Click2History - Illuminated Manuscripts, Learning with Pictures - Chapter 4

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 4 - LEARNING WITH PICTURES</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">At a time when religion impacted much of European life, Medieval illuminations were often based on Christian themes or were used to illustrate Bibles:</p><ul> <li>The style used to illustrate the <a target="_blank" href="images/gospel.matthew.jpg"><b>Gospel of Matthew</b></a> (produced between 1235-1240 with contorted draperies and abrupt gestures) lasted for about eighty years before it was replaced by a more refined Parisian style. (<a target="_blank" href="images/Stadtische.jpg"><b>Städtische Sammlung</b></a>, Rathaus, <a target="_blank" href="images/goslar.jpg"><b>Goslar</b></a>)</li><br><br> <li>David (the Biblical shepherd, king, <a href="http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/broxb/89/1000/01001007.jpg" target="_blank"><b>harpist</b></a> and writer of music, including the <a href="http://www.interviewwithgod.com/psalm23.htm" target="_blank"><b>23rd Psalm</b></a>) was also guilty of sending another man (Uriah) to his death so he could marry Uriahs wife. Expressing <a href="http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/buchanan/e/1000/00300100.jpg" target="_blank"><b>remorse</b></a> for that deed, David wrote the <a href="http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/BIBLE/PSA/PSA51.HTM" target="_blank"><b>51st Psalm</b></a>.</li><br><br> <li>During the 13th century, just like today, scholars prepared Bible commentaries. The profiled work comments on <a target="_blank" href="images/king.psalms.jpg"><b>King Davids Psalms</b></a>. (Library, <a target="_blank" href="images/esztergom.jpg"><b>Esztergom Cathedral</b></a>, Hungary)</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/NORparis.htm" target="_blank"><b>Matthew Paris</b></a>, an English Benedictine monk, artist and historian, included himself in his illustration of the <a target="_blank" href="images/virgin.child.jpg"><i><b>Virgin and Child</b></i></a>. It is the <a href="http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=frontispiece" target="_blank"><b>frontispiece</b></a> of <a href="http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/controller/subjectidsearch?id=11624" target="_blank"><i><b>Historia Anglorum</b></i></a>, created in 1250. (<a href="http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/england/london/britlibrary/stjohnwilson.html" target="_blank"><b>British Library</b></a>, London)</li><br><br> <li>A moralisée, popular in the Middle Ages, is a pictorial Bible in which Biblical events and their moralizations are presented in two columns with eight images per page. Each picture is accompanied by a brief text from either the Bible or from a Biblical-related source. The most famous <a href="http://www.library.uiuc.edu/mdx/medstud/facsimilies.htm#moralise" target="_blank"><b>Bible moralisée</b></a> is the <a target="_blank" href="images/codex_vienna2554_25b_012403.jpg"><b>Codex</b></a> <a target="_blank" href="images/vindobonensis.jpg"><b>Vindobonensis</b></a> <a target="_blank" href="images/2554_vienna2554_36b_012403.jpg"><b>2554</b></a> maintained in Austrias National Library. (Romans referred to Vienna as Vindobona.)</li><br><br> <li>Fragments of an <a href="http://plato.acadiau.ca/courses/musi/callon/1253/glos800.htm" target="_blank"><b>Antiphonale</b></a> (a Roman Catholic liturgical chant) used in the 13th century still survive. Even they are illustrated. One of the pages represents God with Moses and the <a target="_blank" href="images/burning.bush.jpg"><b>burning bush</b></a>. (Museum of <a target="_blank" href="images/finearts.jpg"><b>Fine Arts</b></a>, Budapest)</li><br><br> <li>Although Dantes <a href="http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg064.htm" target="_blank"><b><i>Divine Comedy</i></b></a> is still studied, hundreds of years after it was written, <a target="_blank" href="images/todays.copies.jpg"><b>todays copies</b></a> are no longer <a target="_blank" href="images/lavishly.illustrated.jpg"><b>lavishly illustrated</b></a> as they once were. One needs, instead, to buy a separate book to <a target="_blank" href="images/pictorially.jpg"><b>pictorially understand</b></a> Dantes message. (University Library, <a target="_blank" href="images/budapest.jpg"><b>Budapest</b></a>)</li><br><br> <li>St. Bridget of Sweden had visions which are portrayed in 15th century parchment illuminations. In one famous scene, depicting a priest celebrating the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05572c.htm" target="_blank"><b>Eucharist</b></a>, Jesus and his mother Mary allow <a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/saints/bridget.htm" target="_blank"><b>St. Bridget</b></a> to <a target="_blank" href="images/see.wafer.jpg"><b>see the wafer</b></a> become the body of Christ. (<i>Revelations of St Bridget of Sweden</i>, The <a href="http://www.morganlibrary.org/" target="_blank"><b>Morgan Library</b></a>, New York City)</li></ul> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="illuminated_manuscripts_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="illuminated_manuscripts_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="illuminated_manuscripts_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>