In this innovative and compelling book Nigel Saul approaches the world of the medieval gentry through the monuments they left behind them. The Cobham family left the largest and most spectacular collection of brasses in Britain in their church at Cobham, and other magnificent brasses in Lingfield, and elsewhere.
Medieval brasses have hitherto been studied chiefly from an antiquarian or technical perspective; Nigel Saul for the first time shows how they served as a link between the living and the dead. Commemoration was inseparable from the wider dynamics of society. Through the brasses and through family history he takes us to the heart of gentry aspirations and fears, successes and disappointments.
This extensively illustrated study offers a new paradigm for the study of medieval church monuments and makes a major contribution to our understanding of gentry culture. Review: ... a beautifully produced book, particularly in terms of the number and clarity of the illustrations allowing the reader the rare treat of being able to examine the monuments alongside the text.
It is an extremely well written and enjoyable vignette of one family's contribution to our medieval heritage - heritage that lies in every medieval church. Church Archaeology The author combines the skills of a leading medieval historian and those of a specialist in medieval brasses to telling effect ... this study offers a welcome broadening of the agenda for the study of funerary art ...
An important book on an important group of brasses. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History Skilfully weaves together a range of disparate material into a satisfying whole ... an example of what extra can be achieved by going outside established mindsets and traditional subject boundaries. Mortality This is a timely and much needed book ... by far the most detailed treatment of the subject to have been published.
English Historical Review Judged as a history of the medium of brasses this study is extremely useful since nothing of quite this extent has ever been addressed to the medium in a single context before. Archives This study is especially welcome not least because it takes the heritage of English funereal art seriously.
Archives An accomplished and carefully considered reflection on the historicizing possibilities of 'visual culture' which will interest all those preoccupied by the culture of death and its attendant institutions, notably chantry foundations. Archives
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