Jeffrey F. Hamburger Book order

Diagrams were a vital tool for Nikolaus von Kues, the 15th-century scholar, to convey divine truths. He commissioned colorful illustrations for his work, which modern interpretations often reduce to black and white, missing their deeper significance. Cusa's use of color mirrors the interplay of light and darkness, reflecting his theological concepts of God's visibility and hiddenness. These diagrams not only represent his epistemology and ontology but also invite viewers to engage in the pursuit of truth, showcasing Cusa's innovative approach within medieval traditions.

Zwanzig Beiträge in englischer und in deutscher Sprache präsentieren die jüngsten Forschungsergebnisse zur mitteleuropäischen Buchkunst des sogenannten „langen 15. Jahrhunderts“ von der Zeit der Prager Wenzelswerkstätten bis hin zur Zeit des jungen Dürer. Nicht zuletzt hatte in diesem Jahrhundert die Erfindung des Johannes Gutenberg einen entscheidenden Wandel der Herstellung, des Vertriebs und sukzessive auch der Ästhetik des Buchs herbeigeführt. Die Studien geben vertiefenden Einblick in eine Fülle von Handschriften und Inkunabeln dieser Zeit, widmen sich den Bezügen zwischen traditionell von Hand gefertigter Illumination und anderen Medien, besonders dem Druck und der graphischen Künste, und thematisieren die Probleme, vor allem aber die ungeahnten Möglichkeiten, die sich Künstlern und betrachtenden Lesern zwischen alten Ansprüchen, innovativer Technik und den Vorgaben eines wachsenden Buchmarkts boten.

"The history of the book in the fifteenth century is especially associated in German-speaking countries with Gutenberg's invention of printing with movable type. Over a century of scholarship has tended, often in rather gratuitous fashion, to dismiss the majority of illuminated manuscripts produced in central Europe between around 1400 and the Reformation as mediocre manifestations of a culture in decline. This book--originally published in German to accompany a series of exhibitions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from 2015 to 2017--was written to challenge these prejudices and the weight of tradition which they represent. It contains four wide-ranging art historical essays which for the first time give an overview of fifteenth-century illumination in Central Europe."--

Crown and Veil offers a broad introduction to the history and visual culture of female monasticism in the Middle Ages, from the earliest communities of Late Antiquity to the Reformation. Scholars from numerous disciplines offer a wide range of perspectives not to be found in any other single book on the subject, placing the art, architecture, literature, liturgy, religious practices, and economic foundations of these communities within a wide historical and cultural context. Long considered marginal to mainstream history, nuns and canonesses in fact had a profound influence on medieval culture. Revered and admired as models of piety, they commanded considerable prestige and exercised a significant degree of political power. Whether acting as producers or patrons of art, nuns were widely celebrated for their imaginative accomplishments. Focusing on the visual culture of female monastic communities in the German Empire, Frankish Gaul, Langobard Italy, and Anglo-Saxon England, this volume underscores the richness of largely unfamiliar material and its role in shaping distinctive forms of religious life.

The Visual and the Visionary puts the study of female spirituality on a new footing and provides a nuanced account of the changing role of images in medieval monasticism from the twelfth century to the Reformation. In ten essays embracing the history of art, religion, and literature, Jeffrey Hamburger explores the interrelationships between the visual arts and female spirituality in the context of the cura monialium , the pastoral care of nuns.Used as instruments of instruction and inspiration, images occupied a central, if controversial, place in debates over devotional practice, monastic reform, and mystical expression. Far from supplementing a history of art from which they have been excluded, the images made by and for women shaped that history decisively by defining novel modes of religious expression, especially the relationship between sight and subjectivity. With this book, the study of female piety and artistic patronage becomes an integral part of a general history of medieval art and spirituality.The Visual and the Visionary was awarded the 1999 Charles Rufus Prize by the College Art Association and the 1999 Roland H. Bainton Prize for Art and Music History by the Sixteenth Century Conference.

The Rothschild Canticles is one of the most unusual illuminated manuscripts to have survived from the Middle Ages. Produced for a nun at the turn of the 14th century, it served as an aid to mystical devotions in which images played as central a role as the written word. Visionary depictions of Paradise, the Song of Songs, the Virgin Mary, the Trinity, and hundreds of other subjects based on texts ranging from the Bible to the Lives of the Desert Fathers together form a devotional program that transports the reader toward contemplative union with God.