‘Complete, thorough, and undeniable’: Robert Willis and The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral

A reassessment of Robert Willis's pioneering architectural history of Canterbury Cathedral reveals that his reconstruction of Archbishop Anselm's lost choir, while groundbreaking, contained misinterpretations and omissions of key evidence. Willis's work, presented at the first Congress of the British Archaeological Association in 1844, combined archaeological and literary sources but overlooked subtle clues within the cathedral's fabric. This study highlights the value of revisiting antiquarian scholarship to deepen our understanding of both the physical and intellectual construction of historic sites like Canterbury Cathedral.

Buchanan, A. (2017). ‘Complete, thorough, and undeniable’: Robert Willis and The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral. Medieval Art, Architecture & Archaeology at CANTERBURY, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315091273-1