500-Year-Old Illuminated Prayer Roll Reveals Insights Into The 'Cult of The Cross'

[Still Waters]

An exquisite Christian prayer roll from five centuries ago has been rediscovered by researchers, giving the public its first glimpse at this little-seen religious medieval document, of a kind that rarely survives to the modern day in one piece.

The prayer roll, an example of an illuminated manuscript – in reference to the rich decorations that accompany its text – is a relic from the final years of Catholic doctrine in England, not too long before the Reformation transformed church life across Europe.

"Known hitherto only from its brief appearance on the market in the 1960s and 1970s, the roll has never before been closely examined or published in its entirety," explains art historian Gail Turner, the author of a new research article describing the rare find.

https://www.sciencealert.com/vanishingly-rare-medieval-prayer-roll-reveals-lost-insights-into-cult-of-the-cross

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00681288.2021.1964799