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Posts from the ‘Medieval Illuminations’ Category

Mar 21

lindisfarne_gospels

Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels book is one of the greatest landmarks of human cultural achievement. Created by the community of St Cuthbert on Lindisfarne it is one of the best examples of creativity and craftsmanship from Medieval times.

The Lindisfarne Gospels Durham exhibition takes visitors on a journey of exploration, learning how and why this masterpiece was created, its influence on Medieval Europe and how artistic traditions from Britain and the Mediterranean mainland came together in North East England.

On show in Durham University’s Palace Green Library, completely redesigned and refurbished for this event, will be fabulous artefacts wrought from precious metals and minerals including gold, amber and silver and stone sculpture alongside medieval manuscripts including the St Cuthbert Gospel and the Durham Gospels.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the gospel book itself, written in honour of St Cuthbert and displayed alongside his treasures. However, the gospel book will for the first time since the 16th century be shown alongside the jewelled cross, the travelling altar and the sapphire ring, all found in St Cuthbert’s coffin. The exhibition, launched to coincide with St Cuthbert’s Day, will also display Europe’s oldest surviving bound book, the St Cuthbert Gospel, Anglo-Saxon artefacts and medieval manuscripts.

There are plenty of hands-on opportunities for visitors, especially families, to discover how Medieval manuscripts were created and to use technology to virtually turn the pages of the book to explore the beauty and detail of the book’s illuminated pages.

No visit to the exhibition will be complete without a visit to Durham Cathedral to see St Cuthbert’s Shrine and throughout the three-month exhibition a wealth of performances, activities and events will complete a memorable visit to Durham.

Lindisfarne Gospels Durham will be open to the public from 1 July to 30 September 2013. Tickets for the exhibition are sold online at www.lindisfarnegospels.com

Read more at www.lindisfarnegospels.com

Read about St. Cuthbert Gospel

Nov 12

Illumination from Roman de la Rose © BnF

Roman de la Rose

A hundred manuscripts of the medieval bestseller – le Roman de la Rose – are on show in Paris at the Biblioteque nationale Francaise.

Le Roman de la Rose was a me-dieval allegorical bestseller. Like aversified play it invited readers to ponder the drama of courtly love, while at the same time diverting them with pure unadulterated pornography.

More than 320 manuscripts exist of the Roman de la Rose, many of them luxuriously illuminated. Of these Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris houses more than 120. This winter a grand exhibition at the library has placed a hundred manuscripts on show together with pertinent objects from the Louvre, Musée de Cluny and other collections.

Visitors are first invited into a long gallery emanating a sense of spring time. Here they are introduced to the different personified characters in the allegory. The object is to give a feeling for the poem and its main plot.

Next – in the large hall of exhibition – the visitor is invited to feel as a guest in the enclosed garden. Here 30 of the most magnificent manuscripts are on show, presenting the development of the reception of the poem. At the same time, however, the visitor is guided to an understanding of the intricacies of the medieval art of love with its ideas of chaste friendships, vile women, hateful marriages and lustful affairs.

Finally in the small salon – organised as a medieval office or scriptorium – the story is told about the aftermath of the poem: how it was read aloud, how it was reproduced, illustrated and commented upon, and finally how it became the centre of a very famous literary quarrel.

Read about this quarrel and the rest of the story in

Medieval Histories 2012: 11:2

Oct 24

Lukas-Evangeliar-Otto-III
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Codices 780-1180

“Pracht auf Pergament” in München  shows a precious treasure of Early Medieval illuminated manuscripts     

The Bavarian State Library has decided to show its treasures to the public. 72 extraordinary codices from 780-1180 have been brought out of the vault. Together with three loans from Bamberg State Library the Kunsthalle presents an overwhelming number of some of the most precious manuscripts in Medieval History. Especially the nucleus of Ottonian manuscripts is remarkable.

Secular and ecclesiastical rulers commissioned liturgical manuscripts from the best writing schools and illumination centres. These gospels, pericopes and sacramentaries were richly decorated with luminous colours and gold. Their ingeniously tooled luxurious bindings are encrusted with numerous precious stones, cameos and ivory reliefs, including spolia dating from the Classical, Byzantine and Carolingian periods. Such manuscripts played important rules at festive masses or whenever important bishops, kings or other important magnates took part in religious ceremonies in Abbeys, Convents or Cathedrals. Their symbolic role was to signify the high status of the participants and the festive character of the celebrations.

Screen Shot 2012 10 23 at 6.32.36 PM 300x161 Codices 780 1180

The oldest manuscript on display dates the era of the last Agilolfing duke, Tassilo III, who was deposed by Charlemagne. He is also know for the famous chalice, which his wife donated to the Abbey of Kremsmünster in 777. Next follows a series of Carolingian codices from the production centers of Salzburg, Tegernsee and Freising. This may then be compared to the great achievements from the 10th century with their magnificent depictions of sovereigns.

Four of the sumptuous codices made in the imperial scriptorium at the Abbey of Reichenau are shown, including the gospels of Otto III and the pericopes of Henry II.

Further, Regensburg, which was another centre for the creation of such jewels, is represented by two magnificent liturgical manuscripts, the Codex commissioned by the Abbess Uta and the Sacramentary of Henry II.

Other selected manuscripts from the Bavarian State Library illustrate the continuity into the 11th century and beyond, thus demonstrating the development of Romanesque book illumination and its flourishing in the following century up to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122–1190).

In five selected manuscripts, the page shown in the exhibition will be occasionally turned, in order for dedicated visitors to be able to see more illuminations during the run of the exhibition.

This is really a chance in a lifetime. Owing to their extraordinary fragility, these highly valuable works can hardly ever leave the library’s vault. This exhibition of original manuscripts therefore offers a unique opportunity.

But: Already over-spent your budget for travelling 2012? Hope is here. In connection with the exhibition the Library has digitized nearly all the codices. They may be studied here

Pracht auf Pergament
Kunsthalle der Hypo Kulturstiftung
München
19.10.2012 – 13.01.2013

Catalogue:
Pracht auf Pergament. Schätze der Buchmalerei von 780 bis 1180
Published by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek und Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. Hiermer Verlag 2012

Photo: Evangeliar Ottos III., Reichenau, um 1000, Der Evangelist Lukas, Clm 4453, fol. 139v, © München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek