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.