Dr Bryony Coombs is a Teaching Fellow specialising in late-medieval art in northern Europe. After studying Fine Art as an undergraduate, her doctorate at Edinburgh University focussed on Franco-Scottish cultural connections during the late-medieval and early modern periods. Specialising in the transfer of ideas in northern Europe, and text and image relationships in late-medieval manuscripts, her research balances an exploration of the visual and material, with focused archival research. Her first monograph, Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550, came out with Edinburgh University Press in 2024 and was shortlisted for the Berger Prize in 2025. The judges noted that it was filled with 'scrupulous archival work and a staggering range of material' making it 'a joy from beginning to end.' She has recently signed a contract for her second monograph 'Scotland on Parchment: Illuminated Manuscripts in Late-Medieval Scotland' which will come out with Edinburgh University Press in their new Visual and Material Cultures of Scotland Series. Bryony was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) in May 2024.

Prize-winning publications include ‘From Dunbar to Rome: John Stuart, Duke of Albany and his Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Military Science in Scotland and Italy, 1514-1536.’ PSAS (2019), which was awarded the Murray Medal for History. In 2021 she received the Jack Medal from the IASSL for her work ‘Albany and the Poets: John Stuart, Duke of Albany, and the Transfer of Ideas Between Scotland and the Continent 1509-1536.’ Her current project, Scotland on Parchment, is funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art. As part of this research, she held a research fellowship at the University of Aberdeen in 2022 and received funding to conduct research visits to major manuscript collections across Britain and Europe in 2024.

In addition to her work on Franco-Scottish relations, Bryony’s research extends to early Netherlandish visual culture, with a particular focus on manuscript studies. She is co-editor of the international and interdisciplinary volume Anselm Adornes: Travel, Trade and Cultural Exchange—Intellectual Networks in Scotland, Bruges and Jerusalem, with Brepols (2026). In support of this research, she was awarded a Historians of Netherlandish Art Fellowship (2025–26). She is also an active member of the research group Reviving the Trinity, which is engaged in the study of the Trinity Panels attributed to Hugo van der Goes, currently on display at the National Galleries of Scotland.

With Dr Allen (IAD) and Dr Doherty-Harrison, Bryony was awarded a grant through the Principal's Teaching Awards Scheme (PTAS) in 2025 for the project 'Experiencing the Past: Interdisciplinary Experiential Learning through Heritage-Based Workshops.' This interest in experiential education feeds into her forthcoming chapter ‘Time Lost or Knowledge Gained: Experiential Learning and Manuscript Illumination' for the OUP book, Embodied Knowledge and Making Texts: A Handbook. She is currently researching and writing a report on challenges in devising authentic assessment for experiential learning activities in History of Art for her Postgraduate Certificate Academic Practice (PgCAP). 

Bryony has previously held professional roles in the heritage sector at Historic Environment Scotland and in the commercial art world at Christie’s. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and is a founding member of the research cluster Edinburgh Manuscripts: Composition and Collection (EMCC).

Select Publications

Books and Monographs

Coombs, B. 'Scotland on Parchment: Illuminated Manuscripts in Late-Medieval Scotland', Visual and Material Cultures of Scotland Series (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming).

Coombs, B, Harrison, J. and Guidicini G. eds. 'Anselm Adornes: Travel, Trade and Cultural Exchange. Intellectual Networks in Scotland, Bruges and Jerusalem' (Brepols, 2026).

Coombs, B. 'Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550' (Edinburgh University Press, 2024).

Refereed Journal Articles

‘Icon to Image: René of Anjou, Cultural Hybridity, and Aesthetics of the East’, Viator, 56:1 (2025):335-373.

‘An Optical Revolution in the Digital Age.’ Review of the online exhibition and of the catalogue ‘Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution’ (Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten), Renaissance Studies (2021).

‘Les Abus du Monde: A French Manuscript Produced for James IV, c. 1509, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M. 42.’ The Scottish Historical Review (April 2021).

‘Drawing Blood: The Visual Patronage of Robert Stuart d’Aubigny, Maréchal of France, in relation to James V’s French Sojourn in 1536.’ Études Épistémè, 37 (2020).

‘From Dunbar to Rome: John Stuart, Duke of Albany and his Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Military Science in Scotland and Italy, 1514-1536.’ The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 148 (2019), 231-266. This paper was awarded the Murray Medal for History.

‘Material Diplomacy: French Manuscripts and the Stuart Kings of Scotland, Edinburgh University Library, MS 195’ The Scottish Historical Review, 98: 2 (2019), 183-213.

‘The Tapestries of St Anatoile (1502-1506): Burgundian Perceptions of a ‘Scottish Saint’ and the Royal House of Scotland at the turn of the Sixteenth Century.’ The Innes Review, 70.1 (2019), 1-35.

‘The Artistic Patronage of John Stuart, Duke of Albany 1520-1530: Vic-le-Comte, the Last Sainte-Chapelle.’ The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 147 (2017), 175-217.

‘Identity and Agency in the Patronage of Bérault Stuart d’Aubigny: the Political Self-Fashioning of a Franco-Scottish Soldier and Diplomat.’ The Medieval Journal, 7:1 (2017), 89-143. 

‘Are the Petites Heures d'Anne de Bretagne really the Petites Heures de Jeanne de France?’ Reinardus, 27 (2015), 58-87. 

‘The Artistic Patronage of John Stuart, Duke of Albany 1518-19: The “Discovery” of the Artist and Author, Bremond Domat.’ The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 144 (2014), 277-309. 

Chapters and Edited Collections

‘Time Lost or Knowledge Gained: Experiential Learning and Manuscript Illumination,’ Embodied Knowledge and Making Texts: A Handbook (OUP, Forthcoming).

‘Speaking your Mind: Avian Articulation in Late Medieval Scottish Manuscripts,’ New Direc-tions in the Study of British Medieval Art (Harvey Miller, Forthcoming).

Four chapters, ‘Le psautier: textes et usages MS 1,’ ‘Les armoiries et le destinataire du psau-tier,’ ‘Les miniatures du Psautier MS 1 : style et iconographie,’ ‘Contexte historique Georges Crichton & James IV d’Ecosse’ in les manuscrits du Centre culturel irlandais, eds. Hanno Wijsman and Laura Albiero (les Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, forthcoming)

‘Beasts and Blazons: Visual and Literary Translation in the Deidis of Armorie’ in Auld and New Alliances: Franco-Scottish Literary Links (14c-21c) eds. Paul Malgrati and prof. Donna Heddle (Brill, forthcoming 2026)

‘Lost Books: Early Humanism in Scotland and the Manuscript Interests of James III and Anselm Adornes’ in Anselm Adornes: Travel, Trade and Cultural Exchange, Intellectual Networks in Scotland, Bruges and Jerusalem (Brepols, 2026).

‘Repetition and Innovation: Scottish Patrons and Netherlandish Artist’s: Visual and Archival Evidence,’ in Reviving the Trinity: Networks and Materialities in Scotland and Europe, 1400-1600 (Brepols, forthcoming 2026).

'Illuminations and Miniatures' in The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, volume 1 (to 1707) eds. Daryl Green, Alastair Mann, Joseph Marshall, Emily Wingfield (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming 2026).

'Imported Manuscripts' in The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, volume 1 (to 1707) eds. Daryl Green, Alastair Mann, Joseph Marshall, Emily Wingfield (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming 2026).

'Translating Identities: Tracing the Transfer of a Scottish Origin Myth from Scotland to France c. 1519.' in Writing Scottishness: literature and the shaping of Scottish national identities eds. Ian Brown and Clarisse Godard Desmarest (Association for Scottish Literature, 2023).

‘Albany and the Poets: John Stuart, Duke of Albany, and the transfer of ideas between Scotland and the Continent, 1509-1536.’ this paper is forthcoming in Britain and its Neighbours: Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Routledge, 2021). This paper was awarded the Jack Medal.

Dirk H. Steinforth, Bryony Coombs, and Charles C. Rozier, ‘Introduction,’ Britain and its Neighbours: Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Routledge, 2021).

Public Engagement

British Art Matters Podcast: Dr Bryony Coombs 2025 Berger Prize Shortlist.

‘Grand Designs: Properties and Inventories in the context of the Auld Alliance,’ History Scotland Magazine (Forthcoming).

‘Historical Fiction and the Historian: Researching the Characters of the Auld Alliance,’ The Whispering Gallery (March 2024).

Edinburgh University Press Blogs: ‘Originality and Artistic Impulse: From a Medieval Scottish Friar to Malevich’s Black Square’ (September 2024) and ‘Blood and Vellum: Manuscripts and Materiality in a Pandemic.’ (2 July 2021).

Blog post: ‘Translating the Past: History & its Images in Late-Medieval Scotland,’ Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (September 2024)

Scotichronicast podcast episodes. Part 1: Medieval Scottish Patronage in France. Part 2: Inventories and the Auld Alliance. This is a discussion with Dr Kate Buchanan examining my research into Scottish history and the Auld Alliance (June/July 2021).