Beds and Chambers in Late Medieval England: Readings, Representations and Realities - Hardcover

Morgan, Hollie L.S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1903153719 ISBN 13: 9781903153710

Publisher: York Medieval Press, 2017

Synopsis

The bed, and the chamber which contained it, was something of a cultural and social phenomenon in late-medieval England. Their introduction into some aristocratic and bourgeois households captured the imagination of late-medieval English society. The bed and chamber stood for much more than simply a place to rest one's head: they were symbols of authority, unparalleled spaces of intimacy, sanctuaries both for the powerless and the powerful. This change in physical domestic space shaped the ways in which people thought about less tangible concepts such as gender politics, communication, God, sex and emotions. Furthermore, the practical uses of beds and chambers shaped and were shaped by artistic and literary production. This volume offers the first interdisciplinary study of the cultural meanings of beds and chambers in late-medieval England. It draws on a vast array of literary, pragmatic and visual sources, including romances, saints' lives, lyrics, plays, wills, probate inventories, letters, church and civil court documents, manuscript illumination and physical objects, to shed new light on the ways in which beds and chambers functioned as both physical and conceptual spaces.

About this title

About the Author:

Hollie L.S. Morgan is a Research Fellow in the School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln.

Review:

Offers a rich and insightful discussion of the nature of the bed, providing material not just for medievalists but for historians exploring such questions in later centuries. PARERGON(W)ell worth reading: not only for medievalists (whether historians or not), but also for social and cultural historians of other eras who are interested in just how complex the relationship between spaces, objects, and representations can be, even for something as taken for granted as a bed. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Morgan has provided new approaches to the cultural history of England in the late Middle Ages. THE RICARDIAN (O)pens up important discussions for the relationship between the literary and physical world. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY

About this edition

• Publisher: York Medieval Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1903153719
• ISBN 13: 9781903153710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 266