Beyond words : illuminated manuscripts in Boston collections / edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger, William P. Stoneman, Anne-Marie Eze, Lisa Fagin Davis & Nancy Netzer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hamburger, Jeffrey F., 1957- editor.

Stoneman, William P., editor.

Eze, Anne-Marie, editor.

Davis, Lisa Fagin, editor.

Netzer, Nancy, editor.

McMullen Museum of Art, organizer, host institution.

Houghton Library, organizer, host institution.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, organizer, host institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval--Exhibitions.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Renaissance--Exhibitions.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Renaissance.

Illumination of books and manuscripts--Massachusetts--Boston--Exhibitions.

Illumination of books and manuscripts.

Massachusetts--Boston.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

374 pages : color illustrations ; 31 cm

Distribution:

[Chicago, Ill.] : Distributed by the University of Chicago Press.

Place of Publication:

[Chestnut Hill, MA] : McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, [2016]

Summary:

Published in conjunction with a collaborative exhibition of the same name at the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Harvard University's Houghton Library; and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Featuring illuminated manuscripts from nineteen Boston-area institutions, this catalog provides a sweeping overview of the history of the book in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as well as a guide to its production, illumination, functions, and readership. Entries by eighty-five international experts document, discuss, and reproduce more than two hundred and sixty manuscripts and early printed books, many of them little known before now. Beyond Words also explores the history of collecting such books in Boston, an uncharted chapter in the history of American taste. Of broad appeal to scholars and amateur enthusiasts alike, this catalog documents one of the most ambitious exhibitions of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts ever to take place in North America.

Contents:

Illuminating the Charles : collecting manuscripts in Boston

Part 1. Harvard University, Houghton Library. Manuscripts from church & cloister. The monastic scriptorium ; Authors & readers ; Guides for good living ; Songs of praise

Part 2. Boston College, McMullen Museum of Art. Manuscripts for pleasure & piety. Making & meaning ; Holy writ ; Before the book of hours : the psalter & other prayer books ; Minding time : books of hours ; Love & death : the art of devotion ; Public worship ; The rise of the professions : medicine & law ; Secular pleasures : edification & entertainment

Part 3. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Italian Renaissance books. The Florentine humanist book ; Italian princely libraries ; Manuscripts of the classics ; Humanist texts ; Renaissance liturgical books ; Italian books of hours ; Book decoration & the advent of printing.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-359) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781892850263

1892850265

9781892850287

1892850281

OCLC:

944087154