Overview

Matthew Paris is one of the most remarkable and renowned figures in the cultural history of medieval England. A career-monk at the influential Benedictine abbey of St Albans, Paris' creative work bears witness to the rich intellectual, artistic, social and political environment of the monasteries and their lasting impact on the wider world. His compelling accounts of recent history and the lives of legendary saints and churchmen are a distinctive and valuable guide to the emergence of the English kingdom and its place in European Christendom. His accomplished and vivid artwork brings into focus both the craft skill and visual sensibility stimulated by the medieval Church. This systematic survey, the first published for almost seventy years, brings together expert scholarship and offers fresh, interdisciplinary perspectives on Paris', his life's work as writer, artist, cartographer and maker of manuscript books, and its enduring legacy.

Full Product Details

Author:   James G. Clark (University of Exeter)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.840kg
ISBN:  

9781108473491

ISBN 10:   1108473490
Pages:   454
Publication Date:   08 January 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: the making of Matthew Paris James Clark; 2. Matthew Paris and the Chronica maiora: chronology, truth and the crisis of 1258 David Carpenter; 3. Matthew Paris and the Plantagenet regime James Clark; 4. Matthew Paris, Europe & Christendom Bjorn Weiler; 5. Matthew Paris and the secular church Philippa Hoskin; 6. Matthew Paris and the British Isles Andy King; 7. Matthew Paris' pictorial life of St Alban Kathryn Gerry; 8. The Becket Leaves Cecily Hennessy; 9. Manuscript design in production and transmission Jessica Coatesworth; 10. Matthew Paris and heraldry Adrian Ailes; 11. Matthew Paris and his maps Paul Harvey; 12. Matthew Paris as scribe: idiosyncrasy and collaboration Manuel Muñoz Garcia; 13. The vernacular culture of Matthew Paris Marianne Ailes; 14. Afterlife James Clark; 15. Matthew Paris' manuscripts: working books and artefacts in medieval and early modern collections Andrew Dunning; 16. Digitising Matthew Paris: challenges, processes and outcomes Estelle Gittins, Alison Ray, Caroline Harding and Claire McNulty; Bibliography; Index.

Reviews

'A compelling collection of essays that brings together scholars to shed new light on the highly distinctive monk of St Albans: Matthew Paris, historian, chronicler, biographer, hagiographer, cartographer, scribe, and artist. There is an appealing freshness here, that enriches our understanding of the breadth and depth of Matthew's achievements, his abilities acutely to observe those with whom he came into contact, his understanding of his own environment and the world around him, and to convey the 'lived experience' of one of England's great Benedictine abbeys.' Janet Burton, Professor Emerita, University of Wales Trinity Saint David 'The Cambridge Companion to Matthew Paris is a wonderful compendium of studies summarizing the scholarship on an extraordinary monk, who was a hagiographer, chronicler, artist and commentator on the perils of the times in England and abroad. The editor has brought together a remarkable team of junior and senior scholars in assembling this collection, and his own contributions (as well as those of a number of others) are notable not merely for their erudition but for their engaging style.' William Chester Jordan, Princeton University

Author Information

James G. Clark is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He has written widely on the culture, intellectual and religious life of monasteries in medieval England and their legacies after the Reformation. His books include A Monastic Renaissance (2004), The Benedictines in the Middle Ages (2011) and The Dissolution of the Monasteries (2021).

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