Using artifacts as primary sources, this book enables students to comprehensively assess and analyze historic evidence in the context of the medieval period. This new addition to the Daily Life through Artifacts series provides not only the full benefit of a reference work with its comprehensive explanations and primary sources, but also supplies images of the objects, bringing a particular aspect of the medieval world to life. Each entry in Artifacts from Medieval Europe explains and expands upon the cultural significance of the artifact depicted. Artifacts are divided into such thematic categories as domestic life, religion, and transportation. Considered collectively, the various artifacts provide a composite look at daily life in the Middle Ages. Unlike medieval history encyclopedias that feature brief reference entries, this book uses artifacts to examine major aspects of daily life. Each artifact entry features an introduction, a description, an examination of its contextual significance, and a list of further resources. This approach trains students how to best analyze primary sources. General readers with an interest in history will also benefit from this approach to learning that enables a more complete appreciation of past events and circumstances. Provides a single-volume resource for using medieval artifacts to better understand the long-ago past Supplies images of artifacts with detailed descriptions, explanations of significance, and a list of sources for more information, which help students learn how to effectively analyze primary sources Presents a virtual window into many different aspects of medieval society and life, including particular activities or roles-such as farming, weaving, fashion, or being a mason or a knight Includes sidebars within selected entries that explain key terms and concepts and supply excerpts from contemporary sources

This publication is the first volume to appear in the catalogue series devoted to the British Isles and covers Insular and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts produced between c. 700 and c. 1100 AD. This was a period in which Britain witnessed a great blossoming of cultural awareness and artistic craftsmanship. Under the reign of King Alfred towards the end of the ninth century England experienced a renewed impetus for scholarly activity, and as a result the production of books intensified greatly. By the early tenth century, influenced and inspired by new trends and ideas from Continental Europe, English art began to flourish, and manuscript illumination especially made a great impact with the high quality of its figure style and decorated initials, and with its elegance of script and mise-en-page. Cambridge is fortunate in having a significant collection of manuscripts from this period, and the ninety-seven works catalogued and richly illustrated here are amongst the finest surviving examples of Anglo-Saxon decoration. Included here are the fragmentary yet striking remains of a once magnificent early eighth-century Northumbrian Gospels, while an early tenth-century copy of Bede's Life of St Cuthbert contains a full-page image of King Aethelstan offering a book to St Cuthbert, that may be the earliest presentation scene surviving in England. In another tenth-century manuscript, Amalarius of Metz's Liber officialis, one may see the fullest repertoire of ingenious interlace and zoomorphic initials-the high-point of Anglo-Saxon drawing skills. In yet another Gospel book, from the early eleventh century, a de luxe manuscript resplendent with gold, one can find all the characteristic features of Anglo-Saxon iconography and style, including exuberant frame ornamentation, as well as examples of drapery with agitated fluttering hemlines, the hall-mark of Carolingian-inspired draughtsmanship. In addition to the detailed catalogue of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts produced in England, Ireland and Wales, the volume also includes an Addenda to the previously published Part One of this series, listing thirteen Frankish manuscripts from the eighth to the tenth century that had not been catalogued before. Among these is the well-known copy of Hrabanus Maurus' De laudibus sanctae crucis whose place of origin and circumstances of production still remain to be established. Every manuscript catalogued is illustrated in full colour, mostly with several illustrations, and frequently with special detail images. There is also an exhaustive bibliography and the catalogue is fully indexed including a comprehensive iconographic index.

Exploring the aristocratic villas and court culture of Cordoba, during its 'golden age' under the reign of the Umayyad dynasty (r. 756-1031 AD), this study illuminates a key facet of the secular architecture of the court and its relationship to the well-known Umayyad luxury arts. Based on textual and archaeological evidence, it offers a detailed analysis of the estates' architecture and gardens within a synthetic socio-historical framework. Author Glaire Anderson focuses closely on the CA(3)rdoban case study, synthesizing the archaeological evidence for the villas that has been unearthed from the 1980s up to 2009, with extant works of Andalusi art and architecture, as well as evidence from the Arabic texts. While the author brings her expertise on medieval Islamic architecture, art, and urbanism to the topic, the book contributes to wider art historical discourse as well: it is also a synthetic project that incorporates material and insights from experts in other fields (agricultural, economic, and social and political history). In this way, it offers a fuller picture of the topic and its relevance to Andalusi architecture and art, and to broader issues of architecture and social history in the caliphal lands and the Mediterranean. An important contribution of the book is that it illuminates the social history of the Cordoban villas, drawing on the medieval Arabic texts to explain patterns of patronage among the court elite. An overarching theme of the book is that the Cordoban estates fit within the larger historical constellation of Mediterranean villas and villa cultures, in contrast to long-standing art historical discourse that holds villas did not exist in the medieval period.

2012 Reprint of 1930 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Fulcanelli is almost certainly a pseudonym assumed during the early 20th century, by a French alchemist and esoteric author whose identity is still debated. Fulcanelli was undoubtedly a Frenchman, educated profoundly, and learned in the ways of alchemical lore, architecture, art, science, and languages. Fulcanelli wrote two books that were published after his disappearance during 1926, having left his magnum opus with his only student, Eugene Canseliet. These two works-- "Le Mystere des Cathedrals," and "Les Demeures philosophales" -propose to decipher the symbols and alchemy represented in such French monuments as Notre-Dame, Amiens Cathedrals and others.

Dynamic Splendor introduces a cycle of sixth-century mosaics little known to scholars, though they are comparable in quality and interest to famed mosaics in Italy and elsewhere. Ann Terry and Henry Maguire provide the first comprehensive account of the history and meaning of the mosaics along with the first high-quality photographic documentation of the ensemble.

It has only recently been possible to study the mosaics at Poreč closely, due to favorable conditions in Croatian Istria, where the mosaics reside, and to the discovery of the original restoration documents in Vienna and Trieste. Terry and Maguire have tracked the condition and restoration of these works, distinguishing between the original mosaics and later contributions. Beyond creating an important archival source, the authors consider the making of the mosaics, their thematic structure, their relationship to the cathedral complex, and their connection to the patron, Bishop Eufrasius, while drawing parallels with other renowned works.

This new publication constitutes Part Two of the multi-volume Cambridge Illuminations Research Project cataloguing all western illuminated manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. It covers manuscripts produced in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, ranging from the early Gospels of St Augustine made in sixth-century Rome, through the carefully designed patristic texts from twelfth-century Tuscany and Lombardy, the great law books of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Bologna, the opulent Books of Hours, elegant Humanistic volumes and enormous Choir Books of the fifteenth century, and finally to the richly decorated and densely ornamented books of sixteenth-century Spain. In addition to the famous treasures, these catalogues include a considerable number of previously unpublished cuttings, among them new attributions to leading artists and exciting discoveries, all of which offer a stimulating source for further research. Every manuscript catalogued is also illustrated, frequently with several images, all reproduced in full colour. Entries for Italian manuscripts are arranged chronologically in the period up to 1200, while manuscripts produced after 1200 are catalogued by region of origin and within that division again by sequence of date. Manuscripts that cannot at present be allocated to a particular region are grouped in a special section, and Spanish books are again catalogued in chronological order.

The studies in this volume all deal with images and texts that relate to the veneration of the saints in Byzantium after the 9th century. Some papers are devoted to the church calendar and the annual commemorations of hundreds of saints through liturgical poetry and sequences of isolated images in fresco, icon painting and illuminated manuscripts. Others are concerned with the longer and rarer, narrative cycles devoted to the life of a single saint, cycles found mainly in fresco and on the so-called vita icons that first appear in the East in the late 12th century. Additional studies deal with the developing role of icons in liturgical ceremonies, and with images of a saint being approached by a supplicant or patron. A final section is devoted to places made holy by the saints, and to their holy relics.

This collection of fifteen papers ranges from the author's initial interest in the Tapestry as a source of information on early medieval dress, through to her startling recognition of the embroidery's sophisticated narrative structure. Developing the work of previous authors who had identified graphic models for some of the images, she argues that not just the images themselves but the contexts from which they were drawn should be taken in to account in 'reading' the messages of the Tapestry. In further investigating the minds and hands behind this, the largest non-architectural artefact surviving from the Middle Ages, she ranges over the seams, the embroidery stitches, the language and artistry of the inscription, the potential significance of borders and the gestures of the figures in the main register, always scrutinising detail informatively. She identifies an over-riding conception and house style in the Tapestry, but also sees different hands at work in both needlecraft and graphics. Most intriguingly, she recognises an sub-contractor with a Roman source and a clownish wit. The author is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at The University of Manchester, UK, a specialist in Old English poetry, Anglo-Saxon material culture and medieval dress and textiles.

More than any other secular story of the Middle Ages, the tale of Tristan and Isolde fascinated its audience. Adaptations in poetry, prose, and drama were widespread in western European vernacular languages. Visual portrayals of the story appear not only in manuscripts and printed books but in individual pictures and pictorial narratives, and on an amazing array of objects including stained glass, wall paintings, tiles, tapestries, ivory boxes, combs, mirrors, shoes, and misericords.The pan-European and cross-media nature of the surviving medieval evidence is not adequately reflected in current Tristan scholarship, which largely follows disciplinary and linguistic lines. The contributors to "Visuality and Materiality in the Story of Tristan and Isolde" seek to address this problem by opening a cross-disciplinary dialogue and by proposing a new set of intellectual coordinates--the concepts of materiality and visuality--without losing sight of the historical specificity or the aesthetic character of individual works of art and literature. Their theoretical paradigm allows them to survey the richness of the surviving evidence from a variety of disciplinary approaches, while offering new perspectives on the nature of representation in medieval culture. Enriched by numerous illustrations, this volume is an important examination of the story of Tristan and Isolde in the European context of its visual and textual transmission. "Comprehensive and cutting edge, "Visuality and Materiality in the Story of Tristan and Isolde "defines the moment in the history of Tristan scholarship. The essays, gathered from both sides of the Atlantic, enrich and expand the key concepts of materiality and visuality to account for the proliferation of the Tristan story in an astonishing range of media. The collection gives scholars in several disciplines the tools to explore the productive connections between the verbal and the visual in medieval culture." --Sarah Westphal-Wihl, Washington University in St. Louis

The first monograph on the Vita Humana cycle at Tre Fontane, this book includes an overview of the medieval history of the Roman Cistercian abbey and its architecture, as well as a consideration of the political and cultural standing of the abbey both within Papal Rome and within the Cistercian order. Furthermore, it considers the commission of the fresco cycle, the circumstances of its making, and its position within the art historical context of the Roman Duecento. Examining the unusual blend of images in the Vita Humana cycle, this study offers a more nuanced picture of the iconographic repertoire of medieval art. Since the discovery of the frescoes in the 1960s, the iconographic programme of the cycle has remained mysterious, and an adequate analysis of the Vita Humana cycle as a whole has so far been lacking. Kristin B. Aavitsland covers this gap in the scholarship on Roman art circa 1300, and also presents the first interpretative discussion of the frescoes that is up-to-date with the architectural investigations undertaken in the monastery around 2000. Aavitsland proposes a rationale behind the conception of the fresco cycle, thereby providing a key for understanding its iconography and shedding new light on thirteenth-century Cistercian culture.

Nature and Illusion is the first extended treament of the portrayal of nature in Byzantine art and literature. In this richly illustrated study, Henry Maguire shows how the Byzantines embraced terrestrial creation in the decoration of their churches during the fifth to seventh centuries but then adopted a much more cautious attitude toward the depiction of animals and plants in the middle ages, after the iconoclastic dispute of the eighth and ninth centuries. In the medieval period, the art of Byzantine churches became more anthropocentric and less accepting of natural images. The danger that the latter might be put to idolatrous use created a constant state of tension between worldliness, represented by nature, and otherworldliness, represented by the portrait icons of the saints. The book discusses the role of iconoclasm in affecting this fundamental change in Byzantine art, as both sides in the controversy accused the other of "worshipping the creature rather than the Creator." An important theme is the asymmetrical relationship between Byzantine art and literature with respect to the portrayal of nature. A series of vivid texts described seasons, landscapes, gardens, and animals, but these were more sparingly illustrated in medieval art. Maguire concludes by discussing the abstraction of nature in the form of marble floors and revetments and with a consideration of the role of architectural backgrounds in medieval Byzantine art. Throughout Nature and Illusion, medieval Byzantine art is compared with that of Western Europe, where different conceptions of religious imagery allowed a closer engagement with nature.

"The Medieval World: The Walters Art Museum" presents some of the most important aspects of medieval art, through the examination of nearly 150 stunning objects from the Walters Art Museum, one of the richest collections of medieval art in the United States. It features superb examples of sculpture and carvings, metal and enamel work, stained glass, jewellery and illuminated manuscripts, ranging in date from the Romanesque and early Byzantine period to the late Gothic and early Renaissance period.
Divided into subjects such as the classical tradition and artistic process in the Middle Ages, the church as a heavenly space, saints, relics and devotion, and earthly possessions, each chapter is generously illustrated with artworks, special feature boxes, and details, which provide a fuller understanding of both the formal qualities and social context of medieval art.
A wonderfully written and illustrated introduction to the subject of medieval art and society, "The Medieval World" also features an extensive checklist, bibliography and index.

This is the first publication that narrates the significant contributions of Greek women in the various genres of the arts in a historical perspective from antiquity to contemporary Greece. It discusses Greek women in the disciplines of music, the visual arts, poetry and literature, film and theatre, and history. The historical roles of Greek women in music are examined including the first woman composer with preserved music that is a Byzantine-Greek. Readers will discover that it was a Greek woman philosopher who influenced the formation of Socrates' thinking and that the Iliad and Odyssey were actually written by a Hellenic woman but were later appropriated by Homer. Classic and contemporary Greek female writers are in the foreground as well as the modern art music and popular music by Greek women composers. The roles of Greek women in drama are examined and the significant works of contemporary Greek women artists are recognized.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger's groundbreaking study of the art of female monasticism explores the place of images and image-making in the spiritually of medieval nuns during the later Middle Ages. Working from an extraordinary and previously unknown group of devotional drawings made by a Benedictine nun for her cloistered companions, Hamburger discusses in unprecedented detail the distinctive visual culture of female communities. The drawings discovered by Hamburger and the genre to which they belong have never been given serious consideration by art historians, yet they serve as icons of the nuns' religious vocation in all its complexity. Setting the drawings and related imagery - manuscript illumination, prints, textiles, and metalwork - within the context of religious life and reform in late medieval Germany. Hamburger's book reconstructs the artistic, literary, and institutional traditions that shaped the lives of cloistered women. In illuminating the patterns and protocols of viewing that governed the nuns' devotional and liturgical life, Hamburger convincingly demonstrates the overwhelming importance of "seeing" in devotional practice, challenging traditional assumptions about the primacy of text over image in monastic piety. His presentation of the "visual culture of the convent" makes a fundamental contribution to the history of medieval art and more generally, of late medieval monasticism and spirituality.

English description: Heraldry is an important sub-field of the historical sciences. Coats of arms are a significant source of information, but their interpretation requires special skills. This second edition of Vaclav Filip's Introduction to Heraldry has been revised and expanded; particular emphasis is placed on the history of medieval heraldry "specialists," i.e., heralds and kings, and the inclusion of the Slavic language area. German text. German description: Die Heraldik ist ein wichtiges Arbeitsfeld der Historischen Hilfswissenschaften. Wappen bilden eine bedeutende Quellengattung, deren Interpretation jedoch spezielle Kenntnisse erfordert. Fuer die zweite Auflage hat Vaclav Filip seine Einfuehrung in die Heraldik ueberarbeitet und erweitert. Besonderes Augenmerk legt er auch auf die Geschichte der mittelalterlichen aHeraldiker, d.h. der Herolde und Wappenkonige, und auf die Einbeziehung des slavischen Sprachgebietes.