Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges

This is the first major catalogue in English devoted to medieval badges. These fascinating objects provide us with a guide to the popularity of different cults and pilgrim centres, supplying evidence of the sometimes arduous journeys not only to famous and far-off sanctuaries like Compostela, but to native shrines such as that of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury, or the tombs of local, unofficial saints. Often mass-produced and sold in tens of thousands, pilgrim souvenirs offer pointers to fashion in contemporary precious jewellery. The secular badges include a wealth of non-religious imagery, playful and amatory, satirical, celebratory and heraldic. Illustrating nearly 800 items of popular medieval jewellery, the catalogue contained within the book describes previously unpublished finds retrieved from datable archaeological London waterfront deposits, and provides the basis of a chronological framework for future excavations. BRIAN SPENCER was the Senior Keeper at the Museum of London, with special responsibility for the Museum's collection of medieval everyday objects.

ISBN 1843835444   Pages 362 ISBN13 9781843835448 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1179 Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd   Published in Woodbridge Imprint The Boydell Press   Series title Medieval Finds from Excavations in London Format Hardback   Height (mm) 244 Publication date 20 May 2010   Width (mm) 185 DEWEY 739.278   Spine width (mm) 30 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General

		Acknowledgements
		List of abbreviations
		01>List of site codes
		Introduction
		Summary		1
		Pilgrim signs		1
		Moulds and metals		7
		A mass market		13
		Amulets and proof of pilgrimage		16
		Retrieval of and dating the finds		24
		CATALOGUE
		Conventions used in the catalogue		35
		The Canterbury pilgrimage
		St Thomas Becket		37
		Canterbury ampullae and related souvenirs		38
		Canterbury badges		78
		Other English shrines and cults
		Our Lady of Walsingham, Walsingham Priory		135
		Other English cults of Our Lady		148
		English cults of Our Lord		161
		Other English saints and cults		175
		Unattributed ampullae		203
		Pilgrims' whistle		207
		Rattles		209
		Foreign shrines and cults
		France		215
		Spain		244
		Italy		248
		Germany		258
		Belgium and the Netherlands		267
		Scotland		271
		Secular badges
		More...

(reviewed together with 'The Medieval Household') Republication of two volumes from the essential Medieval Finds from Excavations in London series, both from 1998, is very welcome. Print quality is excellent, and Boydell has hardbacked them, wise for reference books guaranteed a long life. BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY

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