Overview

Major interdisciplinary study of medieval church porches, bringing out their importance and significance. The church porches of medieval England are among the most beautiful and glorious aspects of ecclesiastical architecture; but in comparison with its stained glass, for example, they have been relatively little studied. This book, the first detailed study of them for over a century, gives new insights into this often over-looked element. Focussing on the rich corpus of late-medieval East Anglian porches, it begins with two chapters placing them in a broad cultural outline and their context; it then moves on to consider their commissioning and design, their architecture and ornamentation, their use and their meaning. This book will appeal to all those interested in church fabric and function.

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9781837652174

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Reviews

A valuable book which which rescues an important element of our medieval churches from scholarly neglect and greatly adds to our understanding. * ECCLESIOLOGY TODAY * This book on church porches is a welcome addition to the topic of liminal spaces in the Middle Ages. [...] Readers approaching this book with a pre-existing interest in the English parish church will greatly profit from Lunnon's multifaceted study of a neglected aspect of these buildings, which should now become an integral addition to the discussion of the parish church as a spatial, material, and social phenomenon. -- SPECULUM [A] thought-provoking study * THE RICARDIAN * [The] first monograph of its kind in over a century, and is likely to become, and remain, the authoritative text on the topic. * HISTORY * [This] is a significant and substantial study with wide implications for English medieval religion * THE JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY * As someone who has spent most of the last decade and more visiting and studying East Anglian churches, often in minute detail, I can only state that this work is an inspiration to do just that. It is a rarity when a volume appears that allows you to see a subject that you thought you were largely familiar with, through totally fresh eyes. -- Matthew J. Champion * Norfolk Archaeology * East Anglian Church Porches and their Medieval Context is a very welcome addition to the subject, as church porches were previously under-researched and little understood as an integral part of church design. The documentary research, the analysis and the recording of 119 extant examples are very impressive. -- Local Historian

Author Information

Dr Helen Lunnon is an independent researcher specialising in the art and architectural histories of the English Middle Ages. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

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