Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in Cambridge explores the archaeology, art, architecture of Cambridge in the Middle Ages, a city marked not only by its exceptional medieval university buildings but also by remarkable parish churches, monastic architecture and surviving glass, books and timber work.


The chapters in this volume cover a broad array of medieval, and later, buildings and objects in the city and its immediate surrounds, both from archaeological and thematic approaches. In addition, a number of chapters reflect on the legacy and influence medieval art and architecture had on the later city. Along with medieval colleges, chapels and churches, buildings in villages outside the city are discussed and analysed. The volume also provides detailed studies of some of the most important master masons, glassmakers and carpenters in the medieval city, as well as of patrons, building types and institutional development. Material objects and their human makers, patrons and users are both represented by its contents. The volume sets the archaeological and art historical analysis in its socioeconomic context; medieval Cambridge was a city located on major trade routes and with complex social and institutional differences.


In an academic field increasingly shaped by interdisciplinary interest in material culture, Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in Cambridge marks a major new contribution to the field, focussing on the complexity, variety and specificity of the buildings and objects which define our understanding of Cambridge as a medieval city.