It is typical of online presentations that a library would place a more complete, annotated or transcribed edition of a manuscript online for the public perusal while a museum is concerned with a more holistic representation of manuscript, along with timelines or contextual notes. These museums, though sometimes working hand in hand with libraries to produce digitised versions of their holdings, are no exception.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY: The Cloisters
The Met houses an unique department called The Cloisters, which preserves medieval sculpture, stained glass windows, artefacts, and a plethora of other items. Within this department there are several exhibits on manuscripts; they hold the Book of Hours of Jean D’Evreux, the Belle Heures de Jean de Berry, and a leaf from a Beatus manuscript.
The Fitzwilliam Museum
This museum in Cambridge places selections from the Macclesfield psalter online in high resolution, accompanied by several articles about it that describe the history of the book, its value, and what makes it unique.
The Pierpont Morgan Museum & Library
This museum has put up a great many manuscripts for public viewing online with a feature that allows you to zoom in on the manuscript in question, but these manuscripts are only selections and not whole works. That in mind, enjoy the high resolution and incredible detail of these manuscripts.
Showing posts with label book of hours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book of hours. Show all posts
Friday, May 9, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
What are they about?
The types of manuscripts that have been scanned and uploaded to the internet are various. There are complete manuscripts of highly artistic complexity that have been annotated by scholars and experts, and stubs of parchment without transcription or translation that have been scanned in a low-resolution setting. I have attempted to filter the less professional projects and introduce here only manuscripts that would be helpful to the widest range of study.
A large number of online manuscripts deal with different versions of the Bible, or even of the one book of Psalms, as well as other devotional literature like personalised books of hours. Others are stories of adventure, or moral tales about role models like saints or kings (called "lives" or "vitae"), and essays or sermons on how people ought to live. These tell us a lot about what types of ideals were very strong at that time. A number of musical scores from medieval manuscripts have also been put online, mostly in huge databases rich with information.
The literary subject of most of these manuscripts is philosophical or religious rather than fictional adventures or biography, but it should be recognised that the representation of manuscripts online is not necessarily representative of the sector as a whole: there are many different types of manuscripts, but the best projects online have dealt mainly with religious works. There were stories of adventure (King Arthur, Welsh mythology, Greek poets like Ovid and Vergil) but on the whole they are not well presented online by quantity or quality.
There are, of course, exceptions. However, to group these together would not have given them fair representation since they are not of the same genre. Instead of incorporating them here, I treat them individually, with separate entries as I will for some of the more elaborate or unusual projects.
Please keep this in mind when you read the larger articles I have linked to from this entry! I would not want to present an image that would colour your idea of medieval literature as a whole.
A large number of online manuscripts deal with different versions of the Bible, or even of the one book of Psalms, as well as other devotional literature like personalised books of hours. Others are stories of adventure, or moral tales about role models like saints or kings (called "lives" or "vitae"), and essays or sermons on how people ought to live. These tell us a lot about what types of ideals were very strong at that time. A number of musical scores from medieval manuscripts have also been put online, mostly in huge databases rich with information.
The literary subject of most of these manuscripts is philosophical or religious rather than fictional adventures or biography, but it should be recognised that the representation of manuscripts online is not necessarily representative of the sector as a whole: there are many different types of manuscripts, but the best projects online have dealt mainly with religious works. There were stories of adventure (King Arthur, Welsh mythology, Greek poets like Ovid and Vergil) but on the whole they are not well presented online by quantity or quality.
There are, of course, exceptions. However, to group these together would not have given them fair representation since they are not of the same genre. Instead of incorporating them here, I treat them individually, with separate entries as I will for some of the more elaborate or unusual projects.
Please keep this in mind when you read the larger articles I have linked to from this entry! I would not want to present an image that would colour your idea of medieval literature as a whole.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The Book of Hours
A book of hours is a private devotional book that provided prayers for different times of the day; monks often prayed together as a community as many as seven times a day, and though a pious man or woman outside the cloister might not be able to celebrate with the church as a whole, prayer books provided guidelines for personal prayer.
That was the idea, anyway: prayer books were customizable and beautiful objects of art that were also status symbols and worked the way calendars do for us today. Usually included was a calendar of widely observed holy days (a concept from which we still have “holidays”) that could be fitted to any year, and could hold a variety of prayers that could be tailored to different events--for different times of the year, for different purposes during a church service--even for birthdays and deaths.
The Murthly Hours
The Murthly Hours are kept by the National Library of Scotland and are in a mixture of languages, including Latin, Old French, and some of the earliest recorded Scottish Gaelic. This book is from the late 13th century and has been completely scanned and placed online. This site is highly recommended.
Petites Heures du Jean de Berry
The Bibliothéque Nationale de France has provided access to a great deal of Jean of Berry’s “small” book of hours on their website. In addition to miniature paintings of each of the 12 months, there are numerous illustrations of biblical events.
Les trés riches heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry is a 15th century example commissioned by the same duke of Berry. It is not completely integrated online but the most elaborate miniatures have been scanned and linked here.
A Hypertext Book of Hours
Though the texts and miniatures are drawn chiefly from a 16th century book, the format in which they are laid out should prove helpful to the beginner to understand how these books are laid out and exactly what they contained--in this edition, all texts are translated from the Latin (on the left side of the page) to English (right side).
That was the idea, anyway: prayer books were customizable and beautiful objects of art that were also status symbols and worked the way calendars do for us today. Usually included was a calendar of widely observed holy days (a concept from which we still have “holidays”) that could be fitted to any year, and could hold a variety of prayers that could be tailored to different events--for different times of the year, for different purposes during a church service--even for birthdays and deaths.
The Murthly Hours
The Murthly Hours are kept by the National Library of Scotland and are in a mixture of languages, including Latin, Old French, and some of the earliest recorded Scottish Gaelic. This book is from the late 13th century and has been completely scanned and placed online. This site is highly recommended.
Petites Heures du Jean de Berry
The Bibliothéque Nationale de France has provided access to a great deal of Jean of Berry’s “small” book of hours on their website. In addition to miniature paintings of each of the 12 months, there are numerous illustrations of biblical events.
Les trés riches heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry is a 15th century example commissioned by the same duke of Berry. It is not completely integrated online but the most elaborate miniatures have been scanned and linked here.
A Hypertext Book of Hours
Though the texts and miniatures are drawn chiefly from a 16th century book, the format in which they are laid out should prove helpful to the beginner to understand how these books are laid out and exactly what they contained--in this edition, all texts are translated from the Latin (on the left side of the page) to English (right side).
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