The Verses Formerly Inscribed on Twelve Windows in the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral
Reprinted, from the Manuscript, with Introduction and Notes

Two books on the stained-glass windows of Canterbury Cathedral.

Montague Rhodes James (Edited by)

9781108011334, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2010

176 pages, 49 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1 cm, 0.23 kg

M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. His short book from 1901 on the texts inscribed in the famous stained-glass windows of Canterbury Cathedral is paired here with an anonymous guide to the windows published in 1897. Its author is believed to have been Emily Williams, whose aim was 'to give some account of the changes which have taken place in the arrangement of the old painted glass' during the major restoration which was taking place throughout the nineteenth century. The preface is by Dean Farrar, the author of the popular morality tale for children, Eric, or Little by Little, and all proceeds were to go to the Cathedral Restoration Fund.

Prefatory note
The source of the verses
The subjects of the windows
The arrangement of the windows
The position of the windows
Preface F. W. Farrar
1. The clerestory
2. Windows in the north aisle of choir
3. North and south triforium
4. North and south choir transept
5a. Trinity Chapel and Becket's Crown
5b. Trinity Chapel
6. South transept of nave
7. West window in the nave
8. North transept of nave
9. The Dean's Chapel and St. Michael's
10. Theological windows
11. Stories translated from the Latin chronicles
12. Modern windows.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]