Dr Laura Cleaver

Ussher Lecturer in Medieval Art

Research interests

I am interested in the production of art and architecture in the High Middle Ages. Although my research concentrates on medieval manuscripts, I work with objects in a wide range of media. Particular areas of interest include links between art and education, the cult of saints in England and Ireland, and the illustration of historical subjects.

In 2011-2015 I am co-ordinating a project looking at the illustration of history in the Anglo-Norman world (c.1100-c.1300), with particular emphasis on manuscripts. This project is funded by a Marie Curie Actions grant (FP7).

Selected publications

• Gothic Legacies: Four Centuries of Tradition and Innovation in Art and Architecture (eds.) L. Cleaver & A. Lepine (Newcastle, 2012).
• ‘‘On the Nature of Things’: The Content and Purpose of Walters MS W.73 and Treatises on Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth Century’ Journal of the Walters Art Museum (2010, forthcoming)
• ‘The Many Faces of Peter Lombard’ in Spiritual Temporalities in Late-Medieval Europe (ed.) M. Foster (Cambridge, 2010)
• ‘Heretic or Hero? Posthumous representations of Gilbert of Poitiers in texts and images before 1200’ Word and Image (2010) Vol. 26 pp. 285-296.
• Art & Nature: Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture (eds.) L. Cleaver & K. Gerry, with J. Harris (London, 2009).
• ‘Grammar and her Children: learning to read in the art of the twelfth century’ Marginalia Vol. 9 (2009) www.marginalia.co.uk.
• ‘Taming the Beast: images of bears in twelfth-century English manuscripts’ Ikon (2009) Vol. 2 pp. 243-252.

Teaching

At its broadest my teaching covers art and architecture in Western Europe produced between c.400 and c.1400 AD. However my focused courses concentrate on works of art made the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, exploring issues of production, function and interpretation. These courses are largely based on material from Britain and France, with a particular consideration of surviving Irish artefacts.

Dr. Cleaver on the TCD Research Support System

Contact Details

Department of the History of Art and Architecture,,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.

Telephone: 00 353 1 8963487
Fax: 00 353 1 8961438
Email: cleaverl@tcd.ie