Customer Reviews

A Little Book of Misericords (Little Books)

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This is a beautiful little book packed with information about those little-known, intriguing works of art known as misericords, or "mercy seats". Found in medieval churches with a connection to a monastic community, where monks had to devote long hours to worship many times a day, misericords can't be seen unless you tip the seat upward to see the bottom (no pun intended). Apparently the wood carver was given rather free rein to use his imagination, because more than a few of them are rather racy! Mike Harding presents a lovely series of pictures, ranging from animals to plants to flowers to people to objects. Fascinating to read and simply to look at.

Simply put, a misericord is a bracket attached to the underside of a hinged seat in a church stall against which a standing person may lean. From the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, these under-seat ledges became masterpieces of the woodcarver's art. In England and Ireland carvers made their misericords with an artistic difference, adding supporters -- small, often round carvings that flank the main image.

In this beautifully photographed and elegantly written little book, Mike Harding introduces us into the world of the rarely seen misericords and their supporters. We learn that misericords are not just carvings, but celebrations of legends, folklore, the lives and traditions of common people, bibles, bestiaries, or books of hours carved in wood. Or as the author puts it in an opening poem, "These homespun Winter's Tales/under the bums of Bishops,/worlds upside down, and turned to give/release to rheumatic monks." And ending with the splendid rhetorical question: "Did Bishops' bums have eyes to read?"