Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Monastery Dissolution
The area covered by this bibliography comprises London and the counties of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, corresponding essentially to the medieval dioceses of London, Rochester, Canterbury, Chichester, and Winchester. Part of Hertfordshire was in the enormous diocese of Lincoln. Chronologically this bibliography covers the period from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, with the suppression of Waltham Abbey on 23 March 1540 providing a terminus ad quem. London was the chief commercial center throughout this period and with the establishment of permanent governmental institutions at Westminster in the 13th century also became the political center of England. London’s preeminence reinforced its cultural importance as a center of artistic production and patronage. Other important loci of sustained artistic activity in South-East England were Canterbury, Winchester, and St. Albans.