Publisher's Synopsis
Matthew Paris's illustrated Chronica Majora is not only a familiar landmark in English medieval history but also an important milestone in the history of Gothic art. Produced by a man of remarkably diverse and modern interests, Paris's drawings deal with contemporary political, social, economic, and religious issues and events; they also provide some of the earliest and most extensive pictorial documents of medieval heraldry, cartography, and natural science. - - In this first full study of the Chronica Majora illustrations, Suzanne Lewis interprets Paris's art both in relation to his text and to the thirteenth-century world in which it was created - the turbulent period of the Mongol invasions and the last Crusades. By examining the artist's origins, training, and stylistic development, she redefines Matthew Paris's role in thirteenth-century English art. - - Available in the USA from the University of California Press
