The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence.
This brand-new, accessible volume explores the latest research and thinking on the Lindisfarne Gospels and is published as the manuscript goes on loan to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle for an exhibition exploring its meaning in today’s world.
Learn more about the animals, creatures, and other fun characters that are hidden throughout the Penn Libraries Medieval Manuscript Collection, then create your own!
The event is informal and everyone is welcome to attend. Registration required to attend.
In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to the art and interior content of early medieval manuscripts. Due to their highly decorative quality, we will be using Irish texts (such as the Book of Kells) as examples to demonstrate the creative and technical processes of constructing ancient manuscripts.
The remains of an illuminated manuscript from the early medieval period, along with its leather cover, were discovered by chance during turf-cutting operations. The find made international headlines and today represents one of the National Museum of Ireland’s top ten treasures.
As medieval combat students, we are always referring to the manuscripts of the medieval period, but how were they actually made and how long did it take to create a page or image?
Medieval manuscripts can tell us much about power and art, knowledge and beauty. Many have survived because of an author’s status—part of the reason we have so much of Chaucer’s writing, for example, is because he was a London-based government official first and a poet second.
Medieval Calligraphy: A Modern Primer is an easy-to-use guide that walks the student through all the components of beginning calligraphy with an emphasis on the medieval period. The author is an accomplished scribe with more than 20-years of experience teaching calligraphy and illumination. This textbook is ideal for aspiring artists of any age.
The data of the DMMapp can be freely explored and the details of every institution discovered. You can discover the image’s copyright statements of the libraries you wish to visit, notes about repositories, and much more. The database is ever growing, and anyone can contribute by reporting missing libraries, broken links, or errors in the data.
Animals in the Middle Ages have often been discussed - but usually only as a source of food, as beasts of burden, or as aids for hunters. This book takes a completely different angle, showing that they were also beloved domestic companions to their human owners, whether they were dogs, cats, monkeys, squirrels, and parrots.
The Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Blog promotes the work of the curators at the Library, who are responsible for these items and thousands more, including medieval historical and literary manuscripts, charters and seals, and early modern manuscripts, from Homer to the Codex Sinaiticus, from Beowulf to Chaucer, and from Magna Carta to the papers of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.