Posted by Helen Birkett
27 October 2014Exeter medievalist Eddie Jones has been awarded AHRC funding for an international research network to explore the remarkable intellectual and spiritual legacy of Syon Abbey.
Syon, the Birgittine monastery of monks and nuns founded by King Henry V in 1415 was a focus for intellectual and religious renewal in England in the century before the Reformation.
Following the Dissolution its traditions were garnered by a handful of its female members who went into exile. Despite the extraordinary turbulence of the time, the expatriate English monastery endured through the centuries returning to England after Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
The manuscript collection of Syon Abbey is now held at Exeter University Library and is the catalyst for this new, interdisciplinary project.
The inaugural workshop will take place at Syon Park on 7-8 November 2014.