Exploration of the most lavishly decorated English service book of the Middle Ages
This massive service book, made in the Benedictine Abbey at Sherborne (Dorset) in the early 15th century, is one of the great monuments of International Gothic art and one of the biggest acts of corporate patronage of its age. Meet Abbot Robert (Redbreast) Bruyning, the humble scribe John Whas and the glamorous Dominican artist John Siferwas who was recruited to help the abbey achieve its statement of artistic and spiritual one-upmanship over the more powerful bishop of Salisbury - reminding him that it owed its position to Sherborne, home of the saints since late Roman times.
Images courtesy British Library Add 74236
THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER
Prof Michelle Brown
Holds a BA in History and History of Art, Westfield College, and a PhD in History, UCL. Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies, SAS, University of London, Visiting Professor at UCL and Baylor University, and Senior Researcher at the University of Oslo. Formerly a Course Tutor in History of the Book (SAS), Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library, and lecturer at Birkbeck and Morley Colleges. Recent publications include The Book and the Transformation of Britain, c.550-1050 (2011) and Art of the Islands: Celtic, Pictish and Anglo-Saxon Visual Culture (Bodleian, 2016).
Michelle is happy to provide study days on any of her subject areas, especially making medieval illuminated manuscripts and also art of the islands.
GALLERY 
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OTHER EVENTS
Society
Mr Alan Read
20 Oct 2025 - 14:00
Blackwell Grange Hotel
Grange Road
Grange Road
Online Event
Society
Dr Suzanne Fagence Cooper
6 Nov 2025 - 10:30
Worsall Village Hall
3 Church Lane
3 Church Lane
Online Event
A study day devoted to the first industrial designer and co-founder of the Linthorpe pottery in Middlesbrough