Regency Medievalism and the Early-Romantic Guitar

Professor Christopher Page, a celebrated musician and musicologist, will be coming to the University of Bristol on Thursday [24 November] to give this year’s Tucker-Cruse Lecture in the Department of English.

The lecture, entitled ‘Regency Medievalism and the Early-Romantic Guitar’, will consider how the guitar, so favoured by amateur musicians among the nobility and gentry by 1830, came to be involved with a developing interest in the Middle Ages during the Regency period. It will be illustrated with an original guitar of circa 1825 and by the tenor Christopher Watson.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

The Medieval West: The Formation and Reception of a Cultural Community

The culture of the West Country in the Middle Ages and its role in shaping the identity of Medieval England is the focus of a new research project at the University of Bristol. The project aims to bring together researchers from across the region to initiate a re-examination of the Medieval West encompassing its legends, literature and learning, architecture, church communities, and role as a frontier between the English polity and Wales, Ireland and the wider world.

The West Country – the region extending westward from Salisbury Plain to the Severn Basin, the Wye Valley and the coastlines of Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall – played a critical role in the making of medieval England. Within these landscapes were formed the legends of Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea which became the corner-stones of national identity.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

With a scholar of German studies under siege, medievalists mobilise

Dozens of scholars in medieval German studies are running an international campaign of support for a University of Bristol academic threatened with redundancy.

After 18 years of service, Anne Simon, a specialist in medieval and early modern German literature, has been told that her post is at risk as the university disinvests in the field.

Fellow medievalists from across the world have flooded Bristol with letters and emails criticising the decision, which, they say, will severely undermine study of the subject.

Click here to read this article from Times Higher Education

Tests confirm that bones are from a medieval queen

Bones excavated in Magdeburg Cathedral in 2008 are those of Saxon Princess Eadgyth who died in AD 946, experts at the University of Bristol confirmed today. The crucial scientific evidence came from the teeth preserved in the upper jaw. The bones are the oldest surviving remains of an English royal burial.

Eadgyth was the granddaughter of Alfred the Great and the half sister of Athelstan, the first acknowledged King of England. She was sent to marry Otto, the king of Saxony in AD 929, and bore him at least two children, before her death at around the age of 36.

She lived most of her married life at Magdeburg and was buried in the monastery of St Maurice. Her bones were moved on at least three occasions, before being interred in an elaborated tomb in Magdeburg Cathedral in 1510.

It was this tomb that was opened by German archaeologists in 2008, a tomb long expected to be empty. Instead they found it contained a lead box, with the inscription “EDIT REGINE CINERES HIC SARCOPHAGVS HABET...” (The remains of Queen Eadgyth are in this sarcophagus...).

When the box was opened, partial skeletal remains were found, along with textile material and organic residues. The challenge facing the archaeologists was to show that the remains, which had been moved so often, and could easily have been substituted by others, were indeed those of Queen Eadgyth.

Director of the project, Professor Harald Meller of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology, Saxony-Anhalt, commented: “Medieval bones were moved frequently, and often mixed up, so it required some exceptional science to prove that they are indeed those of Eadgyth. It is incredible that we have been able to do this using the most recent analytical techniques.”

Anthropological study of the bones, undertaken at the University of Mainz by Professor Kurt Alt, confirmed that the remains belonged to a single female individual, who died between 30 and 40 years of age. One of the femur heads showed evidence that the individual was a frequent horse rider, thus hinting at her nobility.

Unfortunately vital parts were missing, including hands and feet, and much of the skull, of which only the upper jaw survived. These losses are probably due to their collection as medieval relics. Isotope analysis of the bones suggested that she enjoyed a high protein diet, including a large quantity of fish. All these results suggest a high status aristocratic lady.

It was hoped that radiocarbon dating would help in the identification of the bones, but the results proved to be some 200 years too early. This presented a real problem, as dating of the associated textiles in the lead box produced the correct range of dates for Eadgyth. It was also hoped that DNA might be extracted from the remains but this proved impossible, most likely due to the box’s bad state of preservation because the burial was in a tomb.

The crucial scientific evidence came from the study of the teeth preserved in the upper jaw. This used a technique that measures the strontium and oxygen isotopes that are mineralised in the teeth as they are formed. The value of these isotopes depends on the local environment and its underlying geology that is then locked into the teeth. Samples of the teeth were studied at the University of Bristol’s Department of Archaeology and the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Mainz.

Dr Alistair Pike, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Bristol University, explained: “Strontium isotopes on tiny samples of tooth enamel have been measured. By micro sampling, using a laser, we can reconstruct the sequence of a person’s whereabouts, month by month up to the age of 14.”

By combining oxygen and strontium results, it was possible to ‘triangulate’ the location of the first 14 years of this individual’s life. The results unambiguously pinpointed the chalk regions of southern Britain. The findings were compared to isotope values measured in teeth from other burials from Magdeburg by Corina Knipper at the University of Mainz.

Ms Knipper, a researcher in Professor Alt’s team, said: “The isotopes in the teeth supposed to be Eadgyth’s are completely different from those in the people local to Magdeburg. This individual cannot have spent her childhood in Magdeburg.”

The remarkable discovery was, however, that these isotope results matched exactly the historical records of Eadgyth’s childhood and adolescence in Wessex.

Mark Horton, Professor in Archaeology at Bristol University, added: “Eadgyth seems to have spent the first eight years of her life in southern England, but changed her domicile frequently, matching quite variable strontium ratios in her teeth. Only from the age of nine do the isotope values remain constant.

“Eadgyth must have moved around the kingdom following her father, King Edward the Elder during his reign. When her mother was divorced in 919 – Eadgyth was between nine and ten at that point – both were banished to a monastery, maybe Winchester or Wilton in Salisbury.”

Trauma was also indicated in her skeleton around this same age, suggesting a dramatic change in her circumstances. Her monastic life, and a diet of fish also explain the problematic radiocarbon dates, which tend to appear older with heavily fish-based diets.

Grave goods, as was common for Christian burials, did not accompany Eadgyth’s bones. However, they were wrapped in extremely expensive and rare silks using the most expensive colorants of the time.

The bones will be reburied in Magdeburg Cathedral later in the year, exactly 500 after their last interment in 1510.

See our earlier article: Remains of Eadgyth, Anglo-Saxon Queen, discovered in German Cathedral


Source: University of Bristol

The Embodiment of Devotion: Art, Music and Affect in Late Medieval England project receives funding

Dr Beth Williamson of the University of Bristol has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship worth £74,099 to work on a project entitled ‘The Embodiment of Devotion: Art, Music and Affect in Late Medieval England’.

The project will examine how music and art effect the religious experience of English people from between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, including its physical, emotional and sensual impact.

Dr Williamson said: “All of the senses play a part in the embodied experience of the religious devotee but the art, architecture and music of medieval Christianity offer the most concrete examples of deliberate, conscious and complex appeals to the senses.

“During the nine months of the fellowship I will investigate the various strands of thought in the middle ages that were concerned with the senses, with sense perception, and with the relationship between physical or sensual experience and religious devotion.

“This will lead to a detailed examination of the images and material artefacts associated with English medieval religious experience, including painted images, books and sculpture, and to a consideration of the religious sound-scape, including the music that would have been performed as part of religious devotions.”

Dr Williamson's previous research has focused on late medieval Italian and Dutch paintings, including the relationships between Christianity and visual culture. Her latest book, The Madonna of Humility: Development, Dissemination and Reception, explores the iconography and development of the image of the Virgin Mary.

Her new project will run from January to September 2011.

Source: University of Bristol

Remains of Eadgyth, Anglo-Saxon Queen, discovered in German Cathedral

Remains of an Anglo-Saxon queen may have been unearthed in a German cathedral, a Bristol University research team says.

They believe a near-complete female skeleton, aged 30 to 40, found wrapped in silk in a lead coffin in Magdeburg Cathedral is that of Queen Eadgyth.

The granddaughter of Alfred the Great, she married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, in 929. She died 17 years later, at 36.

Professor Mark Horton, of Bristol's department of archaeology and anthropology, said: "We know that Saxon royalty moved around quite a lot, and we hope to match the isotope results with known locations around Wessex and Mercia, where she could have spent her childhood. If we can prove this truly is Eadgyth, this will be one of the most exciting historical discoveries in recent years."

The discovery of the tomb was made during a wider research project into the cathedral in 2008 by a German team.

Eadgyth died in 946 and was buried in a convent at Magdeburg, a city given to her as dowry by Otto. Two late medieval statues in the cathedral there are thought to portray Otto and Eadgyth and in 1510 an elaborate late -Gothic tomb was erected in the chancel, although it was long thought to be a cenotaph.

When the tomb was opened in 2008, however, a lead cist 70cm long was found inside, bearing an inscription that read: “The rescued remains of Queen Eadgyth are in this sarcophagus, after the second renovation of this monument in 1510.” The cist contained the bones of a woman aged in her thirties, wrapped in white silk.

Professor Harald Meller, who led the 2008 project, said: "We still are not completely certain that this is Eadgyth although all the scientific evidence points to this interpretation. In the Middle Ages bones were often moved around, and this makes definitive identification difficult."

Recent research by Dr Estella Weiss-Krecji has shown that royal remains were often taken long distances for burial, and sometimes boiled down to extract the bones, which were sewn into an ox hide for easy transportation. Mistakes could occur, and also bones could be later disturbed: those of the Kings of Wessex — many of them Eadgyth’s relatives — in Winchester Cathedral were thrown out during the Civil War, and when they were recovered were thoroughly mixed. Modern techniques would allow some restitution, and the current examination of Eadgyth’s presumed remains will employ just such procedures.

Samples have been brought to the University of Bristol this week for further analysis under the supervision of Professor Mark Horton. “Bones, especially teeth, take up minute quantities of strontium, the isotope ratio of which varies according to the age of the underlying geology.” he said. “This ratio can therefore be used to work out where the individual spent the first 14 years of so of life; we hope to be able to map where this individual spent her childhood and so confirm that she came from Wessex, not Germany.

“The English Royal Family only came into existence with the acknowledgement of Eadgyth’s half-brother, Athelstan, as king of a unified England in 937. Athelstan’s bones were lost in the medieval period from their burial place in Malmesbury, so it is very likely that the bones of Eadgyth, who died in 946, can claim to the oldest surviving from English royalty, and certainly among the most complete.”

If Queen Eadgyth is identified, her remains are likely to be the oldest surviving remains of any member of the English royal family. Her brother, King Athelstan, is considered to have been the first king of England after he unified various Saxon and Celtic kingdoms after the battle of Brunanburh in 937, Bristol University said.

After marriage, Queen Eadgyth lived in Saxony and had two children with Otto. Their direct descendents ruled Germany until 1254 and formed many of the royal families of Europe that followed.

A special one-day conference is being held today at the University of Bristol, entitled 'Princess Eadgyth of Wessex and her World'. Besides giving more details about the find, it will also place the discovery within the context of late ninth century Merciaand Wessex, where Eadgyth grew up, the role of the Church, and especially the cult of St Oswald, that flourished in tenth-century southern Germany.

£357,430 for research into Middle English verse forms

Professor Ad Putter of Bristol University’s Department of English has been awarded £357,430 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for a project that will investigate the verse forms of Middle English romances.

Together with Chaucerian verse and alliterative poetry, the romances are one of the three great tributaries of narrative verse in medieval England. The tradition began with King Horn, written around 1220, and continued into the 1570s when the stream of printed editions of verse romances finally dried up.

The romances were originally intended for a listening audience and, although they are still widely read today, modern readers no longer inhabit their sound worlds. This research project aims to rediscover these lost worlds through studying the aural qualities – rhyme and rhythm – of the poetry.

As part of the project, recorded readings will be made of these romances in their original text and metre. This will enable modern readers to familiarize themselves with forgotten conventions of rhyme and rhythm. A knowledge of these conventions will also help editors when weighing up the reliability of particular manuscript readings.

These CD and DVD recordings will also provide information about imprecise rhymes and rhythmical patterns which will be of permanent value for research into, for example, original pronunciation and historical sound changes.

Professor Putter said: “It is a shame the recent renewal of interest in the verse forms used by medieval poets has passed the Middle English romances by. For example, we don’t even know whether the verses of King Horn were short couplet lines in an alternating three-beat rhythm or whether they were meant to sound more like the half-lines of alliterative poetry.

“Since little is known about the metrical systems of these poems, editors have not been able to use metrical criteria when establishing their text and so the romances often circulate in editions that give the misleading impression that, where rhyme, stanza form, and rhythm are concerned, anything goes.

“This project aims to change that by investigating the particular metrical systems of the Middle English romances and exploring their textual and literary history to discover what their verse forms meant to poets, scribes, and audiences.”

The research will be carried out in cooperation with two project partners: the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and The Chaucer Studio, who will be making the audio recordings. The recordings will be used as teaching aids as part of Bristol University's annual outreach programme, and in day courses to be offered as part of the University's Lifelong Learning programmes in English Literature.

The project will run from 1 March 2010 to 31 October 2013. Led by Professor Putter, the research team also includes the historical linguist Professor Donka Minkova (UCLA) and Dr Judith Jefferson (University of Bristol).

Compositional planning, musical grammar and theology in Old Hispanic chant

Dr Emma Hornby of the University of Bristol has been awarded a Religion and Society Small Research Grant worth £95,000 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for a one-year project on ‘Compositional planning, musical grammar and theology in Old Hispanic chant’.

The grant will enable Dr Hornby and Professor Rebecca Maloy from the University of Colorado at Boulder to produce a collaborative monograph. It will also fund a series of lecture-recitals with the Bristol Music Department Schola Cantorum in 2010. The Schola Cantorum is an auditioned women’s choir, open to single and joint honours music students at the University of Bristol, that specialises in medieval music.

The performances will include the few transcribable Old Hispanic chants, cognates in other European traditions, and tentative and purely illustrative realisations of some sample chants from the project. These events will bring this medieval sound world and its historical and theological context alive to audiences of early music enthusiasts, school and college pupils, the academic community, and the general public in Bristol and beyond.