Everything is Illuminated

July 27, 2005 10:09 AM

Cambridge Illuminations claims to be the largest exhibition of medieval illuminated manuscripts since 1908. To see all 200 exhibits, you'll have to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; but 65 of the best, including the sixth-century Gospels of St Augustine and the recently discovered Macclesfield Psalter, can be viewed online.
posted by verstegan (8 comments total)

Nice links. Here's another recent MeFi post about French illuminated manuscripts.
posted by OmieWise at 10:32 AM on July 27, 2005

These are so beautiful! Thanks!
posted by mrs.pants at 10:35 AM on July 27, 2005

My favorites are from the Carolingian era (8th and 9th C). In part because they were made during the Iconoclasm controversy when the depiction of people was not allowed in the Byzantine world. Charlemagne made a conscious choice to allow the depiction of human forms. Had he not, western art would have been very much stunted since Carolingian art set the stage for everything else that followed. So you can see individual pictures and manuscripts that were the seed of it all, in particular the Utrecht Psalter. Many of them look hauntingly modern like something out of a graphic novel.
posted by stbalbach at 10:49 AM on July 27, 2005

Thanks for cluing me in on this. We are just about to start figuring out what we're doing while we're in Britain this winter, and this is a great excuse to visit the Fitz.
posted by Medieval Maven at 12:10 PM on July 27, 2005

This looks like a fantastic exhibition: I’d love to go see it (though I’ll probably just end up ordering the catalogue). Many thanks for the links, verstegan.
posted by misteraitch at 12:10 PM on July 27, 2005

See also: Blackpool Illuminations.
posted by biffa at 1:07 AM on July 28, 2005

verstegan, this is superb, and I'm going to share it with all my medievalist friends today! Have you seen the Saint Albans Psalter, The Aberdeen Bestiary, and the Leaves of Gold exhibits on the web?
posted by anastasiav at 6:24 AM on July 28, 2005

Beautiful...And saveable.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 1:19 PM on July 28, 2005