Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800-1500
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A magnificent volume on the fascinating history of book production and patronage within the Holy Roman Empire.
Far more than mere transmitters of knowledge and texts, printed books and manuscripts played a crucial role in the cultural history of the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages. Counting among the most cherished possessions of medieval religious foundations, and carefully guarded over the centuries, they acted as preservers of collective memory and tradition. Scribes and artists across the Empire developed an array of visual devices and techniques that transformed these manuscripts into vivid manifestations of ritual, prestige, and power.
Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800–1500 offers a sweeping overview of manuscript production in the Holy Roman Empire. Essays by Joshua O’Driscoll, the Morgan’s Associate Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, and Harvard University professor Jeffrey F. Hamburger explore the fundamental aspects of this history, including how artists developed a visual rhetoric of power, the role of the aristocratic elite in the production and patronage of manuscripts, and the impact of Albrecht Dürer and humanism on the arts of the book.
Published by the Morgan Library & Museum and D Giles Limited