Welcome to CRSBI

The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture will be a complete online record of all the surviving Romanesque sculpture in Britain and Ireland, at more than 5000 sites. It provides us with a unique window on the aesthetics, beliefs, daily life, preoccupations, humour and technical skills of the artists and people of this creative and formative era from the late 11th century to the late 12th century.

Every entry is freely available and includes information on the historical and architectural context of the building, a first-class photographic record, and a scholarly description of the sculpture. Our work continues and many sites are already available on this website.

Below, for your pleasure, a few details from doorways in Buckinghamshire;Stewkley, Water Stratford and Dinton.

George Zarnecki's PhD

To read the text of George Zarnecki's previously unpublished 1950 PhD thesis, Regional Schools of English Sculpture in the Twelfth Century: the Southern School and the Herefordshire School, go to Resources then click on George Zarnecki PhD in the left hand column.

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Chairmanship of the Management Board

Vacancy (Unsalaried)

The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland (CRSBI), a highly respected and expanding Open Access database of the stone carving created during the mid-11th century and c.1200, wishes to appoint a successor to Xavier Dectot FSA, as Chair of the Management Board.

This is a prestigious executive role which involves chairing at least four meetings of the Management Board and reporting to at least two Trustees’ meetings each year. Extra attendances may be required during the year, for example, at the Annual Lecture in April, and at conferences and training events. The Chair and the Management Board also communicate and take decisions informally by email between meetings. Fundraising is an important part of our work, in which the Chair would be expected to take a lead.

The role provides a unique opportunity to help shape the direction of the project, including its long-term future. The position might suit a colleague contemplating leaving a full-time role and seeking new challenges, or one at an earlier stage in their career who would like to experience what is effectively a Chief Executive role.

Launched with British Academy support in 1988, CRSBI is a born-digital project www.crsbi.ac.uk, which uses a customised interactive IT system to construct a fully illustrated, searchable, scholarly website of the Romanesque sculpture surviving at over 5000 locations. Now a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (No. 1168535), CRSBI is governed by a distinguished Board of Trustees and supported by a body of invited academic specialists. The project’s day-to-day operations are governed by the voluntary Management Board which is answerable to the Trustees, and whose tasks include the recruitment, training and organisation of the volunteer fieldworkers who record the sculpture. The Management Board, which is also responsible for maintaining the project’s academic standards, engages a small number of self-employed specialist editors to check fieldwork reports for accuracy and consistency before publishing them on the website.

A more detailed job description and person specification has now been published on our website at https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/news/apply?WINID=1685713864700 Note that this is not the same as the draft that was previously there. Applications and a CV should be emailed to ron@crsbi.org and should include the word Application in the subject line. The closing date for applications is 20 July 2023, and interviews will take place in London during the following month.