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THE ISLIP ROLL RE-EXAMINED

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2017

Matthew Payne*
Affiliation:
Matthew Payne, Keeper of the Muniments, 20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA, UK. Email: matthew.payne@westminster-abbey.org

Abstract

The mortuary roll of John Islip (1464–1532), Abbot of Westminster, is the finest example of its kind to survive in England. The drawings, possibly by Gerard Horenbout, afford the only views of the interior of Westminster Abbey before the Dissolution. The discovery of eighteenth-century copies of an unknown, coloured version of the roll provides important new evidence for both the circumstances of the production and the later history of both rolls. It also provides, for the first time, an authentic colour view of the interior of Westminster Abbey in the late medieval period, and new information on its decoration.

Type
Papers
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London 2017 

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