Anglo-Saxon Gestures and the Roman Stage

This book is concerned with the pictorial language of gesture revealed in Anglo-Saxon art, and its debt to classical Rome. Reginald Dodwell was an eminent art historian and former Director of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. In this, his last book, he notes a striking similarity of both form and meaning between Anglo-Saxon gestures and those in illustrated manuscripts of the plays of Terence. He presents evidence for dating the archetype of the Terence manuscripts to the mid-third century, and argues persuasively that their gestures reflect actual stage conventions. He identifies a repertory of eighteen Terentian gestures whose meaning can be ascertained from the dramatic contexts in which they occur, and conducts a detailed examination of the use of the gestures in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The book, which is extensively illustrated, illuminates our understanding of the vigour of late Anglo-Saxon art and its ability to absorb and transpose continental influence.

• Dodwell’s first book, The Canterbury School of Illumination, 1066–1200, also published by Cambridge University Press (1954) became a classic • Dodwell has a long list of publications. A recent book dedicated to him is co-edited by Timothy Graham: Medieval Art: Recent Perspectives (MUP, 1998) • Of interest to scholars of Roman theatre as well as Anglo-Saxonists

List of plates; Foreword Timothy Graham; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. The Vatican Terence and its model; 2. The classical miniatures and the stage; 3. Dramatic gestures in the miniatures; Appendix to chapter 3: the views of Jachmann; 4. Anglo-Saxon gestures; Bibliography; Index.