Art History 301BK - The Art of the Book

The subject of this course is the book, from its invention in the late antique era to the advent of printing in the fifteenth century, in Europe and Western Asia. We will study books made for devotion, instruction, entertainment, and pleasure, from the earliest accounts of Christ's life, to jewel-encrusted books painted with gold for emperors, to student-copied textbooks of the oldest universities, to vernacular literature, legends, and histories. Topics include technology and materials, integration of text and image, makers (monastic, courtly, and commercial), and readers and collectors, via first-hand study of manuscripts in nearby collections and independent research.