“And pilgrimes were they alle”: The Cloisters and the World of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Valerie Allen, John Jay College
About the Tour
The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that incorporates elements of five medieval cloisters and houses a collection of medieval art, was from its inception meant to evoke the sense that the visitor was walking into the Middle Ages. The Cloisters is not a traditional museum as such: Its geographical inaccessibility is intended to mimic the experience of real medieval pilgrims, as they would climb the final steep elevation to glimpse their destination and view the road they had traveled; the elevation of Fort Tryon Park gives usjust such a vantage point. This Cloisters “pilgrimage” is designed to enrich courses in medieval literature and history.
Annotated Bibliography of Printed Resources
Barnet, Peter and Nancy Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
Bayard, Tania. Sweet Herbs and Sundry Flowers: Medieval Gardens and the Gardens of the Cloisters. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985. Repr. 1997.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Trans. Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella. New York: Norton, 1983.
Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore. The Unicorn Tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D. Benson. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Warner, Marina. Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage, 1983.
Annotated Bibliography of Web Resources
(FRITZ NOTE: NOT YET WRITTEN)
Sites:
The Cloisters (A branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Tags:
The Cloisters|The Middle Ages
