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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 701: Manuscript Production in England, France, and Central Europe: Patrons, Collections, Artists, and Context

Tuesday 6 July 2021, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Katherine Rush, Department of the History of Art, University of California, Riverside
Paper 701-aClimate of Change: The Case of Production of the Hamburg Apocalypse (Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Carl von Ossietzky, Codex In Scrinio 87)
(Language: English)
Polina Yaroslavtseva, Exzellenzcluster 'Understanding Written Artefacts', Universität Hamburg
Index terms: Art History - General, Art History - Painting, Religious Life
Paper 701-b'Ici faut glose et tixt et premier fuill suivant a tieu signe la troverez': New Suggestions about Early Ownership of the Paris Apocalypse (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Fr. 403), c. 1250-1470
(Language: English)
Emerson Richards, Department of Comparative Literature, Indiana University / Department of History, University of Manchester
Index terms: Bibliography, Heraldry, Lay Piety, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 701-cThe Voynich Manuscript's Intellectual Climate and Authorship
(Language: English)
Keagan Brewer, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Sydney
Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Women's Studies
Abstract

Paper -a:
The Hamburg Apocalypse (Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Carl von Ossietzky, Codex In Scrinio 87) is a manuscript from the first quarter of the 14th century and was most likely executed in the monastery of St Peter and Paul in Erfurt. The manuscript contains text of the Revelation of John with a prologue by Gilbertus Porretanus and it is vividly illustrated. Hamburg Apocalypse belongs to a small group of German Apocalypses within which it has a unique status. Although the illustrations of the manuscript are clearly made in German style, the compositions and the selection of some scenes probably refer, among others, to English templates. However, the principles of the organisation of English manuscripts here have been greatly transformed, which offers a complete new system of visual organisation and interplay of the text with illustrations.

Readjusting illustrative program and system of visual organisation of the contemporary English cycles along with ones of the older templates, as well as integrating an uncommon for this period Latin commentary of Gilbertus, the designer of the Hamburg Apocalypse had created a completely unique cycle. This paper investigates the cultural climate, in which the manuscript was produced. It also addresses possible templates, that may have had influenced, directly or indirectly the production of the Hamburg manuscript.

Paper -b:
This paper presents new evidence that the Paris Apocalypse (Paris, BnF, MS fr. 403) was originally owned by the Clare Family, in particular Richard de Clare (5th Earl of Hertford, 6th Earl of Gloucester) and his wife Maud. Previously, scholarship traced the 1250s Paris Apocalypse only to the 1370s in Charles V's collection. My evidence for earlier provenance draws on the scribe's use of the Clare's arms, three red chevrons, as the first signe-de-renvoi, a symbol to guide the reader. From the Clares, I am able to trace the manuscript into the English royal collection of Edward I and II, connect it with the previously known provenance of ownership by John Duke of Bedford, and back into a heretofore unknown ownership of William Cleve, rector of Cliff at Hoo.

Paper -c:
The enciphered Voynich Manuscript has captured the public imagination but rarely been the subject of study by medievalists. This is despite the fact that carbon dating has placed the fascinating manuscript firmly in the 15th century. The many odd illustrations of plants, nude European-looking women, baths, tubes, and stars, among other things, place the text's intellectual climate firmly in a variety of entangled late-medieval European sciences, including astrology, balneology, herbology, and gynaecology. I propose Dr Johannes Hartlieb (c. 1410-1468) as a candidate for authorship. Hartlieb wrote on all these matters, lived at the right time and place, and is on record as having suggested the use of ciphers to hide sensitive women's matters. In my opinion, Hartlieb is the most viable candidate proposed thus far for the text's author. Even if this hypothesis proves incorrect, I make two broader claims: 1. That the manuscript's intellectual climate is observable in its illustrations; and 2. That medievalists can and should bring their expertise to bear on the manuscript.