Dr Gervase Rosser
M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.
University Lecturer in the History of Art
Email: gervase.rosser@stcatz.ox.ac.uk
Research Interests
Gervase Rosser was trained as a historian at the Universities of Oxford and London, and as an art historian at the Courtauld Institute. He has researched extensively in the fields of medieval history and of medieval and Renaissance art and visual culture. His current work is concerned with statues and pictures reputed to work miracles. In collaboration with Dr Jane Garnett he is writing a study of cults of miracle-working images in Italy and the Mediterranean world, from the Middle Ages to the present day. His research and publications have also been focused on the cultural history of medieval and Renaissance towns and cities, including aspects of architectural and religious patronage. A further research strand concerns ideas of sight in the Divine Comedy of Dante.
Supervision Interests
Medieval and Renaissance art and architecture. Visual culture, beyond the conventional range of "high art", in the medieval an early modern periods. Medieval towns and cities. Medieval guilds and religious culture.
Selected Publications:
- 'All for one - Constructing an identity for the Republic of Genoa in the seventeenth century: official memory and its resistance' in Memoria, Communitas, Civitas. Memoire et conscience urbaine en Occident a la fin du Moyen Age. (Ostfildern) pp. 33-38
- Medieval Westminster, 1200-1540. (Oxford, 1989)
- (ed.) The English Medieval Town . (London, 1990)
- 'Crafts, guilds and the negotiation of work in the medieval town', Past and Present. Vol 154 (1997) pp. 3-31
- (ed.) The Church in the Medieval Town . (Aldershot, 1998) 307pp.
- 'Christianity and Art', Apollo. Vol 151 (2000)
- 'A miracle-working Orthodox icon in Italy: comparative image cults in East and West' in Eastern Christian Relics. (Moscow, 2003) pp. 351-60
- 'Reliquie o immagini? Culti e miracoli in Liguria' in San Giovanni Battista nella vita sociale e religiosa a Genova e in Liguria tra medioevo ed eta contemporanea. (Genoa, 2003) pp. 125-37
- 'The miraculous images of Liguria and the identity of Mediterranean history, Quaderni di Lingue e Letterature Straniere, 12 (2003), pp. 49-62', Quaderni di Lingue e Letterature Straniere. Vol 12 (2003) pp. 49-62
- 'The quality of life' in The Short Oxford History of the British Isles: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. (Oxford, 2003) pp. 31-57
- 'Translations of the Miraculous Cult Images and their Representation in Early Modern Liguria ' in The Miraculous Image in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Papers from a Conference held at the Accademia di Danimarca in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Hertziana . (Rome, 2004) pp. 205-222
- 'The Virgin Mary and the People of Liguria: Image and Cult' in The Church and Mary. (Woodbridge, 2004) pp. 280-97
- 'Turning tale into vision: Time and the image in the Divina Commedia', RES: Permanent/Impermanent. Vol 48 (2005) pp. 107-122
- 'Miraculous Images and the Sanctification of Urban Neighborhood in Post-Medieval Italy', Journal of Urban History. Vol 32 (5) (2006) pp. 729-740
Future Publications:
- 'Sacred Space in the Light of the Miraculous Image. A Case-Study from Seventeenth-Century Italy' in Sacred Space. (Moscow, 2005)
- 'Miraculous images and the sanctification of urban neighbourhoods in post-medieval Italy', Journal of Urban History. Vol 32 number 5 (2006) pp. 729-40
- 'Big Brotherhood: Guilds in Urban Politics in Late Medieval England' in Guilds and Association in Europe, 900-1900. (London, 2006) pp. 27-42
- 'Party list: Making friends in the medieval English guilds' in London and the Kingdom: Essays in Honour of Caroline Barron. (2006)
- 'Roles in life: The drama of the medieval English guilds' in Records of Early English Drama: A Celebration of 25 Years. (Toronto, 2006)
- The Moving Image: Zones of the Miraculous in Italy and the Mediterranean World 1500-2000. (2007)
- English Medieval Guilds 900-1600. (2007)
- Life in English Medieval Towns: Sources. (2007)
Research Interests and Activities
Selected Links to External Websites
