The Bayeux Tapestry: New Approaches

The Bayeux Tapestry, perhaps the most famous, yet enigmatic, of medieval artworks, was the subject of an international conference at the British Museum in July 2008. This volume publishes 19 of 26 papers delivered at that conference. The physical nature of the tapestry is examined, including an outline of the artefact's current display and the latest conservation and research work done on it, as well as a review of the many repairs and alterations that have been made to the Tapestry over its long history. Also examined is the social history of the tapestry, including Shirley Ann Brown's paper on the Nazis' interest in it as a record of northern European superiority and Pierre Bouet and François Neveux's suggestion that it is a source for understanding the succession crisis of 1066. Among those papers focusing on the detail of the Tapestry, Gale Owen-Crocker examines the Tapestry's faces, Carol Neuman de Vegvar investigates the Tapestry's drinking vessels and explores differences in its feast scenes and Michael Lewis compares objects depicted in the Tapestry and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11. The book also includes a résumé of four papers given at the conference published elsewhere and a full black and white facsimile of the Tapestry, with its figures numbered for ease of referencing.

Table of Contents

Foreword (Neil MacGregor)
Introduction (Michael J. Lewis)
1. The Patronage of Queen Edith (Carola Hicks)
2. The Breton Campaign and the Possibility that the Bayeux Tapestry was Produced in the Loire Valley (St Florent of Saumur) (George T. Beech)
3. Decoding Operation Matilda: the Bayeux Tapestry, the Nazis and German Pan-Nationalism (Shirley Ann Brown)
4. Backing up the Virtual Bayeux Tapestries: facsimiles as attachment disorders, or turning over the other side of the underneath (Richard Burt)
5. The Hidden Face of the Bayeux Tapestry (Sylvette Lemagnen)
6. The Storage Chest and the Repairs and Changes in the Bayeux Tapestry (David Hill and John, McSween)
7. How Big is It – And Was It? (Derek Renn)
8. Edward the Confessor’s Succession According to the Bayeux Tapestry (Pierre Bouet and François Neveux)
9. How to be Rich: the presentation of Earl Harold in the early sections of the Bayeux Tapestry (Ann Williams)
10. Where a Cleric and Ælfgyva... (Patricia Stephenson)
11. Robert of Mortain and the Bayeux Tapestry (David S. Spear)
12. Hic Est Miles: some images of three knights, Turold, Wadard and Vital (Hirokazu Tsurushima)
13. Leofwine and Gyrth: depicting the death of the brothers in the Bayeux Tapestry (Michael R. Davis)
14. The Bayeux Tapestry: faces and places (Gale R. Owen-Crocker)
15. The Bayeux Tapestry and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11 (Michael J. Lewis)
16. Dining with Distinction: drinking vessels and difference in the Bayeux Tapestry feast scenes (Carol Neuman de Vegvar)
17. Slippery as an Eel: Harold’s ambiguous heroics in the Bayeux Tapestry (Jill Frederick)
18. The Bayeux Tapestry, Dendrochronology, and Hadstock Door (Jane Geddes)
19. Portals of the Bayeux Tapestry: visual experience, spatial representation and oral performance (Linda Elaine Neagley)