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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1203: Codices Grandiores: Very Large Manuscripts, Reform, and a Project for Methodological Renewal

Wednesday 8 July 2015, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Codices Grandiores Project
Organiser:Lila Yawn, Department of Art History & Studio Art, John Cabot University, Roma / American Academy, Rome
Moderator/Chair:Edward Schoolman, Department of History, University of Nevada, Reno
Respondent:Erik Kwakkel, Centre for the Arts in Society, Universiteit Leiden
Paper 1203-aOn Giant Bibles and Historiographic Bubbles: The Bibbie atlantiche, 11th-12th Centuries, from Sirletus to Supino
(Language: English)
Lila Yawn, Department of Art History & Studio Art, John Cabot University, Roma / American Academy, Rome
Index terms: Art History - Painting, Biblical Studies, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 1203-bThe Largest Manuscripts from before 800: Patterns and Implications of One-Hide-Per Bifolium
(Language: English)
Mary Garrison, Department of History, University of York
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract

Very large manuscripts on the one-animal-per-bifolium scale have long been interpreted as signs and instruments of reform and renewal in the Middle Ages, from the lavish pandect Bibles of the Carolingian renovatio to the giant church books donated to religious institutions during the ecclesiastical reforms of the 11th and 12th centuries. This inaugural session of the Codices Grandiores Project examines the historiography of the nexus between 'reform' and giant books and considers how new, multi-disciplinary methods may shed further light on the reasons (functional, symbolic, technical, environmental) behind the choice to produce manuscripts in folio maximo.