Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England (review)

Abstract

Short Notices 235 Parergon 21.1 (2004) Short Notices Coss, Peter and Maurice Keen, eds, Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2002; cloth; pp. x, 278; RRP £45/US$75; ISBN 0851158501. This interesting collection brings together a range of studies of visual representation in medieval England. Given its focus on secular culture, chivalric display, especially heraldry, naturally looms large. Crouch and Coss use the evidence of heraldry to make important points about family structures – ‘no decisive move towards agnatic lineage’ (36) – and class formation – the failure of knighthood ‘to become the basis of a caste nobility’ (67) – between the twelfth and early fourteenth centuries, while Ailes provides a very useful review of the political uses of heraldry ‘as symbolic statements of political intent’ (87) in the later middle ages. In more sharply focused studies Shenton details the lengths to which Edward III took his identification with the leopard in the royal arms, while Pilbrow documents the manner in which the ceremonies of the Order of the Bath provided opportunities for ‘chivalrous bonding’ among the governing class. The papers by Gittos and Gittos on effigies and by Saul on brasses are also largely concerned, though not exclusively, with the armigerous classes. Gittos and Gittos show that gentry families facing extinction in the male line were especially driven to create memorials to their lineage and name. Saul uses his vast expertise to provide a wide-ranging survey of brasses, issues of supply and demand, and the concern to elicit prayers as well as commemorate and mark social distinction. Several papers extend the social range. Lachaud considers evidence for dress regulation prior to the sumptuary law of 1337 and asks, somewhat inconclusively, whether the legislation reflected increasing status consciousness or greater access to luxury goods. Barron provides an interesting exposition of the way in which the merchants and artisans of London developed their own distinctive cultures of display in the shadow of the royal court. Campbell discusses the curious range of items – from fine silver plate to relics and memorabilia – left to Oxford and Cambridge colleges by their founders and early benefactors. How often have we heard that medieval culture was still a largely visual culture? This collection certainly demonstrates the importance of visual representation and display in late medieval England, and the value of visual 236 Short Notices Parergon 21.1 (2004) sources in informing rather than simply illustrating larger political, social and cultural developments. What is especially striking about the essays is their freshness and range. Lachaud and Saul, for example, raise interesting points with respect to the manner in which supply may have run ahead of demand. Keen’s introduction is a gem, rich in insight and illuminating perspective. He raises the important question of how far the growth of literacy in this period, far from ‘downgrading the importance of ceremony and of the visual in culture generally’, actually served ‘to extend the range, the potential and the capacity for elaboration of the visual in culture through interplay with the written word’ (4). John Watts’s concluding chapter likewise draws attention to the lack of visibility the English state – the public rather than the private face of the monarchy – in the later middle ages. The book includes a number of choice illustrations, but it prompts the reader to look again at the surviving images of the age, especially perhaps in the catalogues of the exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum, namely J. Alexander and P. Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England 1200-1400 (1987) and R. Marks and P. Williamson (eds), Gothic: Art for England 14001547 (2003). Michael Bennett University of Tasmania Debby, Nirit B.-A., Renaissance Florence in the Rhetoric of Two Popular Preachers: Giovanni Dominici (1356-1419) and Bernadino da Siena (13801444 ) (Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies 4), Turnhout, Brepols, 2001; hardback; pp. xiv, 344; RRP EUR65.00; ISBN 2503511635. A lot has been written on Renaissance Florence. Dominici and Bernardino have each given rise to a body of literature, both historic and recent, and sermon studies are a recognised area with its own conference groups and journals. Nirit Debby takes...