The World Upside-Down
English Misericords
by Christa Grossinger
Paperback (Out of print)
(January 1997)
ISBN: 9781872501642
Price: $45.00
On back order
This book describes and illustrates one of the most entertaining ‘popular’ art-forms of the Middle Ages, the misericord – the carved, hinged seat of the choir-stall – found in monastic and parish churches and in cathedrals. These ledges were introduced as a concession to elderly and frail monks who found it difficult to stand through the eight daily Offices. In the course of time they were decorated and eventually extensively carved with narrative scenes. English misericords have their own distinctive style and express a particular sense of humour. Intended as antidotes to the rigorous celibate life of the monks, they depict unrestrained and often bawdy subject-matter and present an explicit and frank expression of the ‘unmentionable’. Most of the surviving misericords are from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, though a few earlier ones are to be found; some, in London and Cambridge, are from the sixteenth century and have distinctly Renaissance qualities. Exceptionally fine series are to be found in Exeter, Lincoln, Manchester, Worcester, Ripon and Wells Cathedral, but many excellent examples can be seen in parish churches all over the country. The book is richly illustrated from new, specially taken photographs, with full descriptive captions and a map of the locations of misericords mentioned. It will act as companion to students of medieval art and society, and to all those interested in the ‘popular’ arts, that can still be seen in our own time.
- By (author) Christa Grossinger
Other Titles in this Series
Bringing the Holy Land Home
The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece
Volume 3
The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela
A Critical Edition: Volume I, The Manuscripts and Volume II, The Text
Volume 14
Late Gothic Sculpture in Northern Italy
Andrea da Giona and I Maestri Caronesi: An Addition to the Pantheon of Venetian Sculptors
The Architectural Drawings of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and His Circle
Vol. III: Antiquity and Theory
The Making and Meaning of the Liber Floridus
A Study of the Original Manuscript, Ghent, University Library, MS 92
Volume 76
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