Choirs of Angels: Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300-1500 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This delightful book describes and illustrates the Metropolitan Museums collection of nearly 40 illuminations from Italian choral manuscripts. Representing the work of Gothic and Renaissance masters both celebrated and anonymous, these precious paintings in miniature---with their compelling narrative, brilliant color, and shining gold---bear witness to exceptional aesthetic accomplishment. The choir books they illuminate are a rich source of information about the development of chant, whose unexpected transcendent tonalities have abiding appeal today. They also serve as primary sources for the study of the lives of religious communities and of the philosophy and faith that infused medieval Europe, offering a glimpse of Italy at the dawn of the Renaissance. Published in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition The Metropolitan Museum of Art (November 25, 2008 April 12, 2009)

This delightful book describes and illustrates the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of nearly 40 illuminations from Italian choral manuscripts. Representing the work of Gothic and Renaissance masters both celebrated and anonymous, these precious paintings in miniature—-with their compelling narrative, brilliant color, and shining gold—-bear witness to exceptional aesthetic accomplishment. The choir books they illuminate are a rich source of information about the development of chant, whose unexpected transcendent tonalities have abiding appeal today. They also serve as primary sources for the study of the lives of religious communities and of the philosophy and faith that infused medieval Europe, offering a glimpse of Italy at the dawn of the Renaissance.

"This book describes and illustrates the Metropolitan Museum's collection of nearly 40 illuminations from Italian choral manuscripts. Representing the work of Gothic and Renaissance masters both celebrated and anonymous, these precious paintings in miniature - with their compelling narrative, brilliant color, and shining gold - bear witness to exceptional aesthetic accomplishment. The choir books they illuminate are a rich source of information about the development of chant, whose unexpected transcendent tonalities have abiding appeal today. They also serve as primary sources for the study of the lives of religious communities and of the philosophy and faith that infused medieval Europe, offering a glimpse of Italy at the dawn of the Renaissance."--Jacket Slim but packed full of beautiful colour illustrations, this book examines the role and production of illuminated chor books in late medieval Italy. Boehm looks at how choir books were used, at the development of musical notation, and most of all at the interlinking of art and music in medieval thought.