AH415: Image and Word in Medieval Manuscripts (Spring 2011)
Prof. Thomas Dale, Department of Art History
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00, Elvehjem Building, Room 222
Other times by appointment
Tel: 607-263-5783
E-mail: tedale@wisc.edu
Course Description and Requirements
One of the most significant technological innovations in late antiquity was the replacement of the
papyrus rotulus by the parchment codex or manuscript as principal vehicle for the dissemination
of the written word. This course offers an introduction to the art of medieval manuscript
illumination from ca. 400 to 1500. Students will be introduced to essential tools for identifying
and interpreting manuscript illuminations and their texts, drawing on original examples on view
in the Chazen Museum of Art exhibition Hidden Treasures: Illuminated Manuscripts from
Midwestern Collections, and on the Kohler Library’s collection of manuscript facsimiles.
Particular emphasis will be placed on the relationship between images and texts, and the ways in
which the figural and ornamental decoration contribute to the meaning and function of the
manuscript within specific theological, liturgical, devotional, institutional and ideological
contexts.
In general there will be one lecture per week and one discussion session focused on readings
related to themes presented in lecture, sometimes conducted using facsimiles in the Kohler Art
Library. Powerpoint presentations will be posted on Learn@UW following each class. For
discussion classes, we will break up into small groups for initial discussion and conclude with a
broader class discussion to wrap things up. Students will be expected to come prepared to discuss
the readings in terms of their specific arguments as well as their method, and should pay
particular attention to how persuasive the author is in explaining or interpreting individual images
or cycles of images in relation to the textual content of the manuscripts discussed.
Evaluation will be based on participation in class discussions (20%), a short catalogue entry
analyzing the text and imagery of a manuscript or leaf on view in the exhibition Hidden
Treasures (20%) a midterm examination (30%) and a research paper (30%) that may be related to
a work in the exhibition or may be an entirely different topic focusing on image/text relationships
in a facsimile available in Kohler Library or on a broader theme.
Textbooks and Reserve Materials
The required text is Christopher de Hamel, History of Illuminated Manuscripts (Phaidon, 1997),
paperback edition (ISBN 10: 0714834521). The recommended text is: Raymond Clemens and
Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Cornell University Press, 2008), paperback
edition (ISBN 10: 0801487080). Both texts are on order with the University Book Shop, but may
also be obtained online. One copy of each text will be available on reserve in the Kohler Art
History Library. In addition, students will be required to purchase a Course Reader from Bob’s
Copy Shop, 616 University Avenue (2 blocks west of the Elvehjem Building/Chazen Museum on
the north side). This will contain most of the essential readings for discussion that are not
available online via JSTOR and other electronic journal services provided on MadCat. In
addition, other readings will be available in books on reserve in Kohler (indicated at KR in the
syllabus below).
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Assignments
There will be two written assignments for this course. You should meet with me at least once in
connection with each assignment to discuss the direction of your research. Your papers should be
submitted both in paper copy and by email attachment, and should be word processed at font size
12, double-spaced. You must use footnotes or endnotes (following the Chicago Manual of Style
or the Art Bulletin Style Sheet) to document sources of ideas and interpretations as well as
contextual information. Pertinent illustrations should be fully labeled and the source credited.
Assignment I, due February 22 in class, will focus on manuscripts and leaves on view in the
Hidden Treasures exhibition. You are asked to contribute to a virtual catalogue of the exhibition
by writing a 500-word entry on one example of manuscript illumination, describing and
interpreting the single folio or page opening as fully as possible. In preparation of this
assignment, you should look at your case study as closely as possible, preferably using a
magnifying glass, and make detailed notes considering the following where applicable: the layout
of the page, the script and ruling patterns, any figural or ornamental, including its materials and
colours, the modelling techniques and brushwork, the iconography (subject matter, composition,
attributes) and style, and relation between text and image. Advanced undergraduates and
graduate students with some capacity in Latin are asked to identify the text if possible and
transcribe as a representative section. Where possible you should also suggest how you would
interpret the decoration and its relation to text within a broader cultural background, making
reference to any pertinent readings on the syllabus. In cases where no text is visible, you may
focus on iconography and style, and suggest the original context of the illumination, pointing to
comparisons with related illuminations in complete books. (Please note that you will have to read
ahead in the syllabus to cover topics from the later Middle Ages.) Finally, you should include a
bibliography of all sources consulted (not counted in the 500 word-limit). In preparation for this
assignment, you will find it useful to read Clemens and Graham, Introduction to Medieval
Manuscripts, chapters 5, 6, 8 and 9, and Christopher de Hamel, British Library Guide to
Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques (London, 2001). A useful glossary of terms is
provided in Michelle Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical
Terms (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1994).
Assignment Two, due May 5 in class, will be broader in scope. You are asked to write a
research paper, 2500-3000 words in length, exploring a broader theme that may be related either
to your topic in Assignment I or an entirely new topic based on a manuscript facsimile in the
Kohler (potential topics and bibliographic aids will be provided in a separate handout). For this
assignment you need to address a specific visually based problem that interprets figural and/or
ornamental decoration in relation to the texts they complement, setting the visual imagery within
broader artistic, religious, theological, political, institutional, social contexts. You should make
explicit reference to methodology, justifying your approach/es in relation to previous scholarship
(including, but not limited to works on our syllabus).
Course Calendar
Jan. 18
I. Introduction; Making the Medieval Manuscript
Clemens and Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies, chaps 1-2, 3-34
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination. History and
Techniques (London, 2001), ch. 3, 57-79.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/videoDetails?cat=2&segid=372
www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/pharos/sections/making_art/index_manuscript.html
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Jan. 20
II. From Roll to Codex: The Beginnings of Manuscript Illustration in Late Antiquity
Background Reading:
Kurt Weitzmann, Late Antique Manuscript Illumination, (New York, 1977), 9-24 KR
Herbert L. Kessler, “The Word made flesh in Early Decorated Bibles,” in Picturing the Bible.
The Earliest Christian Art, ed. Jeffrey Spier (Fort Worth Texas, 2007), 141-168 KR
Jan. 25 ***Meet in KOHLER LIBRARY**
Facsimiles of late antique and Byzantine Manuscripts
(Vienna Genesis; Rossano Gospels; Rabbula Gospels; Vienna Dioscurides; Joshua Roll)
Discussion Readings to Apply to Analysis of Manuscripts in Small Groups:
1. Kurt Weitzmann, “Narration in Early Christendom,” American Journal of Archaeology
61 (1957):83-91 http://www.jstor.org/stable/501085
2. Mary-Lyon Dolezal, "Manuscript Studies in the Twentieth Century: Kurt Weitzmann
Reconsidered", in: Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 22 (1998), 216-263 Reader
3. J. Lowden, "The Beginnings of Biblical Illustration," Imaging the Early Medieval Bible, ed. J.
Williams (University Park, 1999), 9-58 KR
(Wednesday Jan. 26- Sunday Jan. 30th: Demonstrations of the art of Manuscript Illumination by
Valerie Weilmuenster, manuscript illuminator from Chicago area)
Jan. 27 ***MEET AT SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, MEMORIAL LIBRARY***
Instructions: Take the elevator marked "South Stacks and Special Collections" to the 9th floor.
The exhibit area of Special Collections will be straight ahead; from the exhibit area the reading
room is to the right.
Review codicological analysis given by Clemens and Graham, chaps 1-2, (pp. 3-34)
5:30 Paige Court, Chazen Museum: Discussion on the making of illuminated manuscripts by
Maria Saffiotti Dale and Valerie Weilmuenster
Feb. 1
Books for Missionaries: Hiberno-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
Background
De Hamel, “Books for Missionaries,” in History of Illuminated Mss, 14-41
Images: Lindisfarne Gospels
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Nero_D_IV_0000
Feb. 3, ***MEET IN KOHLER LIBRARY***
Discussion: Text, Image and Ornament in the Book of Kells and Hiberno-Saxon Gospel
Books
1. Meyer Schapiro, “Image and Ornament” in The Language of Forms. Lectures on Insular
Manuscript Art, ed. Jane Rosenthal (New York, 2005), 55-97 KR
2. Suzanne Lewis, “Sacred Calligraphy: the chi rho page in the Book of Kells” Traditio 36
(1980): 139-159 Reader
3. Malgorzata Krasnodebska-d’Aughton, “Decoration of the In principio initials in early Insular
manuscripts: Christ as a visible image of the invisible God” Word & Image 18, no 2 (2002), 105122 Reader
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Feb. 8
IV. Imperial Ideology and Church Reform: The Carolingian and Ottonian Renascences
Background:
De Hamel, “Books for Emperors” in History of Illuminated Mss, 42-57.
Images:
Florentine Mütherich & Joachim Gaehde, Carolingian Painting (New York: George Braziller,
1976); Utrecht Psalter: http://psalter.library.uu.nl/
Feb. 10 ***Meet in Mayer Gallery, Chazen Museum***
Tour of Hidden Treasures exhibition with Curator Maria Saffiotti Dale
Feb. 15
Discussion: Text, Image and Prayer in Carolingian Europe
1. Herbert L. Kessler, “Facies bibliothecae revelata: Carolingian Art as Spiritual Seeing” (1994)
in Spiritual Seeing picturing God's invisibility in medieval art (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 200), Ch. 7, 149-189.
2. William Diebold, “Verbal, Visual and Cultural Literacy in Medieval Art: Word and Image in
the Psalter of Charles the Bald” Word and Image VIII, 1992 Reader
3. Robert Deshman, “The Exalted Servant: The Ruler Theology of the Prayerbook of Charles the
Bald,” Viator XI (1980), 385-417 Reader
Feb. 17
Guest Lecture/Discussion: Analysing Books of Hours, Jean Poyer
Roger Wieck, Curator of Manuscripts at J. Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
5:30 p.m.: Public Lecture by Roger Wieck: “Folia Fugitiva: The Pursuit of the Illuminated
Manuscript Leaf” Conrad A. Elvehjem Building L140
Background Reading: “Folia Fugitiva: The Pursuit of the Illuminated Manuscript Leaf” The
Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Vol. 54, Essays in Honor of Lilian M. C.Randall (1996), 233254; http://www.jstor.org/stable/20169120 .
Feb. 22 ***Assignment I due ***
V. Books in Anglo-Saxon England
Background:
C. R. Dodwell, “Anglo-Saxon Painting: 800-1100,” in The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800-1200
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), Ch. 6, 95-122. Reader
Images:
Aelfric Paraphrase of the Heptateuch (British Library, Cotton MS Claudius B IV
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Claudius_B_IV_0000
Anglo-Saxon drawings: http://blog.metmuseum.org/penandparchment/about/
Harley Psalter (copy of Utrecht Ps) :
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=18402&CollID=8&NStar
t=603
Liber Vitae of New Minster, Winchester:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=94&CollID=21&NStart=
944
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Feb. 24
Discussion: Narrative Innovation and Intervisuality in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts
1. Meyer Schapiro, “The Image of the Disappearing Christ. The Ascension in English Art
Around the Year 1000” Gazette des Beaux Arts, series 6 (1943), 135-52; rpt in Late Antique,
Early Christian and Medieval Art. Selected Papers (New York, 1979), 266-287
2. Robert Deshman, “Another Look at the Disappearing Christ: Corporeal and Spiritual Vision in
Early Medieval Images,” Art Bulletin 79, no. 3 (1997), 518-46 at
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3046264
3. Catherine Karkov, “Margins and Marginalization: Representations of Eve in Oxford, Bodleian
Library, MS Junius 11,” in Space, Text and Margin in Medieval Manuscripts, ed. Sarah L. Keefer
and Rolf H. Bremmer (Leuven: Peeters, 2007), 57-84 Reader
4. Herbert Broderick, “Metatextuality, sexuality and intervisuality in MS Junius II,” Word and
Image 25, no. 4 (2009): 384-400. Reader
March 1
VI. Cultural Hybridity in Early Medieval Spain
Background:
John Williams, Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination (New York: George Braziller, 1977), 828, with color plates.
March 3 ***MEET IN KOHLER LIBRARY***
Discussion of Beatus Manuscripts: Silos Beatus; Girona Beatus
1. Kenneth B. STEINHAUSER, “Narrative and illumination in the Beatus Apocalypse.” Catholic
Historical Review 81, no. 2 (1995), 185-210 http://www.jstor.org/stable/25024480
2. John Williams, “Purpose and Imagery in the Apocalypse commentary of Beaus of Liebana”
The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, ed. R. K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn (Ithaca and
London: Cornell, 1992), 217-23 Reader
3. Elizabeth S. Bolman, “De coloribus: The Meanings of Color in Beatus Manuscripts” Gesta,
Vol. 38, No. 1 (1999), 22-34 at http://www.jstor.org/stable/767110
4. Otto Karl Werckmeister, “The Islamic Rider in the Beatus of Girona” Gesta, Vol. 36, No. 2
(1997), 101-106 at http://www.jstor.org/stable/767231
March 8
KOHLER LIBRARY: Review of Carolingian and Ottonian Manuscripts
(Lorsch Gospels; Metz Sacramentary of Charles the Bald; Drogo Sacramentary; Trier
Apocalypse, Gosepls of Otto III)
March 10: ***Midterm Examination***
March 12-20: SPRING BREAK
March 22
VII. Monasticism and the Book in “Romanesque” Europe
Background:
De Hamel, “Books for Monks” History of Illuminated Manuscripts, III, 74-107
Images:
http://www.bm-dijon.fr/opacwebaloes/index.aspx?idpage=165 (Moralia in Job; Bible of Stephen
Harding)
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Libellus of Sainte Radegonde of Poitiers: http://www.bmpoitiers.fr/medias/medias.aspx?INSTANCE=EXPLOITATION&PORTAL_ID=portal_model_ins
tance__ms_250__136__la_vie_de_ste_radegonde_par_venance_fortunat_.xml
March 24
Discussion : Pictorial Narrative, Historiated Initials and the Monastic Life
1. Cynthia Hahn, “Lives of the Confessors: Monks and Abbots,” in Portrayed on the heart :
narrative effect in pictorial lives of saints from the tenth through the thirteenth century (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2001), 172-208 (KR)
2. Anne-Marie Bouché, “Vox imaginis: Anomaly and Enigma in Romanesque Art” in The
Mind’s Eye. Art and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages, ed. Jeffrey Hamburger and
Anne-Marie Bouché (Princeton, 2006), 133-150. KR
3. Conrad Rudolph, Violence and Daily Life: Reading, Art, and Polemics in the Cîteaux Moralia
(Princeton, 1997), 3-14, 34-83 (KR)
March 29
VIII. Books for the Laity in thirteenth-century Paris
Background:
De Hamel, “Books for Students,” History of Illuminated Manuscripts, IV, 109-141
March 31
Discussion: Biblical Picture Books for the Laity
1. Gerald B. Guest, “Authorizing the Toledo moralized Bible: Exegesis and the Gothic Matrix,”
Word and Image, 18, no. 3 (2002), 231-251 Reader
2. Christopher Hughes, “Typology and its Uses in the Moralized Bible,” in The Mind’s Eye. Art
and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages, ed. Jeffrey Hamburger and Anne-Marie Bouché
(Princeton, 2006), 133-150. KR
3. Sara Lipton , “Jews, heretics, and the sign of the cat in the Bible moralisée,” Word and Image
8.4 (1992): 362-77 Reader
4. Daniel Weiss, “Portraying the Past, Illuminating the Present: The Art of The Morgan Library
Picture Bible.” The Book of Kings. Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible,
ed. W. Noel and Weiss (Baltimore, 2002), 1-35 KR
April 5
IX. From Mystical Visions in the Convent to Devotional Images for the Laity
Background:
Jeffrey Hamburger, "The Visual and the Visionary: The Image in Late Medieval Monastic
Devotions," Viator 20 (1989):161-82 Reader
April 7
Discussion: Vision and Performative Reading
1. Richard Emmerson, “The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias:
Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience” Gesta, Vol. 41, No. 2 (2002), pp. 95-110
www.jstor.org/stable/4126576
2. Martha Easton, “The Wound of Christ, the Mouth of Hell: Appropriations and Inversions of
Female Anatomy in the Late Middle Ages,” in ,” Tributes to Jonathan J. G. Alexander, eds. S.
L’Engle and G. Guest. 395-414 Reader
3. Jessica Brantley, “Envisioning Dialogue in Performance. Reading in the wilderness: private
devotion and public performance in late medieval England (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2007), ch. 6, 211-268. Reader
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April 12
X. Mapping, Science and Natural Nature in Illuminated Manuscripts
Background:
Clemens & Graham, Ch. 15: Maps, 240-49
Stephen Perkinson, “Portraits and Counterfeits: Villard de Honnecourt and thirteenth-century
theories of representation,” in Excavating the Medieval Image: Manuscripts, Artists, Audiences.
Essays in Honor of Sandra Hindman, ed. Nina Rowe & David Areford (Aldershot: Ashgate Pres,
2004), 13-35 Reader
April 14
Discussion: The Natural World as Mirror of Self
1. Michael Gaudio, “Matthew Paris and the Cartography of the Margins”
Gesta, Vol. 39, No. 1 (2000), pp. 50-57 http://www.jstor.org/stable/767153
2. Michael Camille, “The image and the self-unwriting late medieval bodies,” in Framing
medieval bodies, ed. Sarah Kay & Miri Rubin (Manchester: University of Manchester Press,
1994), 62-99 62-99 Reader
3. Peter Murray Jones, “Image, Word, and Medicine in the Middle Ages,” Givens, Jean et al.
Visualizing medieval medicine and natural history, 1200_1550 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006),
Reader
4. Debra Hassig, “Beauty in the Beasts: A Study of Medieval Aesthetics” RES 19/20 (1990-91)
137-161. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20166830 .
April 19, 21
XI. Vernacular Histories and Courtly Romance for the Laity
Background:
De Hamel, “Books for Aristocrats,” History of Illuminated Mss V, 142-167
Images of Grandes Chroniques de France: http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/hp/apercu/apercu2_00.htm
Discussion:
1. Anne D. Hedeman , “Pierre Salmon's Advice for a King,” Gesta. 32, No. 2 (1993) 113-123.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/767169
2. Sandra Hindman, “King Arthur, His Knights and the French Aristocracy in Picardy,”
Yale French Studies, Special Issue: Contexts: Style and Values in Medieval Art and Literature
(1991), pp. 114-133 www.jstor.org/stable/2929097
3. Erik Inglis, Image and Illustration in Jean Fouquet's "Grandes Chroniques de France"
French Historical Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2, French History in the Visual Sphere (Spring, 2003),
pp. 185-224 via MadCat
4. Suzanne Lewis, “Images of opening, penetration and closure in the Roman de la Rose,” Word
and Image 8, no. 3 (1992), 215-42 Reader.
April 26
XII. Gothic Marginalia
Background
Clemens and Graham, 208-221 KR
Images: Luttrell Psalter, British Library, Add. MS 42130
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/luttrell/accessible/introduction.html
Discussion:
1. Michael Camille, “In the Margins of Court” Image on the Edge. The Margins of Medieval Art
(Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), ch. 4: 99-152 KR
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2. Lillian Randall, "Games and Passion in Pucelle's Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux," Speculum 42
(1972), 246-57 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2856691
3. Madeline Caviness, "Patron or Matron? A Capetian Bride and a Vade Mecum for Her
Marriage Bed," Speculum 68 (1993), 333-362 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2864556
4. Lucy Freeman Sandler, “The Woman in the Text and the Image in the Margin: The Case of
the Luttrell Psalter “ Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 54 (1996):87-99
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20169111
April 28
XIII. Time Sanctified: Books of Hours, Quotidian Piety at the End of the Middle Ages
Background:
De Hamel, “Books for Everybody,” History of Medieval Mss, 168-199; Clemens & Graham,
208-221
Paul Saenger, “Books of Hours and Reading Habits of the Later Middle Ages,” Scrittura e
civilta’ 9 (1985): 239-69. Reader
Images and video:
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/CambridgeIlluminations/
The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de
Berry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSTd6HlQ494&feature=related
May 3
Discussion: Piety and Ideology in the late Medieval Book of Hours: The Très Riches Heures
of Jean Duc de Berry
1. Margaret Manion “Psalter Illustration in the Très Riches Heures of Jean de Berry”
Gesta, Vol. 34, No. 2 (1995), pp. 147-161 in http://www.jstor.org/stable/767285
2. Jonathan J. G. Alexander “Labeur and Paresse: Ideological Representations of Medieval
Peasant Labor” The Art Bulletin. 72, No. 3 (1990), 436-452: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045750.
3. Stephen Perkinson, “Likeness and Loyalty: Portraiture and Calendar Scenes of the Tres Riches
Heures, Qaerendo 27 (2008): 142-174 via Mad Cat
(http://www.ingentaconnect.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/content/brill/qua/2008/00000038/F002
0002/art00004)
May 5 **FINAL PAPER DUE**
Conclusions and Review
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