3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course aims to introduce students to Western medieval book painting from the birth of the codex to the advent of the printed book, between 400 and 1500 C.E. Each week we will study a theme of particular importance for the period. Besides learning about questions central to medieval art and history (artistic practices, patronage, gender, race, and representation of power), we will pay particular attention to the issue of how these manuscripts were read, perceived, and used. To this end, the course will have an interdisciplinary approach to codices. Beside art history, we will mobilize the tools of history, history of religion, manuscript and book studies, anthropology, and psychology. Taking advantage of the rich collections of Johns Hopkins and Baltimore, we will study original manuscripts, facsimiles, and incunabula every week.