Art and Architecture of Late Medieval Pilgrimage in Northern Europe and the British Isles (2 Vols.)

This collection includes essays on the visual experience and material culture at medieval pilgrimage shrines of northern Europe and the British Isles, particularly the art and architecture created to intensify spiritual experience for visitors. These studies focus on regional pilgrimage centers which flourished from the 12th-16th centuries, addressing various aspects of visual imagery and architectural space which inspired devotees to value cults of enshrined saints and to venerate them in memory from afar. Subjects include pilgrim dress, jeweled and painted reliquaries, labyrinths, elaborate processions, printed texts of the saint's life, shrines, sculpture and other architectural decoration, and pilgrim souvenirs. Profusely illustrated with 350 photographs, this work will interest scholars and students of art history, history, religious studies, and popular culture.Contributors include: Ilana Abend-David, Virginia Blanton, Sarah Blick, Katja Boertjes, James Bugslag, Lisa Victoria Ciresi, Daniel K. Connolly, M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, Laura D. Gelfand, Anja Grebe, Anne F. Harris, Kelly M. Holbert, Vida J. Hull, Jos Koldeweij, Marike de Kroon, Claire Labrecque, Stephen Lamia, Nora Laos, Jennifer M. Lee, Albert Lemeunier, Mitchell B. Merback, Scott B. Montgomery, Jeanne Nuechterlein, Rita Tekippe, William J. Travis, Kristen Van Ausdall, Benoît Van den Bossche.All volumes of the print edition will become available in individual e-books: 9789047430070 (volume 1) - 9789047430087 (volume 2).

'The 27 essays in this immense two-volume, 1000-page tome each present a case study of the interaction between the visual arts and the phenomenally widespread and tenacious practice of religious pilgrimage in the late Middle Ages. These ambitious volumes point to the great deal of interest in the field of "pilgrimage arts."...the contributors deserve sincere congratulations for assembling the most extensive and useful group of studies about the intersection of image and pilgrimage in Northern Europe ever published.' Kathryn M. Rudy, Renaissance Quarterly, 2005. 'Each essay is meticulously researched and amply documented, and the volume includes an extensive international bibliography. It is also accompanied by a volume of plates to illustrate each essay. The collection is recommended for college libraries and will be of interest to historians of religion, spirituality, art and architecture, and the physical cultures of the high Middle Ages.' Wanda Zemler-Cizewski, Theological Studies, 2006. Cumulatively these essays make an impressive and reasonably coherent whole, although they cannot, of course, furnish a complete survey of northern European pilgrimage. One’s attention is persistently drawn to the riches of the sources; it is hard to imagine a reader, however well-informed, who will not discover the unfamiliar and intriguing in text or footnotes. The editors have performed a big job pretty well (…) Diana Webb, Speculum ‘This monumental volume of essays is a wonderful, albeit expensive addition to the literature on pilgrimage. The collection contains twenty-seven essays, and in the second volume are 348 black-and-white images that illustrate the articles. As the title indicates, the collection focuses on northern Europe and the British Isles (…). Despite its size, this volume is nicely coherent and of uniformly high quality.’ Katherine L. French, State University of New York at New Paltz, Sixteenth Century Journal

Sarah Blick, Ph.D. (1994) in Art History, University of Kansas, is Associate Professor of Art History at Kenyon College. Her research and publications focus on medieval pilgrim souvenirs and the cult of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.Rita W. Tekippe, Ph.D. (1999) in Art History, The Ohio State University. Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art, State University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Georgia. Research and publications include pilgrimage sites and artifacts, procession, medieval politics and rulership (secular and ecclesiastical).