Table of Contents
Introduction
Essay
Books of Hours
I Calendar
II Gospel Lessons
III Hours of the Virgin
IV Hours of the Cross
V Additional Prayers to the Virgin
VI Hours of the Holy Spirit
VII Penitential Psalms
VIII Office of the Dead
IX Accessory Texts
X Peacocks and Eggs
Bibliography
Online Exhibitions
Special Collections Home
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General Introduction
Curated by Kevin Kalish, Department of English and
Christina Linsenmeyer van Schalkwyk, Department of Music
Rarely does the opportunity come to peruse, page by page, through a medieval
book or manuscript.
This exhibit attempts just that. By following the arrangement of this
exhibition, the viewer sees the structure
and format of a Book of Hours writ large. Books of Hours, one specimen in the
history of Illuminated Manuscripts,
exhibit a vivid interplay between image and text.
Washington University Libraries Department of Special Collections
'
holdings of ten fifteenth-century French and Flemish Books of Hours offer a
glimpse into this popular medieval genre.
The exhibition is arranged in order to introduce the viewer to the
illuminations that accompany the essential texts
found in Books of Hours. The illuminations introduce the sections of the text;
as Roger Wieck describes them, "they
provided the themes upon which to meditate; they were 'painted prayers'"
(Painted Prayers, p. 22). Although there is
much variation in the structure of a Book of Hours, their format may be
generalized. See the
list
at right from Roger Wieck's
book Painted Prayers. Please use the hand card to accompany your walk-through
of the sections. In the last section, we have
chosen to highlight two particular symbols evident in our collection that were
not as much discussed in Books of Hours
literature:
peacocks and eggs
.
The
tall case
next to
section IV
is separate from the overall exhibition order and displays the actual
manuscripts.
The manuscripts are again arranged in a "walk-through" order. Here, the
complete descriptions of the books can be seen,
as well as a contextualizing
essay
concerning the history of illuminated medieval manuscript.
Symbolism of Devotion:
A semiotic reading of these images unpacks the layers of meaning relevant to
medieval Christianity. The approach
will be a basic one, primarily concerned with the image and its parts as
identifiable symbols -- things that stand for something
else. The illuminations in Books of Hours are an interesting case, because the
illuminations do not gloss the text, but rather
introduce relevant themes. Etymologically the Greek word sumbolon, from which
"symbol" is derived, means a bringing together.
The symbolism in the illuminations, though obscure and unfamiliar to us now,
told stories and presented images whose
significance was evident to a seasoned medieval viewer. The illuminations in
these Books of Hours depict Scriptural
themes and narratives relating to Feast Days, such as the legends of the Virgin
and Saints. The images illustrate scenes,
characters and their identifying signposts. The following discussion will
touch two large aspects of symbolism: 1.) the applied,
practical form in which the symbols function to identify a person or object
(such as Mary Magdalene identified by her ointment jar); and
2.) the expressive, imaginative form, where the symbol is a visual metaphor for
an idea, such as an attribute
(a crown representing glory, for instance) or a Christian message (such as King
David embodying penitence). Practicality
and spirituality are joined in these depictions, which use symbols as a visual
language. The word of God is not only evident
in the text, but within these manuals for devotional prayer the illuminations
themselves present a means of Christian meditation.
Scriptural references are to the Douay-Rheims Version, since it most closely
follows the Latin Vulgate.
Kevin Kalish, Department of English and
Christina Linsenmeyer van Schalkwyk, Department of Music
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