Roman mosaics of Britain
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Roman mosaics of Britain
Illuminata Publishers for the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2002-
- v. 1
- v. 2
- v. 3, pt. 1
- v. 3, pt. 2
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Contents: v. 1. Northern Britain, incorporating the Midlands and East Anglia. -- v. 2. South-West Britain -- v. 3. South-Easten Britain
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The third volume in this massive project to create the first complete corpus of the Roman mosaics of Britain covers the areas of Britain that were first to come under Roman control and where some of Britain's most impressive mosaics are to be found - in Colchester, Silchester, London and Verulamium, and in villas and palaces at Brading, Bignor, Fishbourne and Rockbourne.
In their introduction to the volume, the authors trace the origins of mosaic-making in Britain, and the development of colour palettes and motifs, from the mainly black-and-white geometric designs of first-century Fishbourne Palace, reflecting contemporary Gaulish fashions, to the more elaborate polychrome designs of the third and fourth centuries, featuring figures from classical mythology, some of which (like Brading's Orpheus taming the animals with his music, or Lullingstone's Bellerophon slaying the Chimera) had been invested with new meaning as symbols of Christianity. They consider too the types of buildings with which mosaics are associated, the functions of mosaic-decorated rooms, the materials from which they are made, the impact of mosaic discoveries on early antiquaries and the pioneering mosaic paintings of artists such as Richard Smirke and Charles Stothard, published in Samuel Lysons' Reliquae Britanniae Romanae (1817).
The catalogue follows the format of earlier volumes in providing an account of each mosaic's discovery and locating the mosaic within its building plan. Every mosaic is described, with significant parallels and major references, and illustrated with the authors' own paintings, reproductions of historic engravings and photographs, taken in situ wherever possible, before lifting or restoration. The result is an unrivalled scholarly resource for anyone interested in Roman art, craftsmanship, architecture and social life, which will shortly be complete with the publication of the fourth and final volume on Western Britain, including Wales.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The topography of the area
- The Roman civitates
- The towns
- Villas and their architecture
- Mosaics and room function
- First-century mosaics
- Second-century mosaics
- Third- and fourth-century mosaics
- Figured mosaics in the South East
- Fourth-century decline
- Materials of the tesserae
- Early recordings
- Note on the catalogue
- Mosaics from the Counties of: Bedfordshire
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Essex
- Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight
- Hertfordshire
- Kent
- London and its suburbs
- Surrey
- Sussex
- Appendix: Comparisons of the sizes of rooms and their mosaic panels for: Colchester
- Silchester
- Verulamium
- London.
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