On the 23rd July 2025, Professor Andy Beeby (Durham University) and Professor Richard Gameson (Durham University) gave a talk in the Upper Library at Christ Church College about the scientific identification of the pigments used in the Wolsey manuscripts. Both manuscripts were on display together for the special occasion.
The last great collegiate foundations of the Middle Ages were two sisterhouses established at Ipswich and Oxford by Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey (1470/1–1530), both of them ostentatiously named ‘Cardinal College’ and both raised to a level of grandeur as to make it plain that the magnificent Wolsey was intending to dwarf in scale all existing models. Cardinal College, Oxford, is the focus of this paper.
