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A Lost Bronze Effigy of 1279 from York Minster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Sally Badham
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Summary

York Minster once contained a relief bronze effigy to Dean William de Langton who died in 1279, the earliest known example of such a monument in this country. The effigy was probably destroyed in 1645 though remnants of the tomb survived until 1829. Its appearance is known from antiquarian sources. It is not clear that the expertise to cast a full-size effigy existed in England at that time and the tomb may have been made on the Continent, possibly in France.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 59 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1980

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References

NOTES

1 Torre, James, ‘The Antiquities of York Minster’ (1690–1), York Minster Lib. MS. LI (7), fo. 169.Google Scholar

2 Archbishop Bovill's monument originally stood immediately to the south of Dean Duncombe's tomb; it has been in its present position only since 1883. See Barr, C. B. L., ‘The tombs of Archbishops Bovill and Ludham’, 41st Annual Report of the Friends of York Minster (York, 1969), p. 11Google Scholar.

3 Dodsworth, Roger, ‘Epitaphes out of the Metropolitical church and all the other parochial Churches wth in the most famous and Ancient Cytty of York’ (1618), Bodleian Lib. MS. Dodsworth 161, fo. 19.Google Scholar

4 Sir Dugdale, William, ‘Yorkshire Arms’ (1641), College of Arms, London, MS. RR14/C, fo. 11iv.Google Scholar

5 The drawing was copied in Drake, Francis, Eboracum (York, 1736), p. 494,Google Scholar but many inaccuracies were introduced.

6 That the inscription was in separately inlaid brass letters rather than merely incisedis confirmed by the description of the slab in Browne, John, The History of the Metropolitan Church of St Peter York (York, 1847), p.113, n. 2Google Scholar; this states that it once had ‘an inscription of brass’ though when he saw it all that remained was ‘the vacant deeply-cut inscription on the edges’.

7 Dugdale refers to only the effigy as gilded but we know that the letters were also gilded from John Browne, op. cit., and Gough, Richard, Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain (London, 1786), ii, part 2, p. 76Google Scholar.

8 Dugdale's transcript has been taken as the base text. The Gough drawing omits Hic Requi… ui Obiit Die Sancti Swithini Ann … Um Deo but is otherwise identical. The other variant readings are: a Requiesuit Torre. b Willielmi Dodsworth, Willi Torre, Wilielmi Drake, c omitted Dodsworth, Torre, d Langton Torre, e Ebor Torre.f Die Sci Swithinii Dodsworth, DieSci Swithini Torre, Die Sci Swy-Thini Drake, Decimo Quinto Die Mensis Julii Gent, g Ano Torre, h Dni Dodsworth, Torre, i Milessimo Ducentessimo Septuagessimo Dodsworth, date in numerals Torre, Drake.; j Ana Torre, kCoram Torre.

9 Torre, op. cit., fo. 200.

10 I am grateful to David O'Connor for this information.

11 Drake, op. cit., p. 490.

12 Britten, John, Cathedral Antiquities (London, 1836 but dedication dated 1818), i, p. 86.Google Scholar

13 Browne, op. cit., p. 113, n. 2.

14 Matthew Hutton, ‘Antiquities’ (1659), York Minster Lib. MS. xvi L14.

15 Henry Johnston's church notes and drawings (1669–71), Bodleian Lib. MS. Top. Yorks. C14.

16 Torre, op. cit., fo. 200 also gives a rough sketch, though only about an inch long, of the top of the monument showing the effigy but this may have been copied from another source; certainly he had access to Dodsworth's manuscript.

17 Willis, Browne, Survey of the Cathedrals of York etc. (London, 1727), i, p. 17.Google Scholar

18 Proceedings of the Commonwealth Committee for York and the Ainsty, Yorks. Arch. Soc. Record Series (York, 1953), p. 6.Google Scholar From York City MS. E3, fo. 20.,

19 Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York, V 1662–3 Papers (Dean and Chapter of York). Answers to articles of enquiry.

20 Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York, M2/21m. See also Raine, J., The Fabric Rolls of York Minster, Surtees Soc. (York, 1859 for 1858), pp. 33–4Google Scholar.

21 Browne Willis, op. cit., i, plan before p. 1. Gent, Thomas, The Antient and Modern History of the Famous City of York (London, 1790, 2nd edn.), p. 40,Google Scholar says that in 1753 the two chapels were fitted up for early morningprayers after disuse of half a century though they had previously been used for this purpose since time immemorial.

22 The position of the shrine can be fixed by reference to testamentary burials quoted in Torre, op. cit., folios 136–7.

23 Samuel Gale,‘The Inscriptions and Epitaphs of Archbishops, Nobles, Gentry and others buried in the Cathedral Church of St Peter in York’ (1699), Bodleian Lib. MS. Eng. Misc. E147.

24 Gent, op. cit. (London,1730, 1st edn.), p. 136.

25 Drake, op. cit., p. 492.

26 Aylmer, G. E. and Cant, R. (eds.), A History of York Minster (Oxford, 1977), p. 450.Google Scholar

27 Drake, op. cit., p. 490.,

28 Bodleian Lib. Gough Maps 227.

29 Britten, op. cit.,., i, p. 61.

30 Aylmer and Cant, op. cit., p. 432.

31 Browne, op. cit., p. 113, n. 2.,

32 ‘Sir William Dugdale's Book of Monuments’ (1640), British Lib., Loan MS. 38, fo. 98V.

33 Plenderleith, H. J. and Maryon, H.,‘The royal bronze effigies in Westminster Abbey’, Antiq. J. xxxix (1959), 87–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Harvey, John, English Medieval Architects (London, 1954), p. 290.Google Scholar

35 Colvin, H. M., History of the King's Works (London, 1963), i, p. 478.,Google Scholar

36 Dr. Tudor-Craig, P., One Half of Our Noblest Art (Wells, 1976), p. 2.Google Scholar

37 Francis Godwyn, Catalogus Episcoporum Bathoniensium et Wellensium (1595); Hearne, Thomas (ed.), Duo Rerum Anglicarutn Scrip tores Veteres (Oxford, 1732), ii, p.661:Google Scholar ‘sepulchrum ejus marmoreum … quod ante 40 annos aeneis laminis pulchre adornatum’.

38 Smith, Lucy Toulmin (ed.), Leland's Itinerary in England and Wales(London, 1910), v, p. 122.Google Scholar

39 Browne Willis, op. cit., ii, p. 7.

40 Lethaby, W. R., Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen (London, 1906), chap. 15.Google Scholar

41 Highfield, J. R. L. (ed.), The Early Rolls of Merton College, Oxford Hist. Soc, N.s., vol. xviii (Oxford, 1964), p. 137.Google Scholar

42 Adhémar, Jean, Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, July-September 1974), no. 55.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., no. 256.

44 Broadly contemporary examples are at Bedale, Yorks. and Rippingale, Lines.

45 Adhdmar, op. cit., no. 98.

46 Ibid., no. 62.

47 Continental examples occur at Lubiaz, Poland(Norris, Malcolm, Monumental Brasses: The Craft (London, 1978), figs. 113–17);Google Scholar Santarem, Portugal (Dr.Cameron, H. K., A List of Monumental Brasses on the Continent of Europe (London, 1970), p. 99)Google Scholar; and Wilhering and Baumgartenberg, Austria (information from John Blair).

48 Badham, Sally, Blair, John and Emmerson, Robin, Specimens of Lettering from English Monumental Brasses (London, 1976), pt. 1:Google Scholar ‘The Lettering of English Brasses 1270–1350’.

49 Ibid., figs. 59–71. These letters in particular are very different in style from other English bras s lettering of the late thirteenth century; compare ibid., figs. 1–21.

50 Badham, Sally, Brasses from the North East (London, 1979), pp. 2-4.,Google Scholar

51 Ibid., n. 50.

52 B.L. Add. MS. 15357, fo. 430. See also Calendar Papal Registers, p. 308Google Scholar.

53 Aylmer and Cant, op. cit., p. 64.

54 Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York, Vo 4a. See also Harrison, F., York Minster (London, 1927), p. 189Google Scholar.

55 Ibid., Vo 4 b.

56 Ibid., Vo 5.

57 Surtees Soc, p. 290.

58 Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York, Vo 84.