Five years after the jubilee of Thomas Becket’s martyrdom, Jordan and Slocum have gathered a substantial collection of essays thematically linked to depictions of Becket following his murder in 1170, from visual depictions on stained glass windows and manuscript pages to artifacts of daily life, including pilgrim badges and devotional toys. The book begins with an introductory essay by the editors contextualising the collection within broader scholarship on Becket, before offering a short survey of the history of Becket imagery. The introduction concludes with an overview of the collection of essays. The ten essays in the collection are divided into two sections: the first focuses on images of Becket in the medieval west, while the second examines images of Becket after 1400. The editors justify the structure of this collection stating that Part I focuses on imagery that “promulgated Becket’s cult to a wide demographic,” whereas Part II “examines St. Thomas’s enduring legacy” (3). The remainder of this review will summarise and contextualise the ten contributing essays. The review will conclude with a brief discussion of who might benefit from this collection.
In the first essay of the collection, Rachel Koopmans examines two stained-glass windows depicting pilgrims at Becket’s tomb. Using depictions of pilgrims, Koopmans recentres Becket’s tomb and shrine as peopled spaces. Thus, the article balances past examinations of Becket’s tomb and shrine that foreground the “design of the tombs, shrines, and architectural settings of saints’ cults” by focusing our gaze onto the pilgrims who populated those spaces (25). This is made most explicit in her discussion of the Shrine Scene [Fig. 2.7] in St. Mary, Nettlestead, Kent, where the cited scholarship on the glazed window focuses on the architectural elements depicted, ignoring the two individuals foregrounded in the centre of the image. Koopmans concludes the article with a reflection on the windows as a sort of record of past pilgrim behaviour for both medieval pilgrims and modern observers.
The Becket Leaves have long intrigued scholars for their complex use of image, language, and structure. In the second essay of the collection, Kay Brainerd Slocum examines these leaves guided by a series of questions concerning audience, function, intratextuality, and patronage. Much of the essay is dedicated to an image-by-image analysis of the leaves, which, attributed to Matthew Paris, portray many of the pivotal moments in Becket’s life. Slocum’s vivid description of the images is matched only by the illustrations themselves. The essay concludes with a discussion of audience with the major claim being that the function of the depictions was to “[present] models of courtly behaviour” (82). One way that Slocum’s essay may have been improved is by signalling to the reader these genre and rhetorical strategies employed by the leaves in the opening pages of the essay as opposed to introducing what is a very compelling thesis at the end.
The third essay in the collection, co-written by John Jenkins and Eliot Benbow, “attempt[s] to open up the debate on so-called pilgrim souvenirs” (117). In lieu of examining the objects themselves, the authors turn to documentary and archaeological evidence to assess the circumstances of these objects’ production and use. We are introduced to this topic through a discussion of types of devotional “toys” as well as their production methods. Finally, the authors turn to the prevalence of peacock imagery. The authors compellingly argue that devotional “toys” were not exclusively produced at pilgrimage sites but produced and sold at a variety of locations. Despite the essay being titled “Becket on a Peacock,” the authors frustratingly treat this motif sparingly, focusing instead on the peacock as a stand-alone motif. However, this may be the point, given their aim to probe long-standing interpretations of pilgrim souvenirs and to provoke new considerations for the meaning and function of these devotional “toys” for better curatorial praxis.
Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens composed the fourth essay in the collection, turning our attention to the Baltics immediately following Becket’s murder. Looking at Lyngsö and Nora baptismal fonts, she advances the argument that Becket “became viewed as a miles Christi within the Baltic ecclesio-political context” serving to “strategically promote the...Church and the Cistercian order” (121). The two baptismal fonts under investigation are the only known fonts depicting the martyrdom of Becket in the Latin West. The essay guides the reader through the imagery, effectively demonstrating the Christomimesis of Becket, before turning our attention to the Cistercian impact on the Wendish Crusade. Framing this discussion is William of Canterbury’s miracle 6.166, which is conveniently appended to the essay.
Unlike the previous four essays which narrowly focused on a specific material, image, or object, Elizabeth Valdez del Álamo surveys the material evidence for the growing Becket cult under Alphonso VIII and Leonor Plantagenet, daughter to Henry II. The essay covers architectural, manuscript, and reliquary depictions of the saint, suggesting a maturing visual vocabulary shared between different media. Del Álamo’s discussion of the different reliquary depictions is particularly noteworthy. She credits Spanish resistance to the Reformation for the survival of so many early examples of how “cultic centres planted the seeds for future commemorations” (184). The essay concludes with an appendix of monuments extant and not extant. This essay serves as an effective bookend to Part I of the collection as it, like the introduction, surveys broadly types of early depictions of Becket in the development of his cult.
Kathleen Doyle’s essay on folded calendar almanacs begins Part II of the collection, which focuses on images of Becket after 1400. Like Jenkins and Benbow, Doyle turns our attention to modest objects with evidence of daily use. Doyle’s rich descriptions of the pictograms and iconograms across different extant calendar almanacs reveals the myriad ways scribes depicted the saint. More significant, however, is the remarkable consistency with which the producers of these almanacs included depictions of Becket, not only in the calendar, but also in the biblical and historical timelines (see Fig. 7.3, for example). The essay concludes with a discussion of Becket’s prodigious posthumous representation in these artefacts, appearing as frequently as universal saints like Peter, Paul, and Mary. Finally, his presence in these types of documents speaks to his significance as the most important English saint, not just for the elite, but for everyone.
The seventh essay in the collection, written by Frederick A. S. Lloyd Williams, examines pilgrim badges of the developed cult of Becket, comparing them to the nascent cult of Henry VI. He argues that Henry’s cult adopted and adapted iconography from Becket’s established cult, lending credibility to Henry’s own sanctity. Williams discusses three types of badges: those depicting the figures on horses, murder weapons, and depictions of martyrdoms. While depictions of Henry share resemblance to Becket imagery in the first two instances, Williams notes that the “lack of martyrdom imagery on the Henry badges is consistent with his portrayal in other media” (245), suggesting that while Becket imagery informed Henry’s cult, it did not adopt wholesale the “Becket Model.” William’s essay provides an effective counterpoint to the collection: the legacy of Becket exists beyond his own cult, as it influenced the development of other saint-cults as well.
Naomi Speakman provides the eighth essay of the collection, propelling the reader forward in time to discuss the reception of Becket by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century antiquarians. This essay discusses the development of antiquarian organizations, especially the founding of the British Archaeological Association (BAA), Roach Smith, and his fascination with Becket materials. The objects under consideration are primarily Limoges reliquary caskets and pilgrim badges. Particularly noteworthy in the essay is the shift in attitude towards Becket materials between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Speakman illustrates that items connected to Becket were first regarded as curiosities but quickly became subjects of early scholarly interest among antiquarians, who gathered and displayed Becket objects through exhibitions and publications. Interestingly, the essay concludes with a brief discussion on forgeries as evidence of the growing interest in Becket-related materials for those other than antiquarians.
The ninth essay is Alyce A. Jordan’s contribution to the collection, which examines the St. Thomas Becket altar in the north transept in Coutances Cathedral. We often desire to know the rationale behind the design of objects like altars, but this type of information is frequently lacking. However, evidence of the planning and production of this Becket altar exists, giving insight into circumstances of the altar’s production. Framed by a complex, overlapping web of politics, religion and history, Jordan navigates French revolutionary history, various epidemics of the nineteenth century, and the complex relationship that the Church has with its political, secular counterpart. Thus, drawing on Becket’s adversarial and thaumaturgical legacies, Jordan demonstrates how representation of Becket in Coutances Cathedral “celebrates the Church and its clergy...and the dangers implicit in their holy vocation” (306). Jordan concludes the essay by arguing that the chapel, windows, and altar function to “reify” Becket’s legacy as a “formidable adversary” of the state (318).
The final essay in the collection by Madeline Harrison Caviness examines broadly the preservation and restoration of stained glass in Canterbury Cathedral, focusing our attention on one rondel, now held in the Harvard Art Museum, which depicts Becket with his faithful monks (see Fig. 11.1-2). This essay is reflective in nature, often describing at length her own experience working on painted glass. However, her reflection on the treatment of the glass now held at Harvard is particularly revealing, as it emphasises the importance of collaboration while working on stained glass. While this essay might be read as combative, it is singularly important in demonstrating the urgency of protecting fragile objects like painted glass.
The collection includes 2 maps, 60 colour and 38 black and white illustrations, including figures of stained glass, pilgrim badges, and reliquaries. The volume also contains a bibliography of select resources. The bibliography is divided into three sections: manuscripts, printed primary works, and secondary works. There is no stated rationale for why these manuscripts were chosen. Similarly, the list of printed primary sources seems unnecessarily truncated given the breadth of materials presented in the book elsewhere. A more comprehensive references list would offer the reader easier access to the abundance of excellent scholarship with which this volume engages. While this would have added considerable length to the volume, it would have provided an excellent resource. Likewise, a unified index would have provided an additional means of extracting specific information from the collection.
While this volume is an excellent collection of scholarship representing some established and burgeoning areas of research on depictions of Thomas Becket, it does raise some questions about who would benefit the most from this collection. At this point it is worth mentioning the price of this book. There is no doubt that this is an issue not of scholarship but of the publishing industry. At $170.00, this book is unattainable for most readers. It is certainly not a book that a student is likely to buy.
The unifying subject of the volume is visual depictions of Thomas Becket. Thematic threads link these different depictions, however: martyrdom, pilgrimage, ecclesio-political adversity, thaumaturgy, etc. Such thematic breadth is demonstrative of the work on Becket. However, such disparity might mean that a reader may not find every essay in the collection useful for their own study. This leaves two potential purchasers: libraries and dedicated Becket scholars. This is precisely the type of collection that students and scholars will consult at their institutional library. Dedicated Becket scholars will no doubt find plenty of material both in the essays and footnotes to satisfy their own interest in scholarship on Becket.
To conclude her essay and the volume, Caviness claims that “material objects reveal their history to those who know how to read [them]” (353). This volume offers its reader the tools to critically engage with material depictions of Becket such that, in the words of Caviness, we might know how to read them not just as artefacts of a bygone era or curiosities, but as vibrant objects that reveal insights about the reception of Becket’s enduring legacy.