7 - Matthew Paris, Metalwork and the Jewels of St Albans

Summary

Matthew Paris was one of the most prolific and significant historians operating in thirteenth-century Europe. Based at St Albans Abbey, north of London, he wrote several chronicles, including the large Chronica majora that is spread over three volumes, the Liber additamentorum (a miscellaneous collection of documents and historical texts that is closely connected to the Chronica majora), saints’ lives, and an account of his own monastery's abbots: the Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani. He was also active as an illustrator and a copyist. Throughout his various texts Paris recorded gifts and their donors, the work of craftspeople and the presence of precious objects at the abbey of St Albans. Several of Paris's works not only reflected his interest in historical matters but also enhanced the holdings of the abbey, and have provided post-medieval researchers with a wealth of information related to the production and importance of the visual arts in this period. In the Liber additamentorum Paris produced an archive documenting some of the abbey's posses-sions, both large holdings, for example lands, and much smaller works, including reliquaries and jewellery. Amongst the plethora of texts found in that manuscript is a description of various gems owned by the abbey, each carefully drawn by Paris (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D I, fols. 146r–146v, Figs. 1–2). This was an unusual collection and presentation of material but completely appropriate both for his miscellany and, since none of the objects represented is now known to survive, for this volume on lost objects. Paris's interest in metalwork has been interpreted as evidence that he was skilled in this craft, as part of a broader enthusiasm in modern scholarship for linking evidence for named people with works of art. Yet, although Paris's documentation is undoubtedly important for our understanding of the artistic possessions of a wealthy and influential monastic house like St Albans, in the absence of the metalwork it must be treated with caution. This chapter therefore examines the accounts of the metal objects and craftsmen produced by Paris to provide a context for an analysis of the catalogue of gemstones and jewellery contained in the Liber additamentorum.