Speaker: Jonathan Foyle
2 November 2021

Our churches and cathedrals are packed with symbols that make much better sense if you understand the meanings and associations behind them. An author of five monographs on cathedrals and one on a castle, Jonathan presents a guide to how to see through medieval eyes, using manuscripts and paintings to emphasise the world-view that saw order and meaning expressed through the colours, numbers, shapes and behaviour of plants and animals. Once you see the logic of the language, there’s no going back!

Profile
Dr Jonathan Foyle was Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain for eight years and a Curator of Historic Buildings at Hampton Court for as long, during which time he took his 2002 PhD on reconstructing Wolsey’s palace. He is a frequent feature writer for the Financial Times on issues of architecture, history and craft, and is approaching his fourth published cathedral monograph: Canterbury, Lincoln, Lichfield and now Peterborough. A presenter of numerous television series including BBC4’s Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? and BBC2’s Climbing Great Buildings, he frequently lectures on a range of art-historical topics. He brings teaching experience as a former Course Director for the University of Cambridge Summer Schools and is an Honorary Professor in Conservation at the University of Lincoln.