| A small exhibition of illuminated medieval
prayer books, called Books of Hours, culminated
the fall 2003 course “The Beautiful Book: Medieval and
Renaissance Book Illumination in France and Italy,” (ARTH
253) taught by Professor of Art Lilian Armstrong. The course
surveyed European
illuminated manuscripts from the Late Antique period through
the Renaissance, and addressed such topics as the making of
the books, the relation of text to images and decoration, aristocratic
and religious patronage of illuminators, and the illustration
of the earliest printed books with woodcuts.
The Special Collections of Margaret Clapp Library and the
Davis Museum and Cultural Center both possess beautiful late
medieval illuminated manuscripts, including a number of remarkable
Books of Hours. Students in the course studied these original
manuscripts in several class sessions, determining which
aspects
of the books to highlight in the exhibition. They then
prepared interpretive labels for the pages chosen for presentation,
and participated in various aspects of the exhibition installation. |
