Overview

This edition of the building accounts is put into a wider context with a study of its founder, Richard Fox. Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was founded in 1517 by Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester. He intended it to educate students in classical Greek, Latin and Hebrew, and their literature; Erasmus praised it as a scholarly achievement, and a beacon of Renaissance classical learning. The heart of this book is an edition of the original fortnightly building site accounts of 1517-1518, giving us a window onto a late-medieval building site, with its detailsof early sixteenth-century building materials, craft techniques, project management skills and working conditions, including siesta periods and sub-contracting. The introduction describes Fox's long road to 1517: his motives far more complicated than a bishop looking for worldly fame and heavenly reward. Born into a Lincolnshire yeoman, Fox studied law at Oxford, rebelled against Richard III and became Henry VII's closest political adviser. Taken together,they provide a detailed account of the foundation of the College, both literal and metaphorical.

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There is much for the reader interested in how building projects were managed, or in sources of supply, in costs, and in how new buildings were fitted-out. The ready availability of the accounts will also enable future researchers easily to make comparisons at a local level with similar accounts for other Oxford projects [.] The volume is, however, of significance for much more than this. An extensive introduction and further appendices (there are ten in all) place the building work in a broader context. * THE LOCAL HISTORIAN * This volume is not only enlightening to those interested in the process of late medieval construction, but is extremely informative on the topics of episcopacy, education, and the history of colleges. * MIDLAND HISTORY * This is a handsomely produced volume and has been skilfully edited by Julian Reid. The introduction is divided into three sections. The last two, by Angela Smith and Jane Eagan respectively, offer admirably precise and informative discussions of the account book both as a source for the building of the college and as a physical artefact. * ARCHIVES AND RECORDS *

There is much for the reader interested in how building projects were managed, or in sources of supply, in costs, and in how new buildings were fitted-out. The ready availability of the accounts will also enable future researchers easily to make comparisons at a local level with similar accounts for other Oxford projects [.] The volume is, however, of significance for much more than this. An extensive introduction and further appendices (there are ten in all) place the building work in a broader context. THE LOCAL HISTORIAN

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