‘Set in Stone’: Constructing Christianity in the Anglo-Saxon Crypts of Hexham and Ripon
Speaker: Meg Boulton
7 June 19:30 to 20:30
University Church (above the Vaults and Garden Café), High St, Oxford OX1 4BJ Old Library
Dr Meg Boulton, art historian focusing on representations and interpretations of sacred space, will take us into the underground world of the rare seventh-century crypts attached to the important Anglo-Saxon monastic foundations of Ripon and Hexham. Constructed by Wilfrid, the controversial Northumbrian bishop and saint, these crypts provide a dramatic example of the symbolism of architectural space in the early medieval imagination.
This is part of a six-part series of talks on the important role that architecture – both physical and representational – played in the imaginative, artistic, and theological life of early medieval England.
Talks will range from the layout and construction of actual early medieval buildings to the symbolic use of architecture in literary texts in order to demonstrate the pervasive importance of architecture in early medieval thought.
