Colour

Colour
Author: Stella Panayotova
Publisher: Harvey Miller
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval
ISBN: 9781909400566

"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."--

Art of Documentation

Art of Documentation
Author: Jessica Berenbeim
Publisher: Studies and Texts
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780888441942

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.

Western Illuminated Manuscripts

Western Illuminated Manuscripts
Author: Paul Binski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 725
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1139500600

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.

Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp

Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp
Author: Lieve Watteeuw
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval
ISBN: 9789042929159

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.

Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts

Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts
Author: Michelle Brown
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2018-12-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606066110

What is a historiated initial? What are canon tables? What is a drollery? This revised edition of Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms offers definitions of the key elements of illuminated manuscripts, demystifying the techniques, processes, materials, nomenclature, and styles used in the making of these precious books. Updated to reflect current research and technologies, this beautifully illustrated guide includes images of important manuscript illuminations from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and beyond. Concise, readable explanations of the technical terms most frequently encountered in manuscript studies make this portable volume an essential resource for students, scholars, and readers who wish a deeper understanding and enjoyment of illuminated manuscripts and medieval book production.

A History of Illuminated Manuscripts

A History of Illuminated Manuscripts
Author: Christopher De Hamel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1994
Genre: Art
ISBN:

"Illuminated manuscripts are perhaps the most beautiful treasures to survive from the middle ages. This authoritative volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the medieval world of books, their production and their consumption. The text divides this world into different groups of readers and writers: missionaries, emperors, monks, students, aristocrats, priests, collectors and the general public. De Hamel is both informative and immensely readable, and the sumptuous illustrations render this book too good to be missed."--From Amazon.com

Royal Manuscripts

Royal Manuscripts
Author: Scot McKendrick
Publisher: British Library Board
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2011
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780712358163

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.

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts
Author: Thomas Kren
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 130
Release: 1997-11-13
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0892364467

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.

The Art & Science of Illuminated Manuscripts

The Art & Science of Illuminated Manuscripts
Author: Stella Panayotova
Publisher: Harvey Miller
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2021-02-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9781912554591

The results achieved by the research of the pioneering MINIARE research project based at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge led to the ground-breaking and acclaimed 2016 exhibition "COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts." This was followed by an international Conference, in which art historians, paper and book conservators, and cultural heritage scientists were brought together to share new recent research not only on manuscripts but also on painting in other media. The Conference proceedings were published in the first two volumes of the HMMIMA series (2017-2018). The present publication includes 6 Essays by way of introducing and explaining the major topics being investigated, including the range of inks, pigments and paint binders used by illuminators; parchment-making; pigment recipes; and model books. The many analytical instruments and techniques that are used to investigate manuscripts are also discussed. Then follow 58 Case Studies of manuscripts from as early as the year 700 up to c.1600. All these are fully illustrated in colour and in great detail, and should act as examples to inform scholars in libraries, museums and other cultural institutions of the benefits of adding scientific tools to the range of methods used to investigate manuscripts.