Browse Items (19 total)

Detail of King Solomon reading a book and wearing a brooch. Compared to the Virgin Mary in Figure 1, King Solomon's brooch is much less ornate, which was consistent with the idea that men wore less ornate and elaborate brooches then women. From BL,…

(Fig 4). Detail of horses pulling a cart. From BL MS 42130 f. 173v (1325-1340).

(Fig. 3) Detail of a farrier/marshal shoeing a horse. From Bodleian Libarary MS Douce 88 f. 051r (13th century).

Fig. 2. Detail fron a Book of Hours that depicts a man at an altar holding an ewer. From a Depiction of the Life of St Margaret, fragment in the Morgan Library, MS M.754 fol. 33v (between 1320 and 1329).

This sixteenth-century manuscript illumination depicts a Polish bishop wearing a chest cross that appears similar to a reliquary pendant. Reliquary pendants were often worn by prominent members of the clergy to indicate their high status and…

Chalices were essential to the ecclesiastical functions of the Catholic church in medieval London because they played a vital role in transubstantiation, or the conversion of the Eucharist and communion wine into the body and blood of Jesus. When…

Map of neighborhood surrounding the area where the chalice was found (circled in red). Possible places of origination include the parish church of St. Olave towards the Tower (green), Crutched Friars Friary (blue), and St. Mary Grace's Abbey (black).

This is a burial chalice recovered from the tomb of Archbishop William de Melton in York. Dated around the mid fourteenth century, the chalice is made of silver and has an engraving of a crucified Jesus Christ on the base.

This aquamanile possibly hails from Lower Saxony and is made of bronze. Aquamaniles were used in both religious and non-religious settings, though this object's original owner is not specified. The knight seen here is wearing some kind of prick spur…

This gilded reliquary casket, dated to the years immediately following St. Thomas Becket's canonization, display a narrative of Becket's life and martyrdom. Reliquaries often were used to assert the sanctity of the saint they were said to contain, as…