Liverpool University Press The East Midlands: 15 (Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture)

This volume in the Corpus series surveys the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and includes the Soke of Peterborough. Drawing on an extensive catalogue of some 700 sculptural fragments, the volume presents the remarkable array of sculptures produced in the East Midlands which includes some of the most exceptional survivals of the pre-Viking era. The East Midlands corpus is dominated by memorial and funerary monuments, thus sharing in broader Anglo-Saxon carved stone repertoires, but is also characterized by a distinctive collection of architectural material, such as carved panels, created for interior church spaces. Outstanding figural carvings from these early centuries are also a regional feature, for example, at Breedon on the Hill, Fletton, Castor and Peterborough. Elaborate and high status ninth-century sculptures, for example at Rothley, are argued to exemplify strong secular connections with ecclesiastical sites and the influence of lay patronage on sculptural production, while the carved architectural details on the exterior of churches and towers, such as Barnack, point to both lordly interests and the influence of the tenth and eleventh century reforms. The extensive collection of pre-Conquest sculptures presented in this volume, which stand out both in quantity and execution, are a reminder of the lost vital, vibrant intellectual, religious culture that thrived across these Mercian ecclesiastical networks.