Westminster Abbey Record Series – serie

From Elizabeth I's refoundation of the collegiate church to reforms and improvements attempted and achieved in the early years of James I's reign.The completion of Dr Knighton's edition of the first chapter minute book of Westminster Abbey records in detail Elizabeth I's refoundation of the collegiate church, including regulatio for preaching, the school and the library; the chapter's own housing is a continuing issue. Predominantly, however, the acts document the chapter's estate management: lease particulars shed light on the population of early modern Westminster and London. Favours sought by queen and courtiers are recorded, the exercise of the dean and chapter's ecclesiastical patronage is registered. At the end of the period the abbey was home to some of the most eminent churchmen and scholars of the day, Andrewes, Bancroft, Camden and Hakluyt among them. Reforms and improvements attempted and achieved in the early years of James I's reign conclude the volume. Index to both vols.CHARLES KNIGHTON gained his Ph.D. from Magdalene College, Cambridge.

First volume in the new Westminster Abbey Record Series, covering changes in Abbey ritual during the Reformation.This book is the first volume in a new venture, the Westminster Abbey Record Series, which aims to publish documents, calendars, lists and indexes from the Abbey's large and continuous archive of over a thousand years, making itscontents available both to scholars and to a wider interested public. This edition of the earliest Chapter Act Book of the Dean and Chapter is an essential source for the impact of the Reformation at Westminster. The years covered in this volume show the business of setting up a reformed cathedral; the administration of the Abbey's large estate is also well illustrated, including the relations with the powerful courtiers and politicians who were among the Abbey's tenants. Dr CHARLES KNIGHTON gained his Ph.D. from Magdalene College, Cambridge.

First printed edition of the building accounts of one of London's most remarkable edifices.Founded by Henry VII, the Savoy hospital was designed to execute corporal works of mercy and commemorate the king through prayer by housing one hundred poor men every night in palatial surroundings. The building complex, one of the landmarks of early Tudor London, was unique for English hospitals in its adoption of a cross-shaped ward, but its structural details have remained obscure.Published for the first time here, the building accounts record, edited here for the first time, provides detailed evidence of that structure, as well as of the hundreds of craftsmen and laborers who toiled to complete it. In addition to the accounts themselves, this volume contains a thorough contextual introduction, elucidatory notes, and a glossary of building terms.Charlotte A. Stanford is Associate Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters at Brigham Young University.

Reports of the surveyors of Westminster Abbey in the twentieth century provide a wealth of information on this most important building.The annual reports of the Surveyors of the Fabric in the twentieth century give much detailed information about the maintenance and major restoration of Westminster Abbey and its contents. The Surveyors, William Lethaby, Walter Tapper, Charles Peers and Stephen Dykes Bower, had to deal with many problems and challenges between 1906 and 1973. Not least of these were two World Wars and the most extensive programme of cleaning and re-decoration since the timeof Sir Christopher Wren. Lethaby brought to light original decoration on medieval tombs, lost to sight for centuries under grime and shellac used by his predecessor Gilbert Scott; Tapper had to carry out emergency restoration tothe fan vault of Henry VII's chapel after a stone crashed to the floor; Peers was required to deal with the evacuation of hundreds of treasures during the 1939-45 war and with repairs to bomb damaged areas after it. Dykes Bower, meanwhile, was the most controversial of the Surveyors of this period. His replacement of medieval roof timbers drew criticism, although these were riddled with decay and death watch beetle. The nave could have looked vastly different if his design for a Cosmati work floor had gone ahead. But the Abbey interior would not look as it does today without his massive contribution to the cleaning of the brown stonework and re-decoration of the dirty and damaged Tudor and Jacobean monuments.The Abbey's current Surveyor, Ptolemy Dean, outlines the legacies of the work of these Surveyors of the modern age in his introduction; Christine Reynolds, the Abbey's Assistant Keeper of the Muniments, adds valuable notes from other sources within the archives to supplement the fascinating accounts of work carried out in the most historically significant church in England.

An edition of the surviving accounts of two important religious fraternities, one based at St Margaret's Westminster, the other at the Chapel of St Mary Rounceval at Charing Cross.These organisations drew their membership from across the social spectrum, from nobles and senior clergy, to local parishioners and merchants. They formed a key focus of social and religious life, and their accounts throw light on the regular activities of Westminster inhabitants.

First bibliography of all printed material concerned with Westminster Abbey, from parliamentary papers to guide books.Westminster Abbey is one of the most significant ecclesiastical institutions in Britain and occupies a unique position in the life of Church and Nation. Founded as a Benedictine monastery c.960, it is the coronation church and a royal mausoleum, a place of worship and an architectural masterpiece, a national shrine whose collection of monumental sculpture is of international renown. The Abbey's history is inextricably linked with that of both Westminster School [governed directly by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster until 1868] and of St Margaret's church [built by the Westminster monks for the local community, and closely associated with the Abbey ever since].Thisfully-indexed bibliography is the first of its kind dedicated to a major church, and is a fundamental contribution to the historiography of Westminster Abbey. It provides full bibliographical details of more than 3300 printed works, including parliamentary papers, editions of archival sources, guide books, theses, historical monographs and journal articles. Covering a huge range of subjects from art and architecture to poetry, sermons and Westminster School grammars, it is an indispensable reference work for anyone seeking to know more about this remarkable institution.

This volume completes the edition of the two earliest manuscript Chapter Act books of Westminster Abbey, which is now the first cathedral or collegiate church to have all its Chapter Acts fully in print from the Reformation to theCivil War. It records the formal decisions of the Abbey's governing authority, many involving grants of office and leases of the Abbey's large and widely-scattered estate, principally in the midlands and the south-east, and especially in Westminster itself. A full introduction brings out the value of the documents in placing the Abbey in the tumultuous history of the church under James I and Charles I.