The Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA), founded in 1949, is the international research project dedicated to recording medieval stained glass. It was taken under the aegis of the Union Académique International in 1956 and currently has committees in thirteen countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain with Catalonia, Switzerland, United States of America) and associate committees in two countries (Portugal and Russia). Other countries are in the process of joining. Nearly one hundred volumes have been published to date, including comprehensive survey volumes for Scandinavia and Czechoslovakia. The Corpus Vitrearum International has its own website with information in the three official languages of the CVMA (English, French and German), including details of the current international committee and an outline history of the project. The project is also referred to simply as the ‘Corpus Vitearum’, at international and national levels, to reflect the fact that the scope of some of its research extends beyond the Middle Ages, as variously defined.

Since its inception, the CVMA has held regular colloquia, which have been biennial for the most part since 2000. The CVMA’s founders first met in March 1953 in Bern (see H. M. von Erffa, ‘Die Berner Glasmalereitagung 1953’, Kunstchronik, 6, 1953, pp. 113–21). They subsequently met three times – in June 1953 (in Paris), in October 1954 (in Cologne), and in 1957 (in Cologne), on which occasion the CVMA’s guidelines were drawn up – before what is officially designated the fourth colloquium, at Erfurt in 1962. The technical committee, established in 1982, has also met separately on a number of occasions, and a series of forums has been held since 1993. A complete list of colloquia and forums is available via Vidimus (see below).

The CVMA’s guidelines on organization and publication were first published in 1958 following the meeting in Cologne in 1957. They were subsequently revised on a number of occasions (Ulm 1968, Erfurt 1969, Florence 1970, York 1972, Paris 1975, Freiburg im Breisgau 1977), and a second edition was issued following the Vienna colloquium in 1983. The third edition was issued in 2001 following the Bristol colloquium in 2000 (revised St Petersburg 2010), and the fourth edition (the most recent) was issued following the Troyes colloquium in 2016.

The Corpus Vitrearum (Great Britain) is a British Academy Research Project, hosted by the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York. Research is undertaken by volunteer authors, and a committee oversees the group’s activities, which include print publications and the provision of digital resouces such as the Picture Archive, a range of downloads, and an online magazine, Vidimus.

See further:

• Eva Frodl-Kraft, ‘Das Corpus Vitrearum 1952–1987, Ein Rückblick’, Kunstchronik, 41, 1988, pp. 1–12
• Eva Frodl-Kraft, ‘Das Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Ein Rückblick’, in Glas. Malerei. Forschung.: Internationale Studien zu Ehren von Rüdiger Becksmann, Berlin, 2004, pp. 13–21
• Corpus Vitrearum International
• British Academy
• Centre for Medieval Studies
• Vidimus

Committee

The current CVMA committee:

• Dr Jasmine Allen
• Prof. Tim Ayers
• Prof. Paul Binski
• Prof. Sarah Brown (Chairman)
• Ms Anna Eavis
• Dr Lydia Fisher
• Dr Katie Harrison
• Dr Penny Hebgin-Barnes
• Dr Anya Heilpern
• Mr David King
• Mr David O’Connor
• Prof. Richard Marks
• Prof. Christopher Norton

Some members of the committee also serve as trustees of charity no. 1179950.

The committee has the following associates and officers:

• Mr Keith Barley (Conservation Advisor)
• Dr Heather Gilderdale Scott (Treasurer)
• Dr Marie Groll (Administrator)
• Dr Joseph Spooner (Series Editor)

Acknowledgements

The genesis of the first website of the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi in Britain, together with its long-term aspirations, were set out by Prof. Tim Ayers in ‘A New Website for Medieval Stained Glass in Britain’, The Journal of Stained Glass, xxviii (for 2003), 2004, pp. 116–20. In 2001–2004, the website was developed and put together by a team working at the Centre for Computing and the Humanities (now the King’s Digital Lab) at King’s College London. The steering committee was Prof. Tim Ayers, Marilyn Deegan, Mick Eadie, Michael Evans, Shige Iwai, Geoff Laycock, Phill Purdy, Prof. Harold Short, and Simon Tanner. The work was supported by a research award from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (2001–2004). The website and database subsequently benefited from a special grant from the British Academy (2006, for digital publication), and a resource-enhancement award from JISC (2008–2009, to update the database).