© 2016 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
A few people who work in the manuscripts department at The Getty have been posting pictures from medieval manuscripts on Twitter and Tumblr and asking the public to give them a caption. They did this for a year, and, well, … Continue reading
Shiviti Amulet; Taddana, Morocco; 19th Century, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Berkley, CA, Photo via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
A shiviti is a representation of a candlestick that is used for the meditation of God’s name in the Jewish religion. A shiviti displays the name of God above the Temple seven-branch candelabrum. Shiviti is the first word in the Hebrew … Continue reading
An Angel Unlocking the Door of Hell, Winchester Psalter (Psalter of Henry of Blois), between1121-1161, 12.6” x 8.8”, British Library, London, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication License, Wikimedia Commons.
The lavishly illustrated Winchester Psalter likely was created for Henry of Blois, brother of Stephen, King of England, in the 12th century. This manuscript from the Romanesque era has 80 unusual and innovative illustrations, including the frightening scene of an … Continue reading
St. Matthew from the Gospel Book of Archbishop Ebbo of Reims, 816-835, ink and colors on vellum, 10¼” x 8¾”, Municipal Library, Épernay, France, Pulbic Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The ninth-century French emperor, Charlemagne the Great, promoted learning and culture by supporting several monasteries throughout his empire that collected and produced manuscripts. These monks in their scriptoria became the cultural army for the emperor. One of the most unique … Continue reading
Limbourg Brothers, "The Procession of the Flagellants" from the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, c. 1405-1408/9, ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum, 9⅜" x 6⅝”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Book of Hours (noun) A book used for private prayer, popular from the tenth through the sixteenth century in Europe, that has devotions to the Virgin Mary that are performed at specific hours of the day. These books were bestsellers … Continue reading
Chi Rho Iota page, The Book of Kells, c. 800, ink and pigments on vellum, 13” x 91/2”, Trinity College Library, Dublin. Attribution: By Meister des Book of Kells. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
The ninth century in early medieval western Europe was an age of monasticism, and this is arguably the most beautiful product from the era. It is the crowning achievement of Hiberno-Saxon art, which really means Irish-English art. Another word for … Continue reading