Royal Manuscripts

Royal Manuscripts PDF

Author: Scot McKendrick

Publisher: British Library Board

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9780712358163

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Illuminated manuscripts collected by successive kings and queens of England form the heart of a unique and visually stunning collection held by the British Library. A key figure in the formation of this collection was King Edward IV (1461–83), who commissioned a number of luxury manuscripts decorated with his arms. Subsequent monarchs added to this library, which was given to the nation by George II in 1757. Over 150 examples from this exceptional collection are presented in this catalog, which accompanies a major British Library exhibition of the same name. These manuscripts contain paintings produced by some of the finest artists of the Middle Ages. Highlights include the Book of Hours, made for Henry VIII's great grandmother, Margaret Beauch& Henry VIII's Psalter, commissioned and annotated by the king himself; maps of an itinerary from London to Apulia and to the Holy Land; and the Shrewsbury book, presented to Margaret of Anjou on her marriage to Henry VI in 1445. The catalog features full-page illustrations from each manuscript included in the exhibition, as well as three illustrated essays which explore the wider history and context of this unique collection. Written by the curators of the exhibition, along with contributions from several experts in the field, Royal Manuscripts will be a much-heralded event for scholars and collectors seeking to better understand the lives and aspirations of those for whom these stunning artifacts were made.

Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp

Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp PDF

Author: Lieve Watteeuw

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789042929159

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From the 16th to the 19th century, illuminated manuscripts were collected by the great printer-publisher Christophe Plantin and his Moretus successors and descendants. Ranging in date from the 9th to the mid-16th centuries, the manuscripts in the Museum Plantin-Moretus come from all over Europe, chiefly the Southern Netherlands and France with a significant representation of 15th-century Dutch illumination. More surprisingly, about a quarter of the collection comes from England: manuscripts of the 10th to 15th centuries that left the country with Catholic refugees. Alongside the acknowledged masterpieces and rarities, like the Bohemian Bible of 1402, are volumes that have remained virtually unknown, their aesthetic appeal and historical or textual interest often passing unnoticed in the absence of published reproductions. In this beautifully produced catalogue, each of the 102 volumes is illustrated in colour, with more extensive coverage of the 55 volumes with the most rewarding illumination. For the first time it is possible to gauge the extent and nature of this fascinating and under-explored collection, still housed in the building on the Vrijdagmarkt in Antwerp to which Plantin moved his famous sign of the Golden Compasses in 1576.

Western Illuminated Manuscripts

Western Illuminated Manuscripts PDF

Author: Paul Binski

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-03-31

Total Pages: 725

ISBN-13: 1139500600

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Cambridge University Library's collection of illuminated manuscripts is of international significance. It originates in the medieval university and stands alongside the holdings of the colleges and the Fitzwilliam Museum. The University Library contains major European examples of medieval illumination from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, with acknowledged masterpieces of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance book art, as well as illuminated literary texts, including the first complete Chaucer manuscript. This catalogue provides scholars and researchers easy access to the University Library's illuminated manuscripts, evaluating the importance of many of them for the very first time. It contains descriptions of famous manuscripts, for example the Life of Edward the Confessor attributed to Matthew Paris, as well as hundreds of lesser-known items. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the catalogue contains descriptions of individual manuscripts with up-to-date assessments of their style, origins and importance, together with bibliographical references.

Art of Documentation

Art of Documentation PDF

Author: Jessica Berenbeim

Publisher: Studies and Texts

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780888441942

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The later Middle Ages was a time of profound connection between the spheres of bureaucracy and art. By discussing the two together, this book argues that art-historical methods offer an important contribution to diplomatics, and that works of art are important sources for the cultural reception of documentary practices. Documents are also an important model for representation, and an understanding of the paradigmatic role of the document suggests alternative dimensions to the interpretation of late-medieval art. Ultimately, the ways documents appeared, functioned, and were perceived have implications for objects of all kinds. The discourses of documentation suggested an essential and consequential connection between objects and events: documents offered a powerful and widely disseminated model for how ephemeral actions and relationships could find enduring material form. With the broad diffusion of administrative records, this idea came to manifest itself in other forms of visual culture. Medieval monks inventoried documents alongside the contents of their treasuries, set them on the altar, and wrote about fantastical charters of gold. Documents can still be a person's - or a nation's - most treasured possessions. As powerful objects of veneration and instruments of control, they connect medieval society and our own, testing modern perceptions of the Middle Ages as an entirely lost world.

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts PDF

Author: Thomas Kren

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 1997-11-13

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0892364467

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The Getty Museum’s collection of illuminated manuscripts, featured in this book, comprises masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance art. Dating from the tenth to the sixteenth century, they were produced in France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, England, Spain, Poland, and the eastern Mediterranean. Among the highlights are four Ottonian manuscripts, Romanesque treasures from Germany, Italy, and France, an English Gothic Apocalypse, and late medieval manuscripts painted by such masters as Jean Fouquet, Girolamo da Cremona, Simon Marmion, and Joris Hoefnagel. Included are glistening liturgical books, intimate and touching devotional books for private use, books of the Bible, lively histories by Giovanni Boccaccio and Jean Froissart, and a breathtaking Model Book of Calligraphy.

Manuscript Illumination in Lyons, 1473-1530

Manuscript Illumination in Lyons, 1473-1530 PDF

Author: Elizabeth Burin

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13:

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In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Lyons grew into one of Europe's great commercial centres and even served as an unofficial second capital of the French kingdom. While scholars have long recognized the city's prominent role in the history of printing, this is the first book to survey the art of manuscript illumination after the introduction of printing to Lyons in 1473. Using the manuscripts themselves as its main source, this study identifies and assesses the art of Lyons's busiest illuminators' workshops. It then reviews the nature of patronage and the activity of the illuminators during the close of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance. The picture that emerges is one of a tightly knit community of artists adapting their production of fine religious and secular manuscripts to the changing demand of the clergy, the merchant class, the nobility, writers, and members of the court. A descriptive catalogue provides complementary information on 136 illuminated manuscripts, books, and leaves, many of them never published at length. The work is illustrated by a broad selection of colour and black-and-white reproductions.

Colour

Colour PDF

Author: Stella Panayotova

Publisher: Harvey Miller

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781909400566

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"This richly illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition that celebrates the bicentenary of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge with a display of its finest illuminated manuscripts. Of all the medieval and Renaissance arts - from sculptures, ivories, frescoes and stained glass to easel and wall paintings - it is manuscript illuminations, protected inside volumes, that best preserve the glowing colours and precious metals that would have dazzled their original spectators. The focus of this exciting and innovative exhibition is on COLOUR: it integrates scientific and art historical analyses of painting materials and techniques with studies on the manuscripts' historic contexts of production, including the relationships between artists and patrons. Identifications of the pigments' chemical composition and methods of application are considered alongside their aesthetic impact as well as the multiple dimensions and meanings of colour appreciated by medieval and Renaissance viewers. Over 150 manuscripts are displayed in the exhibition dating from the 8th to the 19th century and all are catalogued and fully illustrated here. The manuscripts are grouped in 14 thematic sections each of which is introduced by an essay that includes further relevant illustrations and presents the scientific and art historical analyses in a broader cultural context. The majority of the exhibits are from the Museum's collection and the main focus is on Western European illumination, but examples of Byzantine, Armenian, Persian and Sanskrit manuscripts are also included. In addition there are special loans from other Cambridge, British and European collections. The catalogue entries and introductory essays are written by a team of leading manuscript scholars, scientists and conservators who offer an integrated, cross-disciplinary approach and new insights into the art of illumination."--

Beyond Words

Beyond Words PDF

Author: Jeffrey F. Hamburger

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781892850263

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Featuring illuminated manuscripts from nineteen Boston-area institutions, Beyond Words provides a sweeping overview of the history of the book in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as well as a guide to its production, illumination, functions, and readership. With over 150 manuscripts on display, Manuscripts for Pleasure & Piety at the McMullen Museum focuses on lay readership and the place of books in medieval society. The High Middle Ages witnessed an affirmation of the visual and, with it, empirical experience. There was an explosion of illumination. Various types of images, whether in prayer or professional books, attest to the newfound importance of visual demonstration in matters of faith and science alike."--