Saturday, 1st September to Wednesday, 5th September
This September, for the first time in 105 years, the British Archaeological Association will gather in Cambridge to celebrate, explore and debate the city’s medieval artistic, architectural and archaeological wealth. In addition to its famous university, the city was an important civic centre with thriving guilds and internationally renowned fairs and mar-kets. Kings, queens, bishops and fraternities founded colleges and attended its churches. Its many parish churches and thriving monastic and mendicant centres stimulated advances not only in medieval architecture but in the visual arts too – sculpture, manuscript illustration and stained glass. It was also an early centre of antiquarianism and the conference takes place 140 years after Willis and Clark’s magisterial architectural history of the university.
Fig. 1. View of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, prior to the works on the gate house of the 1820s.
Lectures will cover topics on the art, architecture and archaeology of medieval Cambridge and the surrounding area, including papers on priories, hospitals, colleges and parish churches in and around Cambridge, early sculpture, stained glass and wall paintings, manuscript illuminations, seals, coins and nineteenth-century antiquarianism. Speakers include Meg Bernstein, Paul Binski, Alexandrina Buchanan, Spike Bucklow, Andrew Budge, James A. Cameron, Craig Cessford, Paul Everson, Jill Franklin, Anna Gannon, John Goodall, Anya Heilpern, Catherine Hundley, Arnold Klukas, John Lee, Richard Marks, Michael A. Michael, David Park, Nicholas Rogers, Miri Rubin, David Stocker, Frank Woodman, and Lucy Wrapson.
The conference will be based at Sidney Sussex College. In Cambridge there will be site visits to King’s College, Great St Mary’s, and Jesus College; walking tours exploring south and north Cambridge will include St Benet’s, Corpus Christi Old Court, Gonville and Caius College, Little St Mary’s, Queens’ College, St Michael’s, Trinity College, The Round Church, and St John’s College. A coach excursion outside Cambridge will encompass Great Paxton, Madingley Hall, Ickleton, Whittlesford, Duxford St John’s and Hadstock.
Booking is now open, and the conference is strictly limited to 100 attendees, so early booking is encouraged. A number of student scholarships covering conference fees and accommodation are available, and applications should be received before 25 May 2018.
For further details relating to the conference, including booking and information about student scholarships, please see the BAA website. For all enquiries, please contact the Hon. Conference Secretary at conference@thebaa.org.