The Medieval Stained Glass of West Yorkshire - (Corpus Vitrearum) by Brian Sprakes (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first complete survey of glass in the county predating the Gothic Revival, presenting important glazing schemes, drawing on dispersed information to give accounts of lost and excavated glass, and offering the first overview of stained glass in the region.

Book Synopsis

The Medieval Stained Glass of West Yorkshire is the first complete catalogue of the glass in the county predating the Gothic Revival. The book presents important and well-known glazing schemes, such as those at Thornhill (adjudged by some the best and most important in any church outside York), Elland, and Normanton, alongside glazing that was previously very little known, such as that at Methley and Ripponden. It draws on dispersed information to give accounts of lost and excavated glass, and offers the first overview of stained glass in the region, placing the schemes in the contexts of donors, makers, and post-installation histories. The volume is complemented with an account of some post-medieval glass-painters whose work is found in the county.

Review Quotes

This volume, as well as other volumes in the Corpus Vitrearum Summary Catalogue series, deserves to be placed in every local library and in every tourist office in West Yorkshire. The work is a quintessential example of dedicated scholarship by individuals animated by the love of a past whose values, they are convinced, can animate the present.-- "Virginia C. Raguin, Northern History"

"This volume, as well as other volumes in the Corpus Vitrearum Summary Catalogue series, deserves to be placed in every local library and in every tourist office in West Yorkshire. The work is a quintessential example of dedicated scholarship by individuals animated by the love of a past whose values, they are convinced, can animate the present." -- Virginia C. Raguin, Northern History

About the Author

Brian Sprakes was educated in the history of art department at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University), where he specialized in European architecture and stained glass. He subsequently worked as a lecturer for the Workers' Educational Association, Rother Valley College, and more recently for the local history department at Sheffield University. The author of several articles on stained glass, he has been a stained-glass adviser to the bishop and diocese of Sheffield and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2006.