After the Carolingians : Re-defining Manuscript Illumination in the 10th and 11th Centuries

A volume that introduces new sources and offers fresh perspectives on a key era of transition, this book is of value to art historians and historians alike. From the dissolution of the Carolingian empire to the onset of the so-called 12th-century Renaissance, the transformative 10th–11th centuries witnessed the production of a significant number of illuminated manuscripts from present-day France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy, alongside the better-known works from Anglo-Saxon England and the Holy Roman Empire. While the hybrid styles evident in book painting reflect the movement and re-organization of people and codices, many of the manuscripts also display a highly creative engagement with the art of the past. Likewise, their handling of subject matter—whether common or new for book illumination—attests to vibrant artistic energy and innovation. On the basis of rarely studied scientific, religious, and literary manuscripts, the contributions in this volume address a range of issues, including the engagement of 10th–11th century bookmakers with their Carolingian and Antique legacies, the interwoven geographies of book production, and matters of modern politics and historiography that have shaped the study of this complex period. Acknowledgments......Page 5 Contents......Page 7 Contributors......Page 9 Abbreviations......Page 11 Introduction......Page 13 The Master of the Bern Psychomachia: Reconstructing an Artistic Personality in the Late Ninth Century......Page 29 Creative Borrowing in a Leiden Terence (UB, MS VLQ 38)......Page 69 Imaging and Imagining Solidity......Page 98 Imaging Time, Computation and Astronomy: A Computus Collection from Micy-Saint-Mesmin (Vatican, BAV, MS Reg. lat. 1263) and Early Eleventh-Century Illumination in the Loire Region......Page 130 Creativity at the End(s) of an Empire: Biblical Compilation and Illustration at the Monastery of Ripoll......Page 173 Working and Reworking the Book: The Saint-Vaast Gospels and Its Manuscript Context......Page 195 Shaping Tradition: The Use of the Carolingian Past in a Tenth-Century Manuscript at the Morgan Library (PML, MS M.319)......Page 225 From Gold Script to sermo rusticus: Book Illumination in Northern Italy at the Turn of the Millennium, the Case of Milan and Ivrea......Page 257 With Pen and Knife: Illuminating Blindness in a Forgotten Sacramentary......Page 285 Ovid at the Crossroads: Illustrations of the Metamorphoses in Apulia Before 1071......Page 314 Avianus and the Apocalypse in Paris, BnF, Ms. n.a.l. 1132......Page 348 Embodied Time, Narrative, and Performance in the Prüm Troper......Page 387 In Between, Center, and Periphery: The Art of Illumination on the Early Medieval Iberian Peninsula......Page 412 Apollonius pictus Reevaluated: Kurt Weitzmann’s Legacy and the Multilayered Historicity of Medieval Manuscripts......Page 445 Select Bibliography......Page 470 Index of Manuscripts......Page 482 Index of Places......Page 489 Index of Names......Page 491 "The dissolution of the Carolingian Empire had a dramatic impact on the production of manuscripts across western Europe. Too often regarded in terms of imitation and decline, the illuminated books produced during the turbulant 10th and 11th centuries in fact reframe critical issues of historical inquiry, from the nature of artistic originality, to the significance of visual styles, to the working relations of artists and patrons. Focusing on rarely studied manuscripts from a range of continental regions, this volume argues for the central role of book painting in an age of transformation"-- Back cover