Five Illuminated Manuscripts of Giangaleazzo Visconti


Book Description

Five Illuminated Manuscripts of Giangaleazzo Visconti is an in-depth study of several illuminated manuscripts commissioned by a major 14th-century Italian patron of art and learning. Edith Kirsch in this book reveals how a group of manuscripts commissioned by Giangaleazzo Visconti (and, in one instance, by his immediate family) reflect not only his dynastic concerns but also the development of his inclination to express these concerns through works of art establishing both his classical heroism and his Christian piety. Considered as a group for the first time, these manuscripts document one of Giangaleazzo's most innovative activities as a manuscript collector-the commissioning of lavish manuscripts to commemorate major dynastic events. In their richness and in the extraordinary verisimilitude and historical specificity of their decoration, these manuscripts document the self-image of a prince who set out to record his unprecedented accomplishments in unprecedented fashion. Like his politics, however, Giangaleazzo's patronage of the arts was shaped by the practices of his ancestors, and his accomplishments as a patron are best understood in the context of family tradition. Giangaleazzo's library rivaled even that of his brother-in-law, King Charles V of France, reputed to be the greatest collector of manuscripts in late fourteenth-century Europe. Kirsch's study rests on the premise that Giangaleazzo's patronage of manuscripts was marked by certain characteristic features: execution of the work by exceptionally gifted scribes and illuminators, unusual fullness and richness of both text and illumination, unusual combinations of texts, unusual conjunctions of text and image, and iconographical manipulation of miniatures and borders to fit certain historical circumstances and to express particular devotions. This study enriches our understanding of each of the manuscripts in the group and traces the development of a distinctive pattern of patronage that influenced the visual arts in Milan for over a century.




Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200–1550


Book Description

Images in medieval and early modern treatises on medicine, pharmacy, and natural history often confound our expectations about the functions of medical and scientific illustrations. They do not look very much like the things they purport to portray; and their actual usefulness in everyday medical practice or teaching is not obvious. By looking at works as diverse as herbals, jewellery, surgery manuals, lay health guides, cinquecento paintings, manuscripts of Pliny's Natural History, and Leonardo's notebooks, Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550 addresses fundamental questions about the interplay of art and science from the thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth century: What counts as a medical illustration in the Middle Ages? What are the purposes and audiences of the illustrations in medieval medical, pharmaceutical, and natural history texts? How are images used to clarify, expand, authenticate, and replace these texts? How do images of natural objects, observed phenomena, and theoretical concepts amplify texts and convey complex cultural attitudes? What features lead us to regard some of these images as typically 'medieval' while other exactly contemporary images strike us as 'Renaissance' or 'early modern' in character? Art historians, medical historians, historians of science, and specialists in manuscripts and early printed books will welcome this wide-ranging, interdisciplinary examination of the role of visualization in early scientific inquiry.




Studies in Manuscript Illumination, 1200-1400


Book Description

The author is Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of Art History at New York University , Institute of Fine Arts, and a leading authority on English medieval manuscript illumination. This volume bring together twenty-six of Professor Sandler's studies, focusing on illustrated manuscripts produced in England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, particularly on the illuminated psalters. The marginal illustrations in these psalters are a topic of particular interest, and there are a number of iconographic studies derived from this material. A separate section deals with the illustrated encyclopedias of the period, particularly the Omne bonum.




Medieval Herbals


Book Description

Collins shows how the principal herbal traditions of Classical descent were replaced by a new observation of nature that itself paved the way for the magnificent paintings of later French and Italian herbals.




The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 6, C.1300-c.1415


Book Description

The sixth volume of The New Cambridge Medieval History covers the fourteenth century, a period dominated by plague, other natural disasters and war which brought to an end three centuries of economic growth and cultural expansion in Christian Europe, but one which also saw important developments in government, religious and intellectual life, and new cultural and artistic patterns. Part I sets the scene by discussion of general themes in the theory and practice of government, religion, social and economic history, and culture. Part II deals with the individual histories of the states of western Europe; Part III with that of the Church at the time of the Avignon papacy and the Great Schism; and Part IV with eastern and northern Europe, Byzantium and the early Ottomans, giving particular attention to the social and economic relations with westerners and those of other civilisations in the Mediterranean.




Early Music History: Volume 18


Book Description

Early Music History is devoted to the study of music from the early Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. Articles in Volume 18 include: Music notation in Arcivio San Pietro C 105 and in the Farfa Breviary, Chigi C.VI 117; Rinuccini the craftsman: A view of his L'Arianna Ferdinand of Aragon's entry into Valladolid in 1513: The triumph of a Christian king; Citation and allusion in the late Ars nova: The case of Esperance and the En attendant songs.




Early Music History


Book Description

Early Music History is devoted to the study of music from the early Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. It demands the highest standards of scholarship from its contributors, all of whom are leading academics in their fields. It gives preference to studies pursuing interdisciplinary approaches and to those developing novel methodological ideas. The scope is exceptionally broad and includes manuscript studies, textual criticism, iconography, studies of the relationship between words and music and the relationship between music and society. Articles in volume fifteen include: Costanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum; Scenes from the life of Silvia Galiarti Manni, a seventeenth-century virtuosa; Galeazzo Maria Sforza and musical patronage in Milan: Compere, Weerbeke and Josquin.




The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300-1500


Book Description

As part of a unique series covering the grand sweep of Western civilization from ancient to present times, this biographical dictionary provides introductory information on 315 leading cultural figures of late medieval and early modern Europe. Taking a cultural approach not typically found in general biographical dictionaries, the work includes literary, philosophical, artistic, military, religious, humanistic, musical, economic, and exploratory figures. Political figures are included only if they patronized the arts, and coverage focuses on their cultural impact. Figures from western European countries, such as Italy, France, England, Iberia, the Low Countries, and the Holy Roman Empire predominate, but outlying areas such as Scotland, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe are also represented. Late medieval Europe was an age of crisis. With the Papacy removed to Avignon, the schism in the Catholic Church shook the very core of medieval belief. The Hundred Years' War devastated France. The Black Death decimated the population. Yet out of this crisis grew an age of renewal, leading to the Renaissance. The great Italian city-states developed. Humanism reawakened interest in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Dante and Boccaccio began writing in their Tuscan vernacular. Italian artists became humanists and flourished. As the genius of Italy began spreading to northern and western Europe at the end of the 15th century, the age of renewal was completed. This book provides thorough basic information on the major cultural figures of this tumultuous era of crisis and renewal.




Routledge Revivals: Medieval Italy (2004)


Book Description

First published in 2004, Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia provides an introduction to the many and diverse facets of Italian civilization from the late Roman empire to the end of the fourteenth century. It presents in two volumes articles on a wide range of topics including history, literature, art, music, urban development, commerce and economics, social and political institutions, religion and hagiography, philosophy and science. This illustrated, A-Z reference is a cross-disciplinary resource and will be of key interest not only to students and scholars of history but also to those studying a range of subjects, as well as the general reader.




Images of the Mother of God


Book Description

Fully illustrated in colour and black and white, Images of the Mother of God complements the successful exhibition catalogue of the 'Mother of God' exhibition at the Benaki Museum in Athens. It brings together the work of leading international authorities and younger scholars to provide a wide-ranging survey of how the Theotokos was perceived in the Byzantine world. It embraces the disciplines of art historians, archaeologists, traditional and feminist historians, as well as theologians, philologists and social anthropologists. Images of the Mother of God will appeal not just to those interested in Byzantine art and culture, but also to scholars of Western Europe in the Middle Ages who are looking for comparative materials in their own work.