Glasgow Cathedral Research Articles

Reading and shaping medieval cartularies. Multi-scribe manuscripts and their patterns of growth. A study of the earliest cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey. By Joanna Tucker. (Studies in Celtic History, XLI). Pp. xiv + 318 incl. 7 figs, 19 tables and 9 colour plates. Woodbridge–Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2020. £75. 978 1 78327 478 9

Reading and shaping medieval cartularies. Multi-scribe manuscripts and their patterns of growth. A study of the earliest cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey. By Joanna Tucker. (Studies in Celtic History, XLI). Pp. xiv + 318 incl. 7 figs, 19 tables and 9 colour plates. Woodbridge–Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2020. £75. 978 1 78327 478 9

Joanna Tucker, Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies: Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth. A Study of the Earliest Cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey

Joanna Tucker, <i>Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies: Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth. A Study of the Earliest Cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey</i>

Joanna Tucker, Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies. A Study of the Earliest Cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey. Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth, Woodbridge (The Boydell Press) 2020

Joanna Tucker, Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies. A Study of the Earliest Cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey. Multi-Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth, Woodbridge (The Boydell Press) 2020

Charles McKean: An Appreciation

How does one start to express appreciation of someone like Charles McKean, without whose irrepressible energy and stimulating – sometimes even irritating – enthusiasm, I doubt that many of us would be here today? He was a ‘one-off’ individual who not even a great writer of fiction would have found easy to invent! Charles grew up in Glasgow, one of three sons of a consulting civil engineer. His ten years at boarding school were not, as the old saying goes, the happiest days of his life. Can you imagine Charles as an obedient and well-behaved small prep-school boy, or even a teenage Fettes boy, walking the streets of Edinburgh in a chocolate and magenta striped blazer? He would surely have been always questioning, challenging and being generally noncompliant. Back home in Glasgow in the school holidays, Charlie and his brothers John and Richard learnt how to engage their capacity for independent thought through campaigning. These were, of course the early 1960s and the days of major urban road schemes. What those of us who campaigned against the Edinburgh Inner Ring Road at this time may have forgotten is that the M8, which was actually built through Glasgow and with which we are all familiar, is only about a quarter of what was originally intended. The teenage McKeans were active in opposing the part of the urban motorway which threatened Provand’s Lordship and the setting of Glasgow Cathedral itself, to the extent that their father was warned by the then Glasgow Corporation that, unless the boys shut up, his civil engineering consultancy, McKean & Co., would receive no more public sector work in the city. They didn’t, and the practice suffered accordingly. Charles clearly benefited from the education he received and, among other things, learned to write. He went to the University of Poitiers for six months and from there to Bristol to read for a degree in Philosophy, English, History and French. It seems to have been at this time that he discovered Architecture: in Bristol itself, which he compared to Edinburgh, in Bath and through visiting medieval churches and cathedrals in Somerset and beyond, Bath Abbey, Wells Cathedral and many others. By the time he graduated in 1968, Architecture and writing had become his favourite things and his professional life was

Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice

This article explores how authenticity is produced through different forms of expertise and skill, as they are negotiated and aligned in the daily practices of conservation. Focusing on the traditional craft practices of stonemasons, the authors trace their relations to the broader nexus of experts responsible for conserving Glasgow Cathedral. They show that authenticity is a distributed property of distinct forms of expert practice as they intersect with one another and, crucially, with the material conditions of specific heritage sites. It is argued that, in the context of conservation practice, authenticity is neither a subjective, discursive construction nor a latent property of historic monuments waiting to be preserved. Rather it is a property that emerges through specific interactions between people and things.

The Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church, 1100-1560 (review)

Reviewed by: The Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church, 1100-1560 Malcolm Thurlby The Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church, 1100-1560. By Richard Fawcett. (New Haven: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 2011. Pp. xiv, 456. $100.00. ISBN 978-0-300-17049-8.) Over the past thirty years, Richard Fawcett's numerous publications have revolutionized our understanding of medieval church architecture in Scotland. The fruits of his brilliant research are now brought together with fine illustrations in this handsome new volume. The book opens with an introduction to church architecture in Scotland before 1100, and there follow eight chapters arranged chronologically and a conclusion on the impact of the Reformation. Comprehensive endnotes and a bibliography facilitate further study on the buildings. Fawcett's passion for architectural history exudes throughout his presentation and meticulous analysis of the buildings, and this cannot fail to be infectious for specialists and nonspecialists alike. His keen eye for detail combined with an unparalleled knowledge of the buildings and profound understanding of comparative material in Europe provides us with an unparalleled view of Scottish churches in a European context. Churches are discussed in their appropriate historical setting and, where documentation permits, in terms of their patronage. Small churches and those known only from Antiquarian sources are examined alongside the "great monuments." For twelfth-century churches Fawcett demonstrates close ties with exemplars in England, particularly Durham Cathedral and its influence on Dunfermline Abbey and Kirkwall Cathedral and several smaller churches. In the thirteenth century, Lincoln Cathedral was a favorite point of reference, as at Holyrood Abbey. Yet the Scottish churches were by no means provincial copies of English models, especially in the smaller Romanesque churches of the Northern Isles. In Orkney, the round tower at Egilsay and the twin round western towers at Deerness (now lost) are allied to northern Germany, which was then in the same ecclesiastical province. The southwest nave doorway at Whithorn Cathedral is associated with Irish Romanesque. The ambitious design of the twin-towered façade of Arbroath Abbey incorporates reticulated masonry, perhaps as an expression of royal status or even imperial aspirations, whereas the huge round window may reflect northern French models such as Laon Cathedral. Elsewhere, we encounter adventurous designs such as the huge, four-light east window with rose-window-like oculus of the east front of Kirkwall Cathedral, the west façade of Holyrood Abbey, and the variety of the plate tracery in the south choir aisle windows of Glasgow [End Page 349] Cathedral. Moreover, in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral there are remarkable spatial innovations and complex vault patterns. Political and diplomatic ties with France and commercial links with the Low Countries account for many architectural associations from the late-fourteenth century and afterward. Especially intriguing is an inscription at Melrose Abbey that records the career of the Paris-born mason John Morow and various Scottish churches on which he worked. Fawcett establishes Morow's oeuvre and includes striking parallels with the windows of the south nave chapels at Amiens Cathedral, and tracery designs and sculptural details at Vincennes Castle Chapel just east of Paris. These and other flowing tracery designs are symptomatic of the lack of interest in the contemporary Perpendicular style of England on the part of Scottish patrons and architects. Connections with the Low Countries are manifest, as in the unusual form of the crossing piers at Aberdeen in relation to the west tower piers of Brussels Cathedral, and tracery design at King's College, Aberdeen, and Utrecht Cathedral. This book is a masterpiece and will be the starting point for all future research on medieval church architecture in Scotland. It is highly recommended as a model for all architectural historians and medievalists with an interest in ecclesiastical architecture as well as the general reader who just wants to enjoy and understand this period of Scottish heritage. Malcolm Thurlby York University, Toronto Copyright © 2012 The Catholic University of America Press

Stephen T. Driscoll Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral 1988–1997

Stephen T. Driscoll <i>Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral 1988–1997</i>

Driscoll, Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral, 1988–1997

Driscoll, <i>Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral, 1988–1997</i>

Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral 1988–1997. By Stephen Driscoll

Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral 1988–1997. By Stephen Driscoll

A Mason from Wells at work on Glasgow Cathedral

A Mason from Wells at work on Glasgow Cathedral

A third manuscript of the Life of St Serf

A new edition and translation of the Life of St Serf by Alan Macquarrie was published in this journal in 19931—the first modern edition of the text, superseding Skene's edition of 1867.2 Macquarrie based his edition on Dublin, Marsh's Library, MS Z 4.5.5 (cited as D), the only extant MS of the complete text, and he reported variant readings from Edinburgh, NLS Adv. MS 34.7.3 (cited as E), which unfortunately gives only about the first tenth of the text. D is likely to have been produced at Glasgow Cathedral in the thirteenth century,3 while E is the commonplace book of John Gray, secretary to two archbishops of St Andrews in the late fifteenth century.4 Unbeknown

The monk and the medieval archives of Glasgow cathedral.

The monk and the medieval archives of Glasgow cathedral.

Vita Sancti Servani: The Life of St Serf

A manuscript in Marsh's Library in Dublin, written probably in the thirteenth century and also probably belonging to Glasgow Cathedral, contains a copy of Jocelin of Furness's Vita Sancti Kentigerni. The first six folios also contain a Vita Sancti Servani which was first edited by Skene and is newly edited and translated.

Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral: A Preliminary Report on the Archaeological Discoveries made in 1992-93

Summary Extensive archaeological excavations were conducted in advance of the installation of a new healing and electrical system for the Cathedral. Trenches were located where new ducts were to be installed below the floor in the Nave, the Choir, the Crypt and the Session Room. These trenches produced evidence for both of the documented 12th century cathedrals which preceded the existing building. The early cathedrals were represented by in situ masonry and decorated fragments of masonry which had been re-used in the thirteenth century works. Traces of activity pre-dating the 13th century were discovered in the west end of the Nave and structural evidence for the internal divisions of the post-Reformation use of the Nave was also recovered. Burials and stray human bones were found in the trenches dug in the Crypt and the Nave. In total 77 burials were excavated, most of which can be reasonably well dated. In the Nave, evidence for burial pre-dating the 12th century cathedral was recovered and it could be seen thai burials were made at sporadic intervals until the 19th century. Apart from the architectural fragments and coffin fittings, finds were scarce. The most significant artefactual discovery consisted of two massive medieval bronze mortars and an iron pestle which had been deposited in a pit in the Crypt, probably during the Reformation.

The Blackadder Aisle at Glasgow Cathedral: a reconsideration of the architectural evidence for its date

It is argued from analysis of the mouldings and other features that the Blackadder Aisle was built in two stages, separated by at least two centuries. The shell of the lower storey may be the work of the same mason who built the choir in the mid 13th century, while Archbishop Blackadder (1483-1508) merely covered the incomplete shell with its vault, albeit sympathetically blended in.

Mark Jameson's physic plants, a sixteenth century garden for gynaecology in Glasgow?

Deputy Rector of the University of Glasgow and a vicar choral of Glasgow Cathedral, the physician Mark Jameson made many annotations in his copy of the 1549 edition of Fuchs' herbal. On the back flyleaf are the names of 26 plants, 22 of which were "To be sett & sawin in ye garding". Many of the 26 plants have gynaecological properties; some are even abortifacient, especially the highly dangerous savin, Juniperus sabina.

The Painted Romanesque Voussoir in Glasgow Cathedral

The painted voussoir in Glasgow Cathedral is possibly the only fragment of Romanesque wall painting to survive in Scotland. The palmette motif on its outer face is difficult to parallel in wall painting, but it can be compared with palmettes in other media, particularly manuscripts. These comparisons suggest that it is likely to be a fragment from the cathedral church at Glasgow dedicated in 1136.

Excavation in the Lower Church of Glasgow Cathedral

Summary The object of the excavation, in the westernmost central bay of the Lower Church, was to discover if any evidence of structural remains of the church of 1136 or that of 1197 were present. Results were inconclusive, although the position of the foundations, incorporating earlier material, of the arcade piers of the 13th century church suggested the re-use of earlier foundations. An annular stone feature of medieval date, with a purposely perforated inlet pipe, sited on the central axis of the church near the shrine of St Kentigern, was considered a holy water basin connected with pilgrim visitation to the shrine.

THE GREAT FIRE AT GLASGOW CATHEDRAL

Many of the large medieval churches of Christendom have been damaged at one time or another by fire.1 The disaster is always an important date in the life of the church and some knowledge of the extent of the damage is necessary for any detailed history of the fabric. Glasgow cathedral is no exception and, while it was known that the medieval church had been damaged by fire, neither the date of the conflagration nor the extent of the damage was known. A recent discovery has now provided us with a little more information and gives us a firmer basis for scholarly conjecture on the architectural history of the cathedral.

ARCHBISHOP ROBERT BLACKADDER'S WILL

Some years ago, working in Italian archives, Rosamond J. Mitchell chanced upon a notarial copy of the will of Robert Blackadder, archbishop of Glasgow, made in Venice before his ill-fated departure for the Holy Land in the summer of 1508. She reported her findings, with a transcript of the copy in the Bolletino dell' Istituto di Storia della Societa e dello Stato Veneziano, i (1959), 169-178. As her find seems to have been overlooked, it seems worth drawing attention to it here, and linking any information in it with other scattered facts liable to throw light on the history of Glasgow cathedral.