Volume 8, Issue 4 (2023)

Welcome to Volume 8, Issue 4 (Autumn 2023)

This issue focuses on research that re-examines images and ideas and shifts the focus of our understanding, with conceptions often occupying ambiguous and changing meanings. Loretta Vandi analyzes collected writings in the Liber scintillarum and how the initials and the decorative motifs inspired personal devotion. Helen Davies reassesses the image of Philip II on an ostrich in the Vercelli Mappa Mundi and how it reacts to changing political opinions. Gordon M. Reynold’s article investigates how the funerary imagery of Eleanor of Castile navigated between queen-ship,and pilgrimage, and the Crusades. Thomas Kaffenberger writes of a forgotten Dominican monastery in Famagusta, Cyprus, tracing documentary, archaeological, and art-historical evidence for a once-important religious site which did not quite fit into expected architectural categories. Eneko Tuduri proposes, through detailed examination of surviving wall paintings, how the small rural church of San Juan Bautista de Eristain in Navarre became revered funerary space for the noble family, the Solchagas. Francis Cook also engages with wall painting, challenging how and why images of St. Margaret and St. Nicholas helped create Christian community. Katharine Scherff examines the historical and social construction of the legend of St Helena and how that tale and imagery was used by women to negotiate conflicting social and religious demands when they decided to embark on pilgrimage.

Ongoing Feature: Photobank

The Photobank database continues to serve as a resource for scholars and teachers. Please note that our Photobank has undergone considerable renovation and is now part of Digital Kenyon at Kenyon College. You can search by typing a key word or name in the search box (e.g. Canterbury). The Photobank continues to grow with copyright-free images all downloadable for use in research and teaching.

The Future

For future issues we are actively seeking articles on any aspect of medieval art and architecture, including: long and short scholarly articles, scholarly book reviews, review articles on issues facing the field of medieval art history, interesting notes and announcements, useful website recommendations, new archeological discoveries, and recent museum acquisitions. We are interested in publishing articles that will undergo double-blind review as well as those which are subject only to regular editing processes, including articles that are the result of preliminary research. We are also looking for images to add to our photobank, to be shared and used by anyone in the classroom and in their research. To round out the scholarly portion of the journal, we are also seeking short, amusing excerpts from medieval sources, comments on the Middle Ages in movies and popular culture, etc.