Editorial

As winter draws in, welcome to the November edition of Vidimus!

Our Feature is an important article by Michel Hérold, which provides a full overview and assessment of the French Corpus Vitrearum’s recently completed Recensement Project, the Inventory of Pre-Revolutionary Stained Glass in France. Thanks to this project, the huge wealth of pre-revolutionary French stained glass is now accessible to all. The project will be an invaluable resource for conservators and also for art historians. As Michel explains:

‘The major objective proposed with much conviction by the founders of the Corpus Vitrearum was to integrate stained glass into the evolving history of painting and more broadly into the history of art.’

Michel’s article is published here in English with a link to the French version in PDF.

In our News, we share a tribute to Alfred Alderson, a meticulous researcher of stained glass and author of the 2006 publication Stained Glass in Hambleton District.  We note too the very recent passing, in October, of the eminent stained glass artist Patrick Reyntiens OBE, renowned as a collaborator of John Piper.

We also have further news of the conservation of the St Cuthbert Window in York Minster, with some insights into the medieval practice of ‘jewelling’.

For the Notes and Queries series, Melissa Polkey discusses a Swiss Wappenscheibe (heraldic panel), which she has identified as a commemoration of Johan Ludwig Werdmüller, Governor of Zürich at some time around the beginning of the 18th century.

Turning to books, we have a review article by Isabelle Davies discussing three monograph booklets about stained glass in Chile, published between 2017-18, and accessible online.  Isabelle draws attention to the historical and art historical interest of the glass, and some of its particular conservation issues.   In our second review, Stephen Huws discusses the new, expanded and richly illustrated edition of the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, published this year. Last, but certainly not least, we have news of the joint publication by the English and Belgian CVMA about the monumental glass of Herkenrode.

As always, we welcome submissions for articles, notes and queries, news and reviews, so please do get in touch if you have something you’d like to submit for a forthcoming issue.

Note: Supporting the work of the British Corpus Vitrearum

The Corpus Vitrearum (Great Britain) is now a registered charity (number 1179950). As a major project of the British Academy, it receives a small annual grant towards the costs of fieldwork and research. In addition to its publication programme (https://www.cvma.ac.uk/publications/index.html), it makes freely available to all researchers its online photo archive of over 30,000 images of British stained glass. Subscription to its online newsletter, Vidimus, is also open to all. If you would like to support the work of the British Corpus Vitrearum, ensuring a sustainable future for its website and its online newsletter Vidimus, you may donate on our supporters’ page (https://www.vidimus.org/donate/.)

If you would like more information about becoming a named donor of the British Corpus Vitrearum and Vidimus, please get in touch: donors@vidimus.org

Dr Anya Heilpern and Christopher Parkinson

 Co-editors