Golden Wreaths for Hippocrates : Art, Learning and Heritage on a Medieval Cup

Fascinating online lecture from Christ’s College, Cambridge looking in detail at a medieval cup in their collection linked to their founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort.

Mary Franklin, honorary keeper of the college’s plate, outlined her current research on the cup starting by looking at its original owner, Duke Humphrey, son, brother and uncle of Henry IV, V and VI and how its iconography links to him and the Lancastrian cause.

We then looked in detail at the plants shown on the cup and their symbolic meanings from oak leaves to Forget-Me-Nots. She discussed an unidentified leaf which she speculated could be Rocket or Moonwort both of which could bring subtly different interpretations of the work. 

She also discussed how cups like these would have been used at feasts and their role in showing magnificence , defined as “fitting expenditure on a great thing”.

I had seen the cup in the British Museum’s Medieval Women exhibition but did revisit the show after this talk and felt I appreciated the object a lot more.

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