The Anglo-Catalan Connection: The Cult of Thomas Becket at Terrassa—New Approaches

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please see attached document for my suggested revisions.

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

I was impressed with how well written and research the article proved to be. I am sure that many scholars will be referring to it for years to come.

Author Response

I am very grateful to the reviewer for such thoughtful and generous comments.

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a solid article with some interesting ideas, but needs some considerable firming-up. The conclusions are in many cases highly speculative as they stand. I'm not familiar enough with the historiography of the murals to assess the originality of the article, but I'd certainly recommend that the author re-assess the received wisdoms on the identification of the figures and inscriptions.

p. 4 ll. 120-123 no good evidence is given as to why this figure should be seen as Edward Grim. As neither figure is nimbed (whereas Becket is consistently nimbed in the scenes below) is the bishop even Becket? Isn't it more likely that these two non-saintly figures are the local bishop and prior/canon of Terrassa? The 'Grim' figure looks to be wearing an Augustinian habit. Either way I think the identification of these figures is on very shaky ground at the moment.

p. 5 ll. 141-2 If the paintings are c.1185 as argued later then the inscriptions cannot be based on the 1220 Translation liturgy as suggested here.

l. 143 "Analysis of the tituli reveals several correlations between the rhyming verses of the office of Thomas Becket and the Terrassa paintings" Does it? Where? I'm not aware of any section of Becket's offices which has anything approaching the wording of the inscriptions. This is important, as if the liturgical citation is from the Translation Feast then it points to a much later date for the mural, or if it is from Benedict of Peterborough's liturgy (or has no liturgical reference) then the 1180s date is feasible. 

In fact, the 'plus valet arte sua' inscription must be riffing on the well-known Ovidian couplet 'Non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger/ Interdum docta plus valet arte malum' (which John of Salisbury uses in a letter of c.1164 to Becket, Letters of John of Salisbury, vol. 2 p. 10). I'd suggest that these inscriptions are not based on Thomas' liturgy at all. 

ll. 146-51 Becket's Christological martyrdom was a feature of many of the early hagiographies, see the chapter on 'Martyrdom' in Staunton, 'Becket and His Biographers'.

pp. 6-8 There are almost no references given for any of this material. Is all of this coming from Vones-Liebenstein and Soler?

p. 11 l. 368 If the argument is that canon Harvey was the patron of the altar this would further suggest that the figures in the ceiling are representative of the local donors rather than Becket/Grim.

p. 11 ll. 385-6 You say that Harvey was at Terrassa from 1158, but in the next paragraph he is said to be at St-Ruf in 1158, and on l. 425 you say he goes to Terrassa after 1160

p. 12 ll. 425-6 How do we know that Harvey didn't stay at Terrassa all through this time?

p. 13 ll. 462-3 "In any case, he would not have left his post without making sure that everything was in good order." This is extreme speculation, what evidence is there for this statement?

p. 14 ll. 482-3 I may have missed something, but why would a canon law expert be needed for the creation of a Becket mural? I certainly get the importance of two (potentially) Anglo-Norman clerics in Terrassa at this time, but it's not really explained why their legal expertise is important in this context. I think this is a set up for the next section, but it needs to be far more clearly signposted.

The paper needs a thorough proof-read to pick up small errors e.g. l. 149 'Becket's Passion of Becket'

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.