As we have seen in my last post, John of Wheathampstead, abbot of St Albans, travelled in 1423/24 to Italy to attend the Council of Pavia/Siena and to visit the Pope. Both on his way to Italy and back, he visited Cologne. This part of his trip was of particular interest to me, as I grew up in the Cologne/Bonn area of Germany.
Cologne in 1531. The unfinished cathedral is on the right.
One year, while travelling in Richard III’s footsteps, we went on to Atherstone, after spending a fascinating day at the Bosworth Battlefield Centre. We had booked accommodation at a B&B, Abbey Farm , which had come highly recommended by a friend from Canada – and we were not disappointed!
I knew that the B&B had got its name from its proximity to Merevale Abbey (the address – Merevale Lane – was a certain give-away), but had not realized that some of the ruins of this former abbey are actually in its garden and the only remaining complete buildings, the gate and gate chapel, are right next door. Continue reading
Gutenberg’s Apprentice tells the story of the creation of the Gutenberg Bible through the eyes of Peter Schöffer (or Schoeffer instead of the Umlaut). Peter was the apprentice of Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden, called Gutenberg. Though the narrative takes place in the 1450’s, there are short chapters in between, where Peter is talking to abbot Trithemius of Sponheim Abbey 30 years after the Bible was printed, between September 1484 and March 1486. With the distance of time and Trithemius’ remarks, they allow Peter (and the reader) to reflect on what had happened. Continue reading
Many of us who were in Leicester for the week of Richard III’s Reinterment admired the beautiful pall, which was laid over his coffin while he was lying in repose in Leicester Cathedral. Continue reading
In anticipation of Wolf Hall being shown on Australian TV, I bought Tracy Borman’s biography of Thomas Cromwell during a recent trip to the UK (the series started being shown on pay TV on 11 April). I never found Henry VIII and most of his six wives, with the exception of Anne of Cleves, very appealing, so his powerful minister was a foray into fairly unchartered waters for me. Incidentally it was Anne of Cleves, who was the stumbling block over which Thomas Cromwell eventually fell. Continue reading
When visiting the UK in July 2012, I attended an exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library: ‘Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer’. While the various Books of Common Prayer and their history was interesting enough, the drawcard for me was a book which predates the Reformation (and hence the Book of Common Prayer) – the Book of Hours of Richard III (MS 474). Continue reading
Dottie Tales 