Few medieval pilgrims' guides were written in English; even fewer were illuminated. This chapter examines Oxford, Queen's College, MS 357, a manuscript made in England in the late fifteenth century, which possesses both qualities. The manuscript contains a variety of texts written in Latin and English including pilgrims' guides, prayers to be said at holy sites in Palestine, travellers' tales, and descriptions of miracles that have taken place at shrines. It is also exuberantly illuminated. The miniatures begin with an Annunciation (...) and end with Christ in Judgment. These two images form the parentheses around the others in the manuscript, which depict sites in the Holy Land. The miniatures and decoration unite the disparate texts, turning them into a scale model of salvation history and providing a prompt to virtual pilgrimage. (shrink)

This essay considers medieval sewing in light of Austin's speechact theory. Analysing manuscripts, relics, indulgences, and even a bishop's mitre, the article argues that stitching was a way to enact, or intensify, the ritual purpose of objects, whether that was ceremonial, devotional, or authoritative. Whereas a speech act functions by its utterance, stitches act by forming visible and often ceremonious attachments between materials in order to aggrandise, embellish, assert and layer author ity, or swathe an object in textiles as if (...) it were a relic. _German_ Dieser Essay betrachtet mittelalterliches Nähen im Licht von Austins Sprechakttheorie. Indem er Manuskripte, Reliquien, Ablässe und sogar die Mitra eines Bischofs analysiert, argumentiert der Artikel, dass Nähen eine Weise war, den rituellen Gebrauch der Objekte einzusetzen oder zu intensivieren – ob es sich nun um zeremonielle, devotionale, oder autoritative Zwecke handelte. Während ein Sprechakt durch seine Äußerung agiert, handeln Nähstiche, indem sie sichtbare und oft feierliche Verbindungen zwischen Materialien schaffen, um Autorität zu steigern, zu verschönern, zu behaupten und zu schichten – oder um einen Gegenstand in Textilien zu hüllen, als handelte es sich um eine Reliquie. (shrink)

This essay considers medieval sewing in light of Austin's speechact theory. Analysing manuscripts, relics, indulgences, and even a bishop's mitre, the article argues that stitching was a way to enact, or intensify, the ritual purpose of objects, whether that was ceremonial, devotional, or authoritative. Whereas a speech act functions by its utterance, stitches act by forming visible and often ceremonious attachments between materials in order to aggrandise, embellish, assert and layer author ity, or swathe an object in textiles as if (...) it were a relic. (shrink)