Topic: Illuminated Manuscripts in the Middle Ages: Form Function and Audience.
From the fourth century A.D., artists created elaborate decorations and illustrations in
manuscripts of sacred and secular texts.  Meant to delight as well as instruct, these illustrations
commented on the text at the same time that they enchanted the reader with visions and stories
from the book itself.  Starting with the invention of the codex in the first century, and continuing
to the end of the Middle Ages, this course will investigate the tools, methods and inspiration
behind the creation of the medieval manuscript.  Lectures will survey the most important types of
manuscripts, such as Psalters, Apocalypses and Books of Hours, and the most famous schools of
manuscript illumination, such as the Hiberno-Saxon artists who produced works like the Book of
Kells.  The preferred audience of the manuscripts, from the embattled mozarabic Christians of
Spain, to noble women of the later Middle Ages, will also be investigated.