Religion 225BK - Topics in Religion: 'Art of the Book'

This course will offer an integrative approach to the study of illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We'll begin with a unit on the invention and early history of the book, but the main focus of study will be 1350-1500, from the rise of the commercial lay manuscript industry in urban centers in Europe to the production of incunabula, early printed books. We will study books made for devotion, instruction, entertainment, and pleasure, including sacred and secular texts such as Books of Hours and vernacular literature, legends, and histories. Our study will encompass the stunning pictorial programs of miniature paintings and marginalia as well as the patronage, production, structure, text, decoration, use, and after-life of the book. Topics include technology and materials, integration of text and image, makers (monastic, courtly, and commercial), and readers and collectors, via first-hand study of digitized manuscripts in collections around the world.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors