30 pp + 48 pp of b&w plates, 12mo (7 1/4" H), hard cover in dust jacket. One of the King Penguin series. B&w plates. "Services were long and frequent in the Middle Ages, and monks and canons had to stand upright longer than they liked. So, commi serating with them, the carpenters made small seats on the under-side of the tip-up seats in the chancel stalls on which one could sit, or against which at least one could lean while apparently standing. The function and the position being what i t was, no strict control seems to have been kept over what the carver wished to represent to decorate these miserere or misericord seats. The author of this book tells illuminatingly and entertainingly of the many types of subjects which appear on t h ese seats, from saints and biblical scenes to the romances of Alexander the Great and Tristram and Iseult, and from the records of everyday life: boat building, football, and so on, to birds and beasts and monsters." Minor browning to endpaper s, ve ry light edge wear, tiny bump at bottom of spine, very light browning to boards, three pages with a tiny corner crease. Dust jacket has minor edge wear, light browning to spine and edges, minor soiling, a few very tiny scuffs. Very Good/Very Go od-

MISERICORDS WOODCARVINGS CARVING CARVINGS MEDIEVAL MIDDLE AGES MISERERE CHURCH