Edinburgh - Trinity College c1544

Edinburgh - Trinity College c1544

Intangible Heritage

Our depiction of Edinburgh and the Canongate was inspired by a drawing in the British Library made by the English military engineer Richard Lee, who accompanied Hertford’s forces in 1544. Lee’s drawing is the earliest moderately realistic picture of Edinburgh and would influence how the English portrayed the Scottish capital into the seventeenth century (a variant of Lee’s illustration is included in John Speed’s atlas, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, published c.1611). It is possible that Lee’s plan was created to explain the outcome of the Edinburgh expedition to Henry VIII of England. On 19 May 1544 the Earl of Hertford informed Henry that he was sending him ‘Master Lee, who I assure your Majesty hath served in the journey both honestly and willingly, [and] doth bring unto your Highness a plat of Leith and Edinburgh so as your Majesty shall perceive the situations of the same, which is undoubtedly set forth as well as is possible.’

reconstructions

2017

image/png

Reconstruction

214

In Copyright (InC)

current,55.952778,-3.186667;

https://www.openvirtualworlds.org/trinity-college-1544/

https://player.vimeo.com/video/224287737

Smart History

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https://canmore.org.uk/site/52414

Firstly, a digital landscape was created using survey data and height maps. Following extensive historical research and collaboration with specialists, 3D models are created and imported into UNREAL Engine (a cross-platform game engine for creating virtual worlds). Models are textured, scaled, oriented and assembled. Scenes are created and populated with appropriate objects, including furniture and artefacts. Landscapes populated with flora and fauna. Weather settings and atmospheric lighting. Clothing and characters researched, created, imported and animated.

Trinity College and Hospital was founded by Mary of Gueldres (wife of James II) in the mid-fifteenth century. It functioned both as a community of priests and a shelter for the poor and sick of Edinburgh. The church was meant to be a large Gothic building, but only the choir and transepts were ever completed. The famous Trinity altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes is probably from this church. The Hospital survived the Reformation, but was demolished in the nineteenth century to make way for Waverley Station. Fragments of the church building were reconstructed on a new site as Trinity Apse.

Richard Fawcett (University of St Andrews), John Lawson (CECAS), Bess Rhodes (University of St Andrews)

Sarah Kennedy, Iain Oliver, Bess Rhodes, Catherine Anne Cassidy, Adeola Fabola, Alan Miller

1544