Medieval Mastery

Medieval Mastery brings together more than a hundred manuscripts, each of which ranks among the finest examples of western European book illumination. Together, they span well over six centuries of cultural history. The story begins, symbolically, in the year 800, when Charlemagne is crowned head of a pan-European empire. Charlemagne sees himself as the legitimate successor to the emperors of Rome, and he chooses Constantine as his great example. Under Charlemagne's rule the production of manuscripts revives. The story ends -- as symbolically as it began -- in 1475, two years before the death of Charles the Bold, when printing comes of age and assumes a number of the manuscript's essential functions. The catalogue comprises two major parts. Part One focuses on the relationship between word and image and on the function of the manuscript within the various strata of medieval society. Part Two expands on the historical-geographic evolution that helps to interpret the constantly changing artistic imagery.