A Cultural History of Objects in the Medieval Age

297 Pages·2022·5.467 MB·English

by  Julie Lund, Sarah Semple

A CULTURAL HISTORY
OF OBJECTS
VOLUME 2
A Cultural History of Objects
General Editors: Dan Hicks and William Whyte
Volume 1
A Cultural History of Objects in Antiquity
Edited by Robin Osborne
Volume 2
A Cultural History of Objects in the Medieval Age
Edited by Julie Lund and Sarah Semple
Volume 3
A Cultural History of Objects in the Renaissance
Edited by James Symonds
Volume 4
A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Enlightenment
Edited by Audrey Horning
Volume 5
A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Industry
Edited by Carolyn L. White
Volume 6
A Cultural History of Objects in the Modern Age
Edited by Laurie A. Wilkie and John M. Chenoweth
A CULTURAL HISTORY
OF OBJECTS
IN THE
MEDIEVAL
AGE
VOLUME 2
Edited by Julie Lund and Sarah Semple
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2021
Copyright © Julie Lund, Sarah Semple, and contributors, 2021
Julie Lund and Sarah Semple have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on pp. xix–xx constitute an
extension of this copyright page.
Series design by Raven Design
Cover image: Gold filigree reliquary of Pepin, depicting Crucifixion,
ninth century © Bridgeman Images
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system,
without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher
regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased
to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-9868-1
Pack: 978-1-4742-9881-0
Series: The Cultural Histories Series
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
CONTENTS
List of iLLustrations vii
series Preface xiv
Preface xvi
AcknowLedgments xix
Introduction 1
Julie Lund and Sarah Semple
1 Objecthood 29
Robin Fleming and Katherine L. French
2 Technology 45
Steven P. Ashby
3 Economic Objects 71
Dries Tys and Pieterjan Deckers
4 Everyday Objects 97
Toby F. Martin
5 Art 119
Hans Henrik Lohfert Jørgensen
6 Architecture 151
Sam Turner
vi CONTENTS
7 Bodily Objects 171
Bonnie Effros
8 Object Worlds 189
Ben Jervis and Sarah Semple
notes 214
BiBLiograPhy 215
notes on contriButors 265
index 268
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
0.1 A gold bracteate from Scandinavia depicting a god, perhaps Odin,
400–600 CE (4.8 × 4.4 × 0.4 cm). The Met Collection, licensed
under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication 7
0.2 Cross of the Emperor Lothair II (835–869). Eleventh century. Gold
and precious gems. Aachen Cathedral Treasury. Germany. https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aachen_Germany_Domschatz_
Cross-of-Lothair-01.jpg. © CE Photo, Uwe Aranas, licensed under
CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) 8
0.3 Ranvaik’s Casket, also known as The Copenhagen Shrine. Crafted
in the eighth century and modified in the tenth century. Danish
National Museum, Object No 9084. Photograph: Lennart Larsen,
Nationalmuseet, Denmark 13
0.4 The Lichfield Angel. An excavated fragment of carved and
painted limestone depicting an angel recovered at Lichfield
Cathedral. Probably part of a house-shaped stone shrine.
© Lichfield Cathedral 19
0.5 Codex Amiatinus on loan from Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana to
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms at the British Library. One of three large
single-volume bibles made at the monastery of Monkwearmouth–
Jarrow in northeastern England at the beginning of the eighth
century. © Michael Redina/Sam Lane Photography 24
0.6 Gold filigree Reliquary of Pepin, depicting the Crucifixion. An
eighth- or ninth-century reliquary modified in the eleventh century.
Goldsmith’s art, ninth century. Photograph: DEA/A. DAGLI
9781474298681_txt_print.indd 7 14-10-2020 22:49:02
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.
co.uk/detail/news-photo/goldsmiths-art-9th-century-gold-filigree-
reliquary-of-pepin-news-photo/122338870?adppopup=true 26
1.1 Influenced by Classical works, in medieval iconography the pelican
was sometimes shown feeding her young with her own blood.
This made it an apt symbol for Christ. Fragment of stained glass
showing a possible pelican pecking its breast. Discovered during
excavations of the medieval Bishop’s Palace at Bishop Auckland,
County Durham, England. Photograph: Jeffrey Veitch, Durham
University. © Department of Archaeology, Durham University 35
1.2 The men in this image all wear different styles of clothing. The
young nobleman is wearing the latest styles, with the short tunic
that reveals his legs. The older merchants wear more traditional
robes that conceal the shape of their bodies, but also use the
maximum amounts of luxury cloth. Reproduced from Jean
Froissart’s Chronicles, The Netherlands, c. 1470–1472 CE.
© The British Library Board, Harley 4380, fol. 108 37
1.3 Silver figurine depicting Odin wearing a floor-length dress, an
apron, four bead necklaces, a neck ring, a cloak, and a rimless
hat. From Lejre, Denmark, c. 900 CE. Height 18 mm, weight 9 g.
Photograph: Ole Malling. © Museum Organization ROMU,
Denmark 39
2.1 A Petersen “P37”-type brooch from Västernorrland, Sweden.
Similar examples are widely known across Scandinavia.
Photograph: Statens Historisk Museet, licensed under CC (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/se/legalcode). Unedited by
author 52
2.2 Mold for the production of oval brooches. Photograph:
Daniel Sahlén, Statens Historisk Museet, licensed under CC
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/se/legalcode).
Unedited by author 52
2.3 Anglo-Saxon bone motif piece from York, England.
Photograph: York Museums Trust, licensed under CC-BY-SA
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode).
Unedited by author 54
3.1 Pedal of a late medieval loom from a weaver in Ieper (Ypres,
Belgium). © Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed-Vlaanderen 74
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
3.2 Luxurious cape in silk, from Florence, c. 1450. This cape belonged
to the Duke of Burgundy and was seized by Swiss troops after the
Battle of Grandson in 1477 (reproduced from Marti et al. 2019:
pl. 31, cat. 86). Photograph: Stefan Rebsamen. © Bernisches
Historisches Museum, Bern 79
3.3 The Oegstgeest Bowl. Reproduced with permission from
de Bruin 2018 81
3.4 Plan of the excavated quarter of the fifteenth-century fishermen’s
village of Walraversyde, Ostend, Belgium (reproduced from Pieters
et al. 2013: 402, fig. 408). © Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed-
Vlaanderen 82
3.5 A typical set of late medieval domestic ceramics from a late
medieval household in Aalst, East Flanders, Belgium. © Koen De
Groote 84
3.6 Wood transport on the River Rhine. Painting by L. R. van den
Braak (1857) showing the practice of bulk trade in wood from
southern Germany, which can be traced back to the early medieval
period. © Reproduced with kind permission of Simonis and Buunk
Art Dealers 87
3.7 A Tating ware jug. Photograph: Claus Feveille. Reproduced with
permission 94
4.1 A great square-headed brooch from a sixth-century grave at
Hatherdene Close, Cambridgeshire, England. Despite its opulent
appearance, gilding, and inset blue glass, its broken lower
portion, somewhat clumsily repaired with iron rivets, the traces
of which are preserved in the textile remains on the obverse,
belies its everyday use. Note the four perforations for rivets and
the horizontal filing marks on the reverse where the surface was
potentially prepared to also receive an adhesive. Photograph:
T. Martin. © Oxford Archaeology Ltd. 101
4.2 A selection of silver sceattas from the Isle of Wight showing the
array of strange and almost indecipherable imagery that was
making its way through everyday households in Northwest Europe
during the seventh and eighth centuries. Recorded on the Portable
Antiquities Scheme database as (clockwise from top left): IOW-
A48FDD, IOW-3B3E77, IOW-401CBE, and IOW-0D235C. Rights
held by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, images digitally adapted
and reproduced here under a CC-BY 2.0 license 108