legend of SS. Vigor and Loup on the south side of the choir. The 11th-century crypt holds
carved capitals.
Of conventual buildings, a late 12th- or early 13th-century chapter house survives, as
well as a treasury. The Grand Seminary, known as the Centre Guillaume-le-Conquérant,
displays the entire 231 feet of the Bayeux Tapestry.
Stacy L.Boldrick
[See also: BAYEUX TAPESTRY; NORMANDY; ROMANESQUE
ARCHITECTURE]
Baylé, Maylis. “La cathédrale [de Bayeux] à l’époque de Guillaume le Conquérant et de ses fils.”
Art de Basse-Normandie 76 (1978–79).
Beaurepaire, François de. Sources médiévales de l’histoire de Normandie dans les bibliothèques de
Bayeux. Saint-Lô: Société d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de la Manche, 1966.
Musset, Lucien. Normandie romane. 2 vols. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1967, Vol. 1.
Thirion, Jacques. “La cathédrale de Bayeux.” Congrès archéologique 132(1978).
Vallery-Radot, J. La cathédrale de Bayeux. 2nd ed. Paris: Laurens, 1958.
BAYEUX TAPESTRY
. Produced in England between 1066 and 1083, the Bayeux Tapestry illustrates Harold
Godwinsson’s visit to Normandy and the invasion of England by William the Conqueror.
Technically an embroidery, the hanging gained the label of “tapestry” from centuries of
French references to tapis, an all-inclusive label for designed textiles. Eight joined strips
of linen (19 inches in width by 231 feet in length) hold the main narrative, embroidered
in eight colors of wool thread. Brief Latin inscriptions identify the portrayed events. The
border of grotesque animal figures, landscape elements, and battle scenes between nudes
offers a running commentary on the main events and ancillary relationships with literary
themes. Scholarship suggests that the patron of the embroidery was Odo of Bayeux, half-
brother of William the Conqueror and bishop of Bayeux in the late 11th century.
Although displayed in the 15th century on the feast of relics in Bayeux cathedral, the
original function of the tapestry remains a subject of speculation, with the possibility of
contexts religious (the cathedral of Bayeux) and secular (a great hall).
Stacy L.Boldrick
[See also: BAYEUX]
Bertrand, Simone. La tapisserie de Bayeux et la manière de vivre au onzième siècle. La Pierre-qui-
vire: Zodiaque, 1966.
Brown, Shirley Ann. The Bayeux Tapestry: History and Bibliography. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1988.
Wilson, David M. The Bayeux Tapestry. New York: Knopf, 1985.
The Encyclopedia 191