Examinations of the use of diagrams, symbols etc. found as commentary in medieval texts. In our electronic age, we are accustomed to the use of icons, symbols, graphs, charts, diagrams and visualisations as part of the vocabulary of communication. But this rich ecosystem is far from a modern phenomenon. Early medievalmanuscripts demonstrate that their makers and readers achieved very sophisticated levels of "graphicacy". When considered from this perspective, many elements familiar to students of manuscript decoration - embellished charactersin scripts, decorated initials, monograms, graphic symbols, assembly marks, diagrammatic structures, frames, symbolic ornaments, musical notation - are revealed to be not minor, incidental marks but crucial elements within the larger sign systems of manuscripts. This interdisciplinary volume is the first to discuss the conflation of text and image with a specific focus on the appearance of various graphic devices in manuscript culture. By looking attheir many forms as they appear from the fourth century to their full maturity in the long ninth century, its contributors demonstrate the importance of these symbols to understanding medieval culture. Michelle P. Brown FSA is Professor Emerita of Medieval Book History at the School of Advanced Study, University of London and was formerly the Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library; Ildar Garipzanov is Professor of Early Medieval History at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo; Benjamin C. Tilghman is Assistant Professor of Art History at Washington College. Contributors: Tina Bawden, Michelle P.Brown, Leslie Brubaker, David Ganz, Ildar H. Garipzanov, Cynthia Hahn, Catherine E. Karkov, Herbert L. Kessler, Beatrice Kitzinger, Kallirroe Linardou, Lawrence Nees, Eric Palazzo, Benjamin C. Tilghman.

This book concerns objects that were "meaningful" jewels, a term we choose to designate a wide range of precious wearable objects that had particular meaning. An Anglo-Saxon glass pendant, a Spanish "magic belt," a Mexican lantern pendant (once adorned with New World feathers), and an Imperial Memento Mori Skull, these are just a few of the remarkable objects included. These intimate meaningful jewels are meant to be opened, touched, manipulated, pinned, gathered and strung. In the same series of books on jewelry inaugurated in 2007 with Toward an Art History of Medieval Rings (repr. 2014), the present volume divides the jewels into six sections (such as "Ways and Means of Prayer," "Hidden and Revealed," "Kissed and Touched") that creatively explore the complex meanings these objects held for their owners. Cynthia Hahn, internationally known for her explorative ground-breaking studies of the reliquary arts, has written the stimulating essays and accompanying entries in the body of the book. She has collaborated here with Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, who, with her great mastery of the history of jewelry, has contributed a scholarly catalogue that authenticates, describes, and situates each object. Together the essays, entries, and catalogue create a context that helps us see this jewelry in a new way and adds new research that establishes the historical and artistic importance of a relatively little-studied group of "meaningful jewels." In the words of Cynthia Hahn, "Jewels, and that word here includes jewelry, are literally the foundation of art in the Middle Ages. It is surely not irrelevant that these things are so beautiful." Sandra Hindman, Founder and President of Les Enluminures states "I have bought these pieces one by one over a period of fi fteen years (and put them aside with this project in mind), and to my knowledge no such collection has been assembled, studied, and exhibited in modern times". She goes on to say, "Not at all unlike the medieval manuscripts I also present, they are some of the most intimate of art objects from the Middle Ages."

The Darnley jewel, a masterpiece of the goldsmith's art on display at Edinburgh's Holyrood Palace, has been deemed a love token, but has also been labelled an emblem of political ambition. Taking the shape of a heart, the jewel was produced at a moment (1565-75) when such objects worn by courtiers were a primary means of asserting status and proclaiming allegiances. With a deep medieval history - originally the fleshly power centre of the human body, the seat of the soul, and place of memory and emotion - the heart has many aspects to offer. This book shows how the understanding of the heart changed during the Middle Ages, from spiritual locus of the body, to source of devotion to country, and finally, to the font of love and sentimentality.

Although objects associated with the Passion and suffering of Christ are among the most important and sacred relics venerated by the Catholic Church, this is the first study that considers how they were presented to the faithful. Cynthia Hahn adopts an accessible, informative, and holistic approach to the important history of Passion relics-first the True Cross, and then the collective group of Passion relics-examining their display in reliquaries, their presentation in church environments, their purposeful collection as centerpieces in royal and imperial collections, and finally their veneration in pictorial form as Arma Christi. Tracing the ways that Passion relics appear and disappear in response to Christian devotion and to historical phenomena, ranging from pilgrimage and the Crusades to the promotion of imperial power, this groundbreaking investigation presents a compelling picture of a very important aspect of late medieval and early modern devotion.

A sweeping and original study of the structuring of sanctity in pictorial hagiography, Hahn's book teases out the sophisticated rhetoric and imaginative independence of the illustrations to medieval lives of the saints. In systematically surveying the many ways in which narrative imagery reached out to and responded to a variety of audiences, "Portrayed on the Heart will take its place among the most compelling studies of medieval narrative in any medium.--Jeffrey Hamburger, "The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany and "Nuns As Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent

In her superb analysis of the development of hagiographic pictorial narrative, Cynthia Hahn has achieved both historical precision and critical nuance. It is the very best sort of interdisciplinary work, showing the complex symbiosis of visual and textual narrative. This is one of the handful of best books I have read about medieval sanctity. Thomas Head, editor of "Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology

Cynthia Hahn's "Portrayed on the Heart, richly and beautifully illustrated, is both scholarly and entertaining. It is an interpretive feat that makes hagiographic manuscripts come alive as a dynamic dialogue between text and image. In a sophisticated application of narrative theory to illustrated manuscripts, Hahn shows how images "speak" to a medieval audience, elicit responses that are more emotional than those to a written text, and function as devotional objects. Far from being "mere" illustrations, images can reshape the textual presentation of a saint, make visible spiritual struggles, turn readers into witnesses to sanctity, and even play a role in canonizationproceedings. This is a wonderful book that deserves a wide readership. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, "Reading Myth: Classical Mythology and its Interpretations in Medieval French Literature

Reliquaries, one of the central art forms of the Middle Ages, have recently been the object of much interest among historians and artists. Until now, however, they have had no treatment in English that considers their history, origins, and place within religious practice, or, above all, their beauty and aesthetic value. In Strange Beauty, Cynthia Hahn treats issues that cut across the class of medieval reliquaries as a whole. She is particularly concerned with portable reliquaries that often contained tiny relic fragments, which purportedly allowed saints to actively exercise power in the world.

Above all, Hahn argues, reliquaries are a form of representation. They rarely simply depict what they contain; rather, they prepare the viewer for the appropriate reception of their precious contents and establish the "story" of the relics. They are based on forms originating in the Bible, especially the cross and the Ark of the Covenant, but find ways to renew the vision of such forms. They engage the viewer in many ways that are perhaps best described as persuasive or "rhetorical," and Hahn uses literary terminology--sign, metaphor, and simile--to discuss their operation. At the same time, they make use of unexpected shapes--the purse, the arm or foot, or disembodied heads--to create striking effects and emphatically suggest the presence of the saint.