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St Albans Cathedral & Abbey

St Albans Abbey is one of Britain's earliest Christian foundations and commemorates Britain's first Christian martyr, the Romano-British saint Alban, who was executed in about AD 300. For more than 1700 years people have gathered and worshipped on this site. "St Albans: Cathedral and Abbey", produced to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Friends of St Alban's Abbey in 2009, tells the story of the Abbey from Alban to the present day. The imposing and much-loved building that we see today was built as an abbey in the Norman era and raised to cathedral status in 1877. The text is lavishly illustrated with a wonderful series of specially commissioned photographs taken by St Albans-based photographer Donato Cinicolo, who had access to all parts of the site and captured its many events and its changing moods throughout the year.The book's six chapters are all by specialists in their fields. Martin Biddle and Birthe KjA lbye-Biddle tell the story of Alban, his cult and the shrines associated with it, based on their excavations and on recent research. Canon Iain Lane reflects on pilgrimage to the Abbey through the ages. John McNeill surveys the monastic buildings and their architecture, while James Clark focuses on the cultural and spiritual life of the monastery, and above all its tradition of manuscript production. Jane Kelsall tells the Abbey story from its dissolution under Henry VIII to its controversial restoration in the nineteenth century. Finally the Dean celebrates and reflects on the variety and vitality of life in the Abbey today. "St Albans: Cathedral and Abbey" is a celebration, in words and pictures, of the unique St Albans story, capturing the essence of this memorable place.

Manuscripts from St. Albans Abbey, 1066-1235

The manuscripts produced and kept at the great English Benedictine house of St Albans between the Norman conquest and the floruit of its notable historian Matthew Paris, about the middle of the thirteenth century, are of remarkable quality. Students of monastic art and culture have often commented on St Albans' patronage of fine books during the twelfth century and later, but there has not until now been a comprehensive and detailed study of how this patronage was organised. This study focuses on the sixty-five manuscripts produced both at and for the abbey during the period, but it also takes into account manuscripts owned by the abbey's dependant cells, and those which it seems to have produced for other patrons - the latter including famous examples of Romanesque manuscript illumination. The development of 'house styles' in script and decoration is traced, and so are the travels of the professional artists responsible for the adornment of de luxe books ordered by this and other houses in England and overseas; and last but not least, the St Albans books are related to the abbey's intellectual and religious life, and to the monastic contribution to the twelfth century renaissance. RODNEY M. THOMSON is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Tasmania.

Stephen Darlington plays the organ of St. Albans Abbey [sound recording].