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The art of allusion : illuminators and the making of English literature, 1403-1476 / Sonja Drimmer.

Kislak Center for Special Collections - Furness Shakespeare Library (Van Pelt 628) ND3128 .D74 2021
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Drimmer, Sonja, author.
Contributor:
Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)
Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.
Series:
Material texts
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval--England.
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval.
Illumination of books and manuscripts, English--15th century.
Illumination of books and manuscripts, English.
English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.
English literature.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. Canterbury tales--Illustrations.
Chaucer, Geoffrey.
Gower, John, 1325?-1408. Confessio amantis--Illustrations.
Gower, John.
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451? Troy book--Illustrations.
Lydgate, John.
English literature--Middle English.
England.
Genre:
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Physical Description:
324 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.
Place of Publication:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2021]
Summary:
"Starting at the end of the fourteenth century, English writers including Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and John Lydgate translated and revised stories with long pedigrees in Latin, Italian, and French. Royals and gentry alike commissioned lavish manuscript copies of these works, copies whose images were integral to the rising prestige of English as a literary language. Yet despite the significance of these images, manuscript illuminators are seldom discussed in the major narratives of the development of English literary culture. The newly enlarged scale of English manuscript production and the attendant need for new images generated a problem, Sonja Drimmer contends: not only were images needed to accompany narratives that often had no tradition of illustration; they were also called upon to express novel concepts, including ones as foundational as the identity and suitable representation of an English poet. In devising this new corpus, manuscript artists harnessed visual allusion as a method to articulate central questions and provide at times conflicting answers regarding both literary and cultural authority. Drimmer traces how, just as the poets embraced intertextuality as a means of invention, so did illuminators devise new images through referential techniques -- assembling, adapting, and combining images from a range of sources in order to answer the need for a new body of pictorial matter."-- Publisher's description.
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: pt. I ILLUMINATORS
ch. 1 The Illuminators of London
pt. II AUTHORS
ch. 2 Chaucer's Manicule
ch. 3 Gower in Humilitatio
ch. 4 Lydgate ex Voto
pt. III HISTORIES
ch. 5 History in the Making: Lydgate's Troy Book
ch. 6 History's Hall of Mirrors: Gower's Confessio Amantis.
Notes:
First edition: 2018.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Local Notes:
Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.
ISBN:
0812224841
9780812224849
OCLC:
1223067920
Publisher Number:
99989754059

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