LAUSR

subsequent readers. Three essays form part three, “Anglo-Saxon Law and Charter.”A superb essay by Julia Crick tackles the copying of charters in the post-Conquest period that deliberately attempted to emulate earlier script, putting many of the scribes under intense pressure and calling upon the development of skills outside those normally required for copying purposes. In the most unmissable essay in the volume, Nicholas Vincent offers an exceptionally rich and perceptive study that seeks to draw out the importance of both genuine and forged diplomatic evidence in the post-Conquest period. In a wide-ranging analysis of hagiography, regal affiliation, the creation of legendary narrative, and references in charters to pre-Conquest kings (notably Edward the Confessor), Vincent demonstrates the cultural and political shift that occurred during the reign of Henry II and shows that real or forged pre-Conquest charters rarely seemed convincing. Finally, in this section, Bruce O’Brien discusses vernacular lexis and paleographical forms in legal manuscripts to show how varied practices were. In part four, “Art History and the French Vernacular,” JudithWeiss’s short essay looks briefly at romance depictions of the pre-Conquest past to conclude that what survives “fits the twelfthcentury historians’ view of England and the English before the Conquest: in a mess, in need of discipline and reform, but with the virtue of bravery and some respect for law” (287). Catherine Karkov discusses the Eadwine Psalter by examining its illustrations, concluding. She finds the Psalter’s intellectual and cultural significance was built on the community’s ideals in the Anglo-Saxon past with a focus on collection and translation, rather than as acting as a memorial. And in an appropriately lengthy tour de force, Malcolm Thurlby evaluates post-Conquest architecture and sculpture. While more images are always desirable, Thurlby provides an excellent overview of the fabric of major cathedrals built in the aftermath of the Conquest, as well as churches, church fonts, tympana, capitals, standing crosses, and more. The scholarly disentanglement of Anglo-Saxon and Norman influences is tricky, since Norman patrons of art and architecture in both building and in manuscript design often showed a preference for an Anglo-Saxon aesthetic. In sum, this is an important collection of essays, with some outstanding scholarship, though it is a pity that detailed work on the multiple uses of English and French in post-Conquest England was not included.