UC Riverside

This study takes as its subject the Canterbury Roll, a manuscript of unusual size and clarity that records the verse inscriptions located in the twelfth-century Typological Windows at Canterbury Cathedral. The topic of the manuscript's function has remained largely unresolved in the general literature on the Canterbury Verses and specifically in the context of viewing the Typological Windows. By examining both its technical design and content, this study intends to question its potential role in the process of medieval viewership operating in the environment of the church. In fact, by illustrating the ways in which the Canterbury Roll is fundamentally associated with the process of guiding the pilgrims through the Typological Widows' imagery, it also becomes possible to uncover the dynamic forms of exchange taking place at Canterbury between the artwork, the church, and the public. More importantly, this study will attempt to tease out the larger implications of the aural encounter, as mediated by a reading of the Canterbury Roll, and its affect on the pilgrims' experience of the Typological Windows.