The Voice of Silence
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Book Series
Medieval Church Studies, vol. 45
Episcopal Power and Patronage in Medieval Europe, 998–1503
Evan Gatti, Angelo Silvestri (eds)
- Pages: approx. 400 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:30 b/w, 30 col., 1 tables b/w., 1 maps b/w
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2026
- € 115,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61731-2
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Jan/26)
- € 115,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61732-9
- E-book
- Forthcoming
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The volume illuminates how the role of patron or acts of patronage bring attention to the bishop as a person around whom the community revolves.
Subject(s)
BIO
Evan Gatti (Elon University) has published on art commissioned by and for bishops in eleventh-century northern Italy.
Angelo Silvestri (Cardiff University) has published on the structure of the medieval church in England and Europe from the Norman Conquest through the fourteenth century.
Summary
The essays in this volume derive from the third and fourth installations of a conference dedicated to examining the ‘Power of the Bishop’ in the Middle Ages: ‘Bishops as Diplomats’ and ‘The Bishop as Patron’. Taken as a collection, the volume encourages us to seek the power of the bishop in his role as a fulcrum. The essays demonstrate how the medieval bishop was asked, and sometimes used, to balance institutional and individual forces as well as being a person around whom a community revolved. In each of the examples offered here, the acts and the duties of the bishops must be balanced against the needs and the expectations of their communities. This volume also takes into consideration how the community perceived and reacted to the patronage of the bishop, as he was understood to be an arbiter of power, favour, and influence. As patrons, clients, diplomats, allies, and adversaries, bishops were required to act or be acted upon in ways that aligned with, defined, or even defied historical, social, and personal expectations of the office.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
EVAN A. GATTI AND ANGELO M. SILVESTRI
Prologue
What was Episcopal About Episcopal Patronage? Some Twelfth-Century Problems
PHILIPPA BYRNE
Part I. Episcopal Patronage as Re/Presentation
The Object as Ambition in the Early Iberian Bishopric: Messages and Audiences in the León Antiphoner
JESÚS RODRÍGUEZ VIEJO
Episcopal Power, Cathedrals, and Ecclesiastical Reform in Medieval Iberia: Bishop Pelayo (1065-1085) and the Restoration of León Cathedral
MARIEL PÉREZ
Holy Episcopal Footwear; or a Study of the Sandal Reliquary of San Arderico di Palacio of Palencia (c.1125-1208)
KYLE C. LINCOLN
Diplomatic Gestures: Art and Ambivalence in Eleventh-Century Italy
EVAN A. GATTI
Art and Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral in the Central Centuries of the Middle Ages: Patronage through Symbolism from Bishop Remigius to Grosseteste
ANGELO M. SILVESTRI
For the Glory of God? Power, Piety, and Legacy: The Art Patronage of Bishop Louis d’Amboise of Albi
JULIA FAIERS
Part II. Patronizing Bishops: Bishop as Clients, Envoys, and Rivals
Bishops, Civic Saints, and City Politics in Twelfth-Century Italy: The Translation of the Relics of Saint Geminianus of Modena as a Catalyst for Change
EDWARD COLEMAN
Episcopal Diplomacy at the Turn of the First Millennium: Archbishop Arnulf II (998-1018) between the Reigns of Otto III and Henry II
MICHELE BAITIERI
The Liber septenarius de visitatione prelati: A Case-Study of Episcopal Patronage of University Students in Late Medieval Palencia
BURTON WESTEMEIER
The Medieval Bishops of Bangor, 1092-1283: Intrusion, Exile, and Diplomacy
SHAUN MCGUINNESS
An Archbishop and His Chapter: Diplomatic Relations between the Archbishops of Canterbury and the Convent of Christ Church, 1184-1200
JAMES BARNABY
The Jewish-Converso Pablo de Santa María, Bishop of Burgos (1415-1435): A Model of Episcopal Patronage for Ecclesiastical Reform of the Church in Late Medieval Castile
SUSANA GUIJARRO
Index
