School of Art & Design Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
1-2025
Abstract
This collective volume is a significant addition to the renewed interest over the last ten years in the symbolism and objecthood of the premodern book, its materiality, and its role in the visual rhetoric of power and patronage. Originating from a conference organized by Vinni Lucherini and Cécile Voyer at the University of Naples, the volume presents the first sustained analysis of illuminated books for political purposes in the context of power dynamics and its various forms of expression. The fourteen contributions are written in French, English, and Italian and span the Christian West from the fifth to the fifteenth century.
Ivan Foletti (13–32) suggests that the image of the open book on an empty throne symbolized the authority of the Word of God and served as a guarantor of orthodoxy in the late antique Mediterranean region. The following six contributions explore the idea of the book as a theological-political instrument during the Carolingian and Ottonian periods up to the year 1000. Voyer (33–63) investigates the connection between Carolingian rulers and the Gospels and how these books embodied Divine Law and supported political goals. Kateřina Kubínová (65–86) focuses on the role of a late Carolingian Gospel book in coronation liturgy in medieval Bohemia and its influence on the creation of the so-called Gospels of John of Troppau (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1182). Anne-Orange Poilpré (87–112) investigates the figurative program of the manuscripts produced for Drogo, Archbishop of Metz (823–55), which aimed to renew the format of liturgical books while promoting the bishop’s authority within the Carolingian Empire. Adam Cohen (113–36) considers the intertwining of politics and theology in the Niedermünster Rule Book (Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, MS Msc. Lit. 142), focusing on the image of Henry the Wrangler (955–76 and 985–95) and its changing meaning after the book was transferred to Michaelsberg Monastery in Bamberg.
In contrast, Eliza Garrison (137–59) examines the portraits of Abbess Uta of Niedermünster (1002–25) in the Rule Book and the Uta Codex (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 13601), proposing that both books showcased Uta’s role as a leader at Niedermünster Canonry and her connection with the divine to an audience of educated clerical women. Charlotte Denoël (161–86) uses three manuscripts produced in reformed or newly founded abbeys in present-day northern France in the early eleventh century to underscore the books’ politico-religious implications for the Count of Flanders and local church representatives. Similarly, Mathieu Beaud (187–220) suggests that the figure of the holy king Edmund (r. 855–69) in the twelfth-century Libellus from Bury St. Edmunds Abbey (New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M. 736) served as a model of conduct for royalty and reinforced the independence of the monastic community from the local bishop and the king.
The four contributions following Beaud’s essay examine how illuminated manuscripts symbolized authority in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly in establishing royal libraries. Anne Hedeman (221–44) studies the significance of King Charles V’s Grandes Chroniques de France (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 2813) in shaping cultural memory by analyzing its connections with other manuscripts in the Louvre’s royal library and documents in the French crown’s archives. Lucherini (245–81) posits that Peter IV, king of Aragon (r. 1336–87), strategically acquired chronicles of Iberian and other European kingdoms to compile his own chronicles and legitimize his reign. Jaume Aurell (283–306) investigates postmortem inventories of merchants in late medieval Barcelona and their interest in books’ material value over their textual contents. And Teresa d’Urso and Joana Barreto (307–40) argue that the Virgil of the Escorial Library (Madrid, Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS S. II. 19) made for Cardinal John of Aragon (1477–85) asserts his legitimacy as representative of the Naples court in Rome.
The last two contributions address the circulation and ownership of manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the present day. Patrizia Carmassi (341–67) analyzes manuscripts’ ownership notes as sources of historical context and knowledge transmission, while Laura Cleaver and Olivia Baskerville (369–88) study the Life of Saint Cuthbert (London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 26) to explore how manuscripts have shaped England’s national identity throughout the twentieth century.
This edited volume covers a broad thematic and chronological range, bolstered by a well-conceived introduction and structure. It facilitates a coherent exploration of the relationship between manuscripts and authority, their use as communication tools, and their significance in different historical contexts. Contributors offer fresh interpretive lenses for analyzing political dynamics in illuminated manuscripts, incorporating concepts such as visual rhetoric, reception theory, and cultural memory. However, some readers may find certain essays more engaging or theoretically rigorous than others. Some stand out for their analytical depth and conceptual clarity, while others take a more descriptive approach.
Detailed indices of names, places, and manuscripts cited (389–402) make it easy to navigate the 405-page text. The editors deserve praise for including full-page color illustrations at the end of each article, although some images appear slightly out of focus. While a bibliography for each essay would have been helpful, it was likely excluded to keep the volume from becoming too lengthy. This volume succeeds in offering a multifaceted approach to the political dimensions of illuminated manuscripts. Its nuanced analyses, theoretical sophistication, and thematic coherence make it essential reading for scholars and students interested in medieval studies.
Recommended Citation
Pizzinato, Riccardo. “Vinni Lucherini and Cécile Voyer, Eds., Le Livre Enluminé Médiéval Instrument Politique.” Speculum, vol. 100, no. 1, Jan. 2025, pp. 265–66. journals.uchicago.edu (Atypon), https://doi.org/10.1086/733538
Publication Title
Speculum
DOI
10.1086/733538
Comments
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