The Bayeux Tapestry, perhaps the most famous, yet enigmatic, of  medieval artworks, was the subject of an international conference  at the British Museum in July 2008. This volume publishes 19 of  26 papers delivered at that conference. The physical nature of the tapestry is examined, including an  outline of the artefact's current display and the latest  conservation and research work done on it, as well as a review of  the many repairs and alterations that have been made to the  Tapestry over its long history.

 

Also examined is the social history of the tapestry, including  Shirley Ann Brown's paper on the Nazis' interest in it as a  record of northern European superiority and Pierre Bouet and  François Neveux's suggestion that it is a source for  understanding the succession crisis of 1066. Among those papers focusing on the detail of the Tapestry, Gale  Owen-Crocker examines the Tapestry's faces, Carol Neuman de  Vegvar investigates the Tapestry's drinking vessels and explores  differences in its feast scenes and Michael Lewis compares  objects depicted in the Tapestry and Oxford, Bodleian Library,  Junius 11. The book also includes a résumé of four papers given at the  conference published elsewhere and a full black and white  facsimile of the Tapestry, with its figures numbered for ease of  referencing.