Exhibiting Medieval and Renaissance Books: Pages from the Past: Roundtable on Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston-Area Collections

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

A roundtable discussion with the cocurators of the forthcoming exhibition "Pages from the Past: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston-Area Collections" (Fall 2016). Drawing exclusively from the rich holdings of Boston-area libraries and museums, the exhibition will showcase for the first time over two hundred outstanding medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and printed books concurrently at three venues on both sides of the Charles River. Cloister and Cathedral: The Church and the Book in the Middle Ages, Houghton Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Harvard University; The Art of Illumination, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; and The Italian Renaissance Book, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Each venue will highlight one of the three principal contexts for the patronage, production, and reception of books over the course of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, presenting the volumes in the ideal libraries of three different types of reader: the monk, lay person, and Renaissance prince.

Sub Unit

• RSA Annual Meeting

Organizer

• Anne Marie Eze, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Chair

• Nathaniel Silver, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Discussants

• Anne Marie Eze, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

• Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Harvard University

• Nancy Netzer, Boston College

• William Stoneman, Houghton Library