The Medieval World at our Fingertips
Manuscript Illuminations from the Collection of Sandra Hindman
By (author) Christopher de Hamel
This fascinating book offers a most engaging and fresh glimpse into the world of the Middle Ages. It accompanies an exhibit of some thirty diverse illuminated manuscript pages, and in a series of short descriptive essays on each of the miniatures the reader is taken on a remarkable journey from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, from which we can learn not only a great deal about the art of illumination, but also about the monasteries and cathedrals of Europe and such prominent medieval centres as the cities of London, Florence, Paris and Nuremberg. Moreover, Christopher de Hamel’s wide knowledge and vivid reflections provide the historical and cultural context that help us to fully understand and truly appreciate these special works of art. The illuminated pages presented here are part of the impressive and broad-ranging collection assembled over twenty-five years by the medieval scholar and long-time Chicagoan Sandra Hindman. They represent both biblical and secular subjects and include the work of master illuminators such as Maestro Daddesco, Giovanni di Paolo and the Master of Mary of Burgundy. In addition to the colour reproductions of all the exhibited pages, the essays are sumptously illustrated with further related and comparative images, many of which are drawn from the collections of the Chicago Institute of Art itself. The Introduction to the volume is by the well-known medievalist James Marrow, and there is also a Catalogue by Matthew Westerby giving full details, descriptions, provenance and bibliography of the exhibited illuminations.
Christopher de Hamel is perhaps the best-known name world-wide in the field of medieval Manuscripts. He has written multiple books on manuscripts and book collecting, many of which have been translated into at least seven languages, and he has also lectured throughout the world. For nearly forty years he worked at Sothebys London in the Department of Western Manuscripts and later as a Consultant. Recently retired as Librarian of the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, he is Fellow of the College, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a member of the Roxburghe Club. In 2016 he published the best-selling book Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts for which he was awarded the prestigious Wolfson History and Duff Cooper Prizes. James H. Marrow is Professor Emeritus of Art History, Princeton University, and Honorary Keeper of Illuminated Manuscripts, The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, England). He is author of many books and articles on late medieval art, with special attention to illuminated manuscripts from the Netherlands. Among his publications are Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative (1979), and with Sandra Hindman, Books of Hours Reconsidered. Matthew J. Westerby holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His area of specialization is Romanesque art of medieval Spain.
- By (author) Christopher de Hamel
Other Titles in this Series
The Epiphany of Hieronymus Bosch
Imagining Antichrist and Others from the Middle Ages to the Reformation
Early Engravers and their Public
The Master of the Berlin Passion and Manuscripts from Convents in the Rhine-Maas Region, ca. 1450-1500
Volume 39
Pleasure and Politics at the Court of France
The Artistic Patronage of Queen Marie of Brabant (1260-1321)
Volume 64
Venetian Painting in the Fifteenth Century
Jacopo, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna
Volume 36
The Splendor of the Word
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the New York Public Library
Volume 44
Manuscript Painting in Thirteenth-Century Flanders
Bruges, Ghent and the Circle of the Counts
Volume 63
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