Bury St. Edmunds and the Norman Conquest

Description

The abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, by 1100, was an international centre of learning, outstanding for its culting of St. Edmund, England's patron saint, who was known through France and Italy as a miracle worker principally, but also as a survivor, who had resisted the Vikings and the invading king Swein and gained strength after 1066. Here we journey into the concerns of his community as it negotiated survival in the Anglo-Norman empire, examining, on the one hand, the roles of leading monks, such as the French physician-abbot Baldwin, and, on the other, the part played by ordinary women of the vill. The abbey of Bury provides an exceptionally rich archive, including annals, historical texts, wills, charters, and medical recipes. The chapters in this volume, written by leading experts, present differing perspectives on Bury's responses to conquest; reflecting the interests of the monks, they cover literature, music, medicine, palaeography, and the history of the region in its European context. Cover Contents List of Illustrations List of Music Examples List of Contributors Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. David Bates. The Abbey and the Norman Conquest: An Unusual Case? 2. Thomas Waldman. Charters and Influences from Saint-Denis c. 1000–1070 3. Sarah Foot. The Abbey's Armoury of Charters 4. Elisabeth van Houts. TheWomen of Bury St. Edmunds 5. Eric Fernie. Baldwin's Church and the Effects of the Conquest 6. Tom Licence. New Light on the Life andWork of Herman the Archdeacon 7. Tom Licence. The Cult of St. Edmund 8. Henry Parkes. St. Edmund between Liturgy and Hagiography 9. Teresa Webber. Books and their Use across the Conquest 10. Michael Gullick. An Eleventh-Century Bury Medical Manuscript 11. Debby Banham. Medicine at Bury in the Time of Abbot Baldwin 12. Véronique Thouroude. Medicine after Baldwin: The Evidence of BL, Royal 12. C. xxiv Index