British Museum Releases Eight Books For Bayeux Tapestry Show

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The British Museum Press is releasing eight new publications to coincide with its major exhibition,“The Bayeux Tapestry,” which opened this month. The show, running from September 10 to July 11, 2027, generated over £2.5 million in ticket sales on its opening day in July, marking the“single biggest day of ticket sales in [the British Museum's] history,” according to a museum statement. The exhibition focuses on the 1066 Norman invasion and the Battle of Hastings.

Claudia Bloch, head of publishing at the British Museum, explained the broad appeal of the new books:“We're producing a suite of books that celebrate the tapestry for every reader, at every budget, from the ABC board book for our youngest readers to the deluxe collectors' edition.” These publications include My Bayeux ABC: A Bayeux Tapestry Alphabet Book ( £6.99 ), one of four children's books co-published with Nosy Crow and the British Museum. Another children's title, The Bayeux Tapestry: The Graphic Novel ( £9.99 ), was“carefully researched with museum experts to ensure historical accuracy while keeping the tone light, engaging and entertaining.”

For adult readers, a £200 cased, hardback Collectors' Edition features a Swiss-bound volume with a full-color reproduction and a separate curatorial commentary. This edition includes a transliteration and English translation of the original Latin inscriptions, which are the Medieval captions along the top of the tapestry's 58 pictorial scenes. The Collectors' Edition was edited by museum curators, including Sue Brunning, curator of the early Medieval European collection, and Lloyd de Beer, curator of the European Modern collection. The same team also produced the main exhibition guide, The Bayeux Tapestry ( £45 ), a hardback that explores recent research across five chapters, such as“Patronage and Display” and“The Historical Context.” The latter chapter suggests the tapestry was likely created in the 1070s, specifically after 1072, following the completion of the English Kingdom's conquest.

A Fold-Out Edition ( £15 ) provides a 12-meter-long concertina reproduction, depicting the nearly 70-meter-long tapestry in full color. Several existing books are also being reevaluated in light of the tapestry's presence in the UK. Among these is The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece (Chatto & Windus, 2006) by the late UK art historian Carola Hicks. Angela Thirlwell noted in The Guardian that Hicks“brought fresh insights to this Medieval strip cartoon and instrument of political propaganda,” particularly through her research into the tapestry's“afterlife,” including its rediscovery by 18th-century antiquarians and its varied interpretations by figures like Napoleon and Heinrich Himmler.

The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry: Unravelling the Norman Conquest (Thames & Hudson, 2021) by David Musgrove and Michael Lewis has been revised and expanded. Lewis is the lead curator of the British Museum exhibition. This updated edition includes new information about institutions that vied to display the tapestry in the UK, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Westminster Cathedral, and the towns of Hastings and Battle. The authors stated that the“V&A had signed a memorandum with the city of Bayeux in 2022 to share research and expertise around the tapestry.” They added that the V&A's predecessor, the South Kensington Museum, commissioned photographer Joseph Cundall to create a photographic record of the embroidery in 1872. Tristram Hunt, the V&A director, confirmed that the museum could have hosted the exhibition in its central London location, though he also envisioned collaborating with organizations in Hastings and Battle for a potential venue there.

Additionally, Andrew Bridgeford's 1066: The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry (Harper Collins, 2004) is scheduled for reissue with a new introduction and postscript. Bridgeford's work emphasizes the tapestry's English origins, noting“the artist's brilliant strategy of 'dual narrative' whereby two completely incompatible accounts of Harold's journey and oath are presented by the same pictures and same terse words at once, evidently for different groups of viewers, but with each story leading to the same conclusion: the outcome at Hastings was God's judgment on Harold.”

Source: The Art Newspaper

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