Giulia Gonzaga and the Religious Controversies of Sixteenth-Century Italy
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Book Series
Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 31
Anselm Adornes
Travel, Trade, Cultural Exchange, and Intellectual Networks in Scotland, Bruges, and Jerusalem
Bryony Coombs, Jill Harrison, Giovanna Guidicini (eds)
- Pages: approx. 400 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:20 b/w, 65 col.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2026
- € 120,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61007-8
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Feb/26)
- € 120,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61008-5
- E-book
- Forthcoming
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Merchant, diplomat, humanist patron of the arts, explorer, and pilgrim, Anselm Adornes is a pivotal figure in the cultural history of fifteenth-century Western Europe. This book takes Adornes as a case study through which a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches, methodologies, and enquiries are employed.
Subject(s)
BIO
Bryony Coombs is Renaissance Teaching Fellow at The University of Edinburgh lecturing on the northern Renaissance. Her current major project is a monograph entitled, Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550 and is under contract with Edinburgh University Press. She is also writing two chapters on ‘Illuminations and Miniatures’ and ‘Imported Manuscripts’ for The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, volume 1, again with EUP. She is a contributing member to the Trinity Research Group and her principal interests include the movement of ideas between Scotland and the continent and Scottish patronage of continental manuscripts, literature, and art.
Jill Harrison is a Lecturer in Art History and an Honorary Research Associate at the Open University. Her original research focused on the Italian Trecento. More recently she has turned to the Northern Renaissance and the social art history of fifteenth- century Scottish relations with Europe. She now studies the Trinity Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes and is the founder and convenor of The Trinity Network, an international collaborative project exploring all aspects of Mary of Guelders charitable Trinity foundation.
Giovanna Guidicini is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural History and Urban Studies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. She is interested in the role of the urban environment as performative space during triumphal entries celebrated in Europe -and in Scotland in particular- during the early modern period, and has written a monograph on this topic titled Triumphal Entries and Festivals in Early Modern Scotland. Giovanna is now exploring how space was and is explored, understood, and represented through different media, from painting to writing, to representations through Virtual Reality.
Summary
Anselm Adornes (1424–1483), merchant, diplomat, humanist patron of the arts, explorer, and pilgrim, is a pivotal figure in the cultural history of fifteenth-century Western Europe. His significance as a trusted advisor to James III of Scotland and Charles the Bold of Burgundy and his agency and influence within dynamic intellectual and artistic networks has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Bridging the world of commerce and courtly diplomacy, Anselm Adornes is a charismatic individual who provides the perfect case study for this ambitious multidisciplinary book. Fresh perspectives on the account of his extraordinary pilgrimage across the Mediterranean to the Holy Land reveal perceptive observations not only of pious practices, places, peoples, and customs, but also of the importance of maps and navigation. As well as connecting Adornes to key works of art, architecture, manuscripts, and travel writing, this compelling volume uniquely sheds light on his deep relationship with Scotland and shows that country’s active engagement with the wider world. It will include transcriptions and translations of key documents, all previously unpublished, which makes it an important resource for those wishing to understand this exciting period of European history.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Véronique de Limburg Stirum
Introduction: Tracing the Cultural Networks of Anselm Adornes
Jill Harrison and Bryony Coombs
Biography of Anselm Adornes
Timeline
Adornes: Commerce and Diplomacy
Chapter 1. Scotland and Flanders: Anselm Adornes and the Diplomacy of Commerce, c. 1467–77
David Ditchburn
Adornes: Patronage, Art and Artists
Chapter 2. Two Little-Known Drawings of Anselm Adornes
Sacha Zdanov
Chapter 3. The Trinity Altarpiece: Anselm Adornes, St George and Jerusalem
Jill Harrison
Chapter 4. Flanders and Scotland: The Tomb and Burial of Anselm Adornes (1424–83)
Ann Adams
Adornes: Travel and Exploration
Chapter 5. Anselm Adornes’ Itinerary: Exploring and Representing Spaces of Spirituality through a Textuary Atlas of the Mediterranean World
Giovanna Guidicini
Chapter 6. The Gates of The Sea. Recounting the African Ports and Cities through the Memoirs of Anselm Adorno and Late Medieval Travellers
Beatrice Borghi
Adornes: Connections: Scotland and Bruges
Chapter 7. Lost Books: Anselm Adornes, James III, and Developing Humanist Interests in Scotland
Bryony Coombs
Chapter 8. Anselm Adornes, James III, and the Unicorn Collar
Steve Boardman
Adornes: Piety and Pilgrimage
Chapter 9. Golgotha Reincarnated: Calvary Altar in the Adornes Chapel and the Mass of St Gregory by Hieronymus Bosch
Miyako Sugiyama
Chapter 10. Pilgrimage and Piety: The Adornes Family and the Holy Land
Mitzi Kirkland-Ives
***
Appendix 1. The Oration of Anselm Adornes in 1468 delivered to King James III of Scotland
Appendix 2. Various Trade Related Documents
Index
