Early Nineteenth-Century Liverpool Collectors of Late Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts

‘Early Nineteenth-Century Liverpool Collectors of Late Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts’, written by Edward Morris, describes the pioneering phase of the collecting of illuminated manuscripts that began in the early nineteenth century and came to an end in the mid-nineteenth century.

Nature, Masculinity, and Suffering Women The Remaking of the Flower and the Leaf and Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women in the Nineteenth Century

‘Nature, Masculinity, and Suffering Women: The Remaking of the Flower and the Leaf and Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women in the Nineteenth Century’, written by Helen Philips, examines particular links between Chaucer the Nature poet and gender issues in the Nineteenth Century.

Secular Gothic Revival Architecture in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Liverpool

‘Secular Gothic Revival Architecture in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Liverpool’, written by Joseph Sharples, argues against the belief that early and mid-Victorian Liverpudlian architecture was single-mindedly Classical, and instead foregrounds the significant number of Gothic commercial buildings erected in Liverpool from the mid-1860s, suggesting that Liverpool architects were not as constitutionally anti-Gothic as first thought.

Riding with Robin Hood

‘Riding with Robin Hood: English Pageantry and the Making of a Legend’, written by John Marshall, address the character of Robin Hood – whether fact or fiction – and his contribution to the outlaw narrative in the middle ages. In this chapter, Marshall also defines the ways in which visualizations of Robin Hood in terms of character, costume and scenery, have created an image and evocation of the middle ages. While no doubt one of the best-known and most enduring secular figures in the western world known for adventures that epitomized the middle ages, this essay attempts to determine how closely the tales of Robin Hood adhered to medieval themes.

Liverpool’s Lorenzo de Medici

‘Liverpool’s Lorenzo de Medici’, written by Arline Wilson, discusses William Roscoe’s study of Lorenzo de Medici and its subsequent reception. Also included in this chapter is a biography of Roscoe’s personal life and upbringing in Merseyside.

The Antiquarians and the Critics

‘The Antiquarians and the Critics: The Chester Plays and the Criticism of Early English Drama’, written by David Mills, examines the origins of the belief that the Chester Cycle somehow escaped the excessive and unregulated changes undergone by other cycle in pursuit of fifteenth-century modernization, assessing the evidence for its truth, and the ways in which it informed, and was informed by, the early scholarly attitudes towards medieval drama and its audience. It concludes with a discussion on the changes in the approach to and understanding of early English drama in general and Chester’s plays in particular during the last forty years.

The Use and Abuse of the Early Middle Ages, 1750–2000

‘The Use and Abuse of the Early Middle Ages, 1750–2000’, written by Ian Wood, provides an unbalanced account of the basic development of interpretations of the early middle ages, and the contexts in which those interpretations evolved. Wood dedicates the majority of his essay to a small number of readings of the Frankish past, which he argues have been forgotten.

The Lure of Celtic Languages, 1850–1914

‘The Lure of Celtic Languages, 1850–1914’, written by T. M. Charles-Edwards, asks what drew Johann Caspar Zeuss and Holger Pederson to work on the Celtic and what, more importantly, kept them working in this field even after, very often, their initial concerns had been satisfied.

Introduction

In this introductory chapter, Pauline Stafford attempts to establish the definition of Medievalism in terms of art, culture, history, and general worldview. She foregrounds the origins of Medievalism, and outlines its dependence on the periodization which distinguishes the middle ages, while drawing attention to Medievalism’s history in Merseyside specifically. By explaining how the following essays attempt to piece together theoretical standpoints on Medievalism, Stafford asks what can we ever really know about the middle ages?

Whatever Happened to Your Heroes? Guy and Bevis after the Middle Ages

‘Whatever Happened to Your Heroes? Guy and Bevis after the Middle Ages’, written by David Matthews, is explicitly concerned with the ‘re-organization of knowledge’, seen as at work already in the later eighteenth century. In the context of this re-organization, this essay examines the post-medieval presentation of these English heroes up until the later eighteenth century, considering the implications of their disappearance.