Bryony Coombs

(CRC Manuscript 2023-12 credit Joseph Wilson)

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.’ It also received recognition for Exemplary Scholarship from the Historians of British Art. 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).

At Edinburgh, Bryony teaches a series of honours and postgraduate courses on manuscript studies, French and Scottish visual culture, and early-Netherlandish painting, as well as contributing a series of lectures on the northern Renaissance to the core first year course and various seminars to the team taught postgraduate courses. Trained in Fine Art, with specialisms in drawing and painting (particularly linear anatomical drawing), Bryony is currently working on practice-based methodologies focussing on parchment (animal skin) and historic grounds, pigments, and metals. She has a number of ongoing initiatives involving experiential and kinaesthetic learning.