(active in 1250s)

Historia Anglorum c. 1250 Illumination on parchment, 356 x 238 mm British Museum, London

This is the frontispiece of the "Historia Anglorum" by Matthew Paris (c. 1200-1259), artist and historian. The picture represents the Virgin and Child with the artist kneeling. The style of it is outline drawing, tinted with colour. This technique is very old and it had been momentarily revived by Matthew Paris and his associates.

Matthew Paris was an English chronicler and manuscript illuminator. In 1217 he became a Benedictine monk at St Albans and in 1236 succeeded Roger of Wendover as the abbey’s chronicler. Although his surname, which he usually wrote Parisiensis, could suggest French origins, he was most probably an Englishman characteristically trained in both Latin and Anglo-Norman. References in his works to the University of Paris, however, raise the possibility that he had studied at one of the schools in Paris. Paris maintained a wide range of contacts with the outside world through the steady flow of documents to St Albans and through the abbey’s many visitors, including Henry III and his brother, Richard of Cornwall. He attended many important royal celebrations at Westminster, Canterbury, Winchester and York, and in 1248 he was sent to Norway to reform the monastery of St Benet Holm.

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Author: MINIATURIST, English Title: Historia Anglorum Time-line: 1201-1250 School: English Form: illumination