Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
For anyone studying the Middle Ages, there is no substitute for hands-on experience of actual medieval manuscripts. Our way of making this happen is a unique and innovative program, “Manuscripts in the Curriculum,” which lends colleges, universities, and other educational institutions in North America a group of manuscripts during a segment of the academic year (semester, quarter, or summer session). Although public display of the manuscripts is encouraged, central to the philosophy of the new program is the integration of real manuscripts into the curriculum in courses where students can work closely with original material under the guidance of a professor.
Manuscripts in the Curriculum III
The third cycle of this program will begin in January 2024. A group of nine manuscripts will be available for loan, representing manuscripts from across Europe in Latin and the vernacular from various dates; it is possible to customize the program with the addition of two “wild card” manuscripts especially suited to the needs of the participating institution (a sample list of manuscripts is here).
There is a nominal cost ($5,500) for North American institutions to contribute towards the out-of-pocket expenses of the program (with an additional fee for participating Canadian institutions for international shipping and customs). The fee covers administration, insurance, shipping, and condition reports. The program also includes a zoom-meeting with the supervising curator and faculty to discuss the loan, and one class session on the manuscripts presented via zoom by Sandra Hindman and Laura Light (at a time mutually agreed upon by Les Enluminures and the participating institution).
It is our hope that the program will serve as a springboard, enabling participating institutions to discover and implement ways that manuscripts can continue to be used creatively in their curricula.For examples of how the manuscripts have been used by past participants in the program, see our "Program in action" pdfs below; you can also find news about MITC on our text manuscripts blog.
For further information, please contact: lauralight@lesenluminures.com
MANUSCRIPTS IN THE CURRICULUM III - THE PROGRAM
MANUSCRIPTS IN THE CURRICULUM II - THE PROGRAM
MANUSCRIPTS IN THE CURRICULUM I - THE PROGRAM
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - IOWA LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - WALDO LIBRARY WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION - NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION: SUDENTS POSTERS, NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION: ILLUMINATING LIFE, EXHIBITION CATALOGUE, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
THE PROGRAM IN ACTION: OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
Medieval manuscripts illuminate Pitt-Greensburg course on the history of books
Blog: MANUSCRIPTS IN THE CURRICULUM II: NEWS FROM THE FIELD. A GUEST BLOG FROM SUNY GENESEO
A very early collection of the still unedited sermons of the influential Dominican preacher and royal advisor Nicholas of Gorran, this manuscript is an extremely important witness, having been copied during the author’s lifetime, possibly even with his supervision. Changes to this volume early on may reveal Nicholas’s intentions as he shaped these sermons at the Dominican convent of Saint-Jacques in Paris. Handsomely decorated, with a charming illuminated initial depicting the author receiving Christ’s blessing, this was quite possibly made for a recipient of some importance.
Letters apparently from the circle of the Medici, plus extracts from classical, legal, and historical sources distinguish this remarkable Humanist miscellany that illustrates the breadth of humanist literary culture in Quattrocento Italy. This complex manuscript was created in stages by several scribes and possibly even in several cities; it may have accrued material as it passed from one Humanist scholar to another. Study and communication at the height of the Italian Renaissance come to light in this unique and complex witness of humanist learning.
The recovery of Greek language and literature was one of the most influential achievements of the Italian Renaissance. This handsome manuscript, signed and dated by its scribe in a detailed colophon, presents four of the earliest Renaissance translations from Greek into Latin by two important humanists, Leonardo Bruni and Guarino of Verona. The treatises reflect important concerns of Italian humanism, the proper education of the young and the nature of government. Although each of these works survives in hundreds of manuscripts in institutional collections (the text by Xenophon is very rare on the market), the full context of their transmission and of the present collection have never been fully explored.
Remarkably well-preserved religious miscellany from Italy, featuring works by, and attributed to, Jerome. The clear script, idiosyncratic decoration, and ample margins suggest that it was produced for a wealthy lay-person to serve as an overview of Jerome’s works. There are numerous Italian compilations of Jerome’s works in institutional collections but few have been offered for sale in the past decade, and fewer feature the works in the present manuscript; the Schoenberg Database lists De Lapsu Virginis as a particularly scarce work, with only one other copy available for sale in 1957.
This small-format Franciscan miscellany, in a contemporary blind-stamped binding, includes an excerpt from Bartolomaeus de Rinonico, a classic and rare Franciscan text by an Italian friar, and Book IV of the great Imitatio Christi, evidence of its dissemination into Italy and readership by Franciscans. The Italian translation of a text on the Mass, known in only one other manuscript, and the text on the Divine Office at Septuagesima, perhaps unique to this manuscript, are of particular importance and the miscellany warrants further study for its unusual contents.
Only fragments of this Augustinian Breviary are preserved here. Included are parts of the Psalter, Hymns, parts of the Common of Saints, and the Office of the Dead and Hours of the Virgin. Originally it probably also included a calendar, and Offices for the Year, arranged according to the Temporale and Sanctorale. The two remaining illuminated initials indicate that this was likely once an illuminated manuscript of considerable elegance.
This is a copy of a text of great importance in the history of theology, notable for the attractiveness of its script. Richard of St. Victor’s De trinitate was popular in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but there are fewer manuscripts from the fifteenth century, making the origin of this manuscript with its careful contemporary notes of interest in the history of the reception of the text. There are no copies in the United States (a one-leaf fragment is at Columbia) and no recent sales are recorded in the Schoenberg Database (and in fact no sales since the nineteenth century).
Elegant manuscript containing two works of spiritual and moral edification in French translation. The first text is known in only five extant manuscript and is still unedited. There is neither a modern critical edition of the second text, nor a complete census of the existing manuscripts; the copy here was apparently made from an incunable edition of c. 1490. This manuscript begins with a remarkable added full-page illuminated frontispiece with the coat of arms and motto of Louis de Grolée (fl. late fifteenth-early sixteenth century), the abbot of Bonnevaux and Saint-Pierre de Vienne. Louis was the proud owner of exceptional books including volumes once owned by King Louis IX and Jean, Duc de Berry; the story of how he acquired these manuscripts, and his practice of personalizing them with illuminated heraldic compositions, is waiting to be told.
