et Argento Pulcherrime Fabricatum: New Visual Evidence for the Feretory of St Dunstan at Glastonbury and its Relation to the Controversy over the Relics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Extract

Five illustrations of the feretory of St Dunstan at Glastonbury appear in the margins of Cambridge, Trinity College MS R 5 16, a copy of John of Glastonbury's chronicle of the abbey. They provide a unique visual record of a major monument of English Gothic metalwork previously known only through documentation. The feretory of St Dunstan stood at the centre of one of Glastonbury's most important cults. Its form was more wholeheartedly architectural than other known English examples, and may be compared with contemporary Continental feretories. The illustrations also inform current understanding of the controversy surrounding the true location of St Dunstan's relics. Palaeographical analysis of accompanying inscriptions places them in the context of Archbishop William Warham's well-known attempt to claim the relics definitively for Canterbury (1508). The illustrations may be understood as part of Glastonbury's reaction to this attempt.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, J and Binski, P (eds) 1987. Age of Chivalry. Art in Plantagenet England 1200–1400, LondonGoogle Scholar
Biddle, M 2001. ‘Remembering St Alban: the site of the shrine and the discovery of the twelfth-century Purbeck marble shrine table’, in Alban and St Albans. Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology (eds Henig, M and Lindley, P G), Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans, 24, 124–61, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Binski, P 1995. Westminster Abbey and the Planta-genets: Kingship and the Representation of Power 1200–1400, London and New HavenGoogle Scholar
Birch, W de G 1887. Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, I, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bird, N du Q 1994. ‘A medieval inventory from Glastonbury abbey’, Notes Queries Somerset Dorset, 33 (pt 8), 310–20Google Scholar
Bird, N du Q 1995. ‘Articles from the workshop of St Dunstan, still existing in the thirteenth century’, Notes Queries Somerset Dorset., 33 (Pt 9), 355–8Google Scholar
Bodden, M-C 1987. The Old English Finding of the True Cross, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Bond, F B 1913. ‘Glastonbury abbey. Sixth report on the discoveries made during the excavations: I. Discovery of St Dunstan's chapel’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist., 59, 5661Google Scholar
Bony, J 1979. The English Decorated Style: Gothic Architecture Transformed, 1250–1350, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Britton, J 1814. The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, LondonGoogle Scholar
Budny, M 1992. ‘St Dunstan's classbook and its frontispiece: Dunstan's portrait and autograph’, in Ramsay, Sparks and Tatton-Brown 1992, 103–42Google Scholar
Campbell, M 1998. ‘Medieval metalworking and Bury St Edmunds’, in Gransden 1998, 6980Google Scholar
Carley, J P (ed) 1985. The Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey: An Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury's Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P 1996. Glastonbury Abbey: The Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous, GlastonburyGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P (ed) 2001. Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian Tradition, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Carley, J P and Howley, M 2001. ‘Relics at Glastonbury in the fourteenth century: an annotated edition of British Library, Cotton Titus D. vii, fols 2r–13v’, in Carley 2001, 569616Google Scholar
Caviness, M H 1977. The Early Stained Glass of Canterbury Cathedral, circa 11751220, PrincetonGoogle Scholar
Claussen, P C 1978. ‘Goldschmiede Mittelalters. Quellen zur Struktur ihrer Werkstatt am Beispiel der Schreine von Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, Westminster Abbey in London, St. Gertrud in Nivelles und St. John in Beverley’, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft., 32, 4686Google Scholar
Coldstream, N 1976. ‘English Decorated shrine bases’, J Brit Archaeol Ass., 129, 1534Google Scholar
Didier, R and Ceulemans, C 1996. ‘Les processions et la char de la châsse de Sainte Gertrude’, in Trésor Gothique, 104–6Google Scholar
Dugdale, W 1716. The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gasquet, F A 1890. ‘Blessed Richard Beere’, The Downside Review., 9, 158–63Google Scholar
Gransden, A 1982. Historical Writing in England II: c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century, London and New YorkGoogle Scholar
Gransden, A 1992. Legends, Traditions and History in Medieval England, London and Rio GrandeGoogle Scholar
Gransden, A (ed) 1998. Bury St Edmunds: Medieval Art, Architecture, Archaeology and Economy, Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans, 20, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J (ed) 1969. William Worcestre: Itineraries, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hearne, T (ed) 1726. John of Glastonbury, Chronica sive Historia de Rebus Glastoniensibus, II, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Henderson, A E 1937. ‘Plan of Glastonbury abbey church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Peter and St. Paul. Restored to the year 1539, showing suggested arrangements’, Trans St Paul's Ecclesiol Soc., 10, 107–10Google Scholar
Henderson, G 1987. From Durrow to Kells: The Insular Gospel-books 650–800, LondonGoogle Scholar
Horrox, R 2000. ‘The later medieval minster’, in Beverley Minster: An Illustrated History (ed Horrox, R), 3750, BeverleyGoogle Scholar
Horstman, C (ed) 1901. Nova Legenda Anglie, I, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hunt, R W 1961. St Dunstan's Classbook from Glastonbury, AmsterdamGoogle Scholar
James, M R 1901. The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, II, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Kurmann, P 1996. ‘Cathédrale miniature ou reliquaire monumental? L'architecture de la châsse de Sainte Gertrude’, in Trésor Gothique, 135–53Google Scholar
Lagorio, V 2001. ‘The evolving legend of St Joseph of Glastonbury’, in Carley 2001, 5581Google Scholar
Leland, J 1774. De Rebus Britannicis Collectanea (ed Hearne, T), vi, LondonGoogle Scholar
Leland, J 1907. Itinerary (ed Smith, L T), I, LondonGoogle Scholar
Lewis, L S, Thompson, A H, Paul, R W and Allen, F J 1926. ‘Glastonbury: the church of St John the Baptist’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist., 72, xxxii–xxxviiGoogle Scholar
Lowe, W R L, Jacob, E F and James, M R 1924. Illustrations to the Life of St. Alban in Trin. Coll. Dublin E. i. 40, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Maxwell-Lyte, H C (ed) 1940. The Registers of Thomas Wolsey, John Clerke, William Knyght and Gilbert Bourne (Somerset Ree Soc 55), Frome and LondonGoogle Scholar
Nilson, B 1998. The Cathedral Shrines of Medieval England, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Oman, C 1957. English Church Plate 597–1830, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Parkes, M B 1997. ‘Archaizing hands in English manuscripts’, in Books and Collectors 1200–1700: Essays Presented to Andrew Watson (ed Carley, J P and Tite, CGC), 101–41, LondonGoogle Scholar
Ramsay, N and Sparks, M 1988. The Image of Saint Dunstan, CanterburyGoogle Scholar
Ramsay, N and Sparks, M 1992. ‘The cult of St Dunstan at Christ Church, Canterbury’, in Ramsay, Sparks and Tatton Brown 1992, 311–23Google Scholar
Ramsay, N, Sparks, M and Tatton-Brown, T 1992. St Dunstan: His Life, Times and Cult, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Rogers, N 1998. ‘The Bury artists of Harley 2278 and the origins of topographical awareness in English art’, in Gransden 1998, 219–27Google Scholar
Scott, J (ed) 1981. The Early History of Glastonbury. An Edition, Translation and Study of William of Malmesbury's De Antiquitate Glas-tonie Ecclesie, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Sharpe, R 1991. ‘Eadmer's letter to the monks of Glastonbury concerning St Dunstan's disputed remains’, in The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey (ed Abrams, L and Carley, J P), 205–15, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Skeat, W W (ed) 1871. Joseph of Arimathie: otherwise called The Romance of the Seint Graal, or Holy Grail, EETS, old ser, 44, LondonGoogle Scholar
Spurrell, M 2000. ‘The promotion and demotion of whole relics’, Antiq J., 80, 6785Google Scholar
Stubbs, W (ed) 1874. Memorials of Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (Rolls Ser 53), LondonGoogle Scholar
Taraion, J 1982. ‘La châsse de Saint-Taurin d'évreux’, Bulletin Monumental., 140, 4156Google Scholar
Thomson, R M 2001. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in Worcester Cathedral Library, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Trésor Gothique 1996. Un Trésor Gothique: La Châsse de Nivelles (exhibition catalogue), ParisGoogle Scholar
Urry, W 1986. ‘Canterbury, Kent’, in Local Maps and Plans of Medieval England (ed Skelton, R A and Harvey, PDA), 107–17, OxfordGoogle Scholar
VCH 1969. The Victoria History of the County of Somerset (ed W Page), LondonGoogle Scholar
Wall, J C 1905. Shrines of British Saints, LondonGoogle Scholar
Woodforde, C 1946. Stained Glass in Somerset 1250–1830, LondonGoogle Scholar