Nicola Coldstream

Nicola Coldstream taught medieval art history for many years before becoming a deputy editor on the Grove 'Dictionary of Art', with responsibility for medieval architecture. She then edited the Soundtrack Gallery Guide at the National Gallery, London. Her books include 'Masons and Sculptors' (1991) and 'The Decorated Style. Architecture and Ornament, 1240-1360' (1994). She has published many articles on medieval architecture, decoration, and furnishings. She is now an independent scholar and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

First became interested in medieval architecture and sculpture as a child, when she was taken on church crawls around Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds, and to look at Romanesque and Gothic in France. She read History and Fine Arts at Cambridge, and did a postgraduate diploma at the Courtauld Institute, followed by a PhD in Decorated window tracery. In the intervals of teaching, editing, and drawing ancient pottery she has pursued research into thirteenth- and fourteenth-century architecture and decoration, with a sideline in the Gothic architecture of Greece and Cyprus. She has published books and articles on all these topics and is currently working on temporary structures built for pageantry and other celebrations. She joined the BAA as a postgraduate, and after serving as Hon. Editor of the Conference Transactions and the Hon. Secretary of the Association, she was elected President, in succession to Laurence Keen. She strongly supports the Association’s active commitment to promoting research and encouraging the work of students and younger scholars.

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