Scholars have until now lacked a detailed study of the Octateuchs, a group of five illustrated Byzantine manuscripts that accompany the text of the first eight books of the Bible. Since the first historical studies of Early Christian and Byzantine art in the late nineteenth century, the Octateuchs have been considered important to hypotheses about the development of biblical illustration as well as to more detailed iconographic studies. John Lowden's study makes available much new information about the Octateuchs that includes a number of previously unpublished manuscript images and pages.Lowden examines the Octateuchs both individually and as a group, determining the relationships among them and offering many suggestions concerning the process of their creation. The author also covers topics ranging from antiquity to the Renaissance and takes up issues as diverse as the invention of illustration, the transmission of iconography, the role of archetypes and lost models, and the artist as copyist or inventor. His broader discussion includes individual works ranging from Dura Europos to the Sistine Chapel and art-historical constructs such as the Macedonian Renaissance. In addition, Lowden critically examines approaches to studies of such illustrations, specifically those of Kurt Weitzmann.

The Octateuchs: A Study in Byzantine Manuscript Illustration

Arts & Photography

Lowden, John

History & Criticism

Penn State University Press

The Bibles Moralisées are by far the richest and most complex attempt at biblical illustration ever undertaken. Seven of them survive today, made primarily for the kings and queens of France between the early thirteenth and late fifteenth centuries. John Lowden’s pioneering two-volume study brings new material to light and offers a wholly new approach to understanding the Bibles, which contain literally thousands of figures.
Volume I, based on exhaustive codicological analysis, considers the making and the later history of use of each of the manuscripts. Volume II investigates in detail the treatment of one portion of the Bible, the Book of Ruth, in all the manuscripts. Discussion is supported by many new photographs in color and black and white. Together the two volumes challenge conventional wisdom about both the Bibles Moralisées and the relationship of word and image in medieval culture.

The Making of the Bibles Moralisées: Volume I: The Manuscripts

Literature & Fiction

AWARD WINNER - 2002 OTTO GRUNDLER PRIZE for the best book in Medieval Studies, sponsored by The Medieval InstituteThe Bibles Moralisées are by far the richest and most complex attempt at biblical illustration ever undertaken. Seven of them survive today, made primarily for the kings and queens of France between the early thirteenth and late fifteenth centuries. John Lowden's pioneering two-volume study brings new material to light and offers a wholly new approach to understanding the Bibles, which contain literally thousands of figures.Volume I, based on exhaustive codicological analysis, considers the making and the later history of use of each of the manuscripts. Volume II investigates in detail the treatment of one portion of the Bible, the Book of Ruth, in all the manuscripts. Discussion is supported by many new photographs in color and black and white. Together the two volumes challenge conventional wisdom about both the Bibles Moralisées and the relationship of word and image in medieval culture.

The Making of the Bibles Moralisées: Volume II: The Book of Ruth (Making of the Bible Moralisees)

Until 2008 the Jaharis Lectionary was a hidden treasure: an illuminated Byzantine manuscript that was almost entirely unknown, even to scholars. Superbly preserved, it is arguably the most important Byzantine work to come to the Metropolitan Museum’s renowned collection since the 1917 gifts of J. Pierpont Morgan. It represents the apogee of Constantinopolitan craftsmanship around the year 1100. 
In this important study, John Lowden, a leading expert on Byzantine manuscripts, discusses his discoveries about this extraordinary manuscript within the broader context of Byzantine book illumination. He traces the book’s history from its acquisition to its production in Constantinople. By detailed analysis and comparison, the author shows how the manuscript was made for use in the patriarchal church of Hagia Sophia.

The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary: The Story of a Byzantine Book

Religion & Spirituality

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Illuminated manuscripts collected by successive kings and queens of England form the heart of a unique and visually stunning collection held by the British Library. A key figure in the formation of this collection was King Edward IV (1461–83), who commissioned a number of luxury manuscripts decorated with his arms. Subsequent monarchs added to this library, which was given to the nation by George II in 1757. Over 150 examples from this exceptional collection are presented in this catalog, which accompanies a major British Library exhibition of the same name. These manuscripts contain paintings produced by some of the finest artists of the Middle Ages. Highlights include the Book of Hours, made for Henry VIII’s great grandmother, Margaret Beauchamp; Henry VIII’s Psalter, commissioned and annotated by the king himself; maps of an itinerary from London to Apulia and to the Holy Land; and the Shrewsbury book, presented to Margaret of Anjou on her marriage to Henry VI in 1445. The catalog features full-page illustrations from each manuscript included in the exhibition, as well as three illustrated essays which explore the wider history and context of this unique collection. Written by the curators of the exhibition, along with contributions from several experts in the field, Royal Manuscripts will be a much-heralded event for scholars and collectors seeking to better understand the lives and aspirations of those for whom these stunning artifacts were made.

Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination

McKendrick, Scot

Doyle, Kathleen

British Library Publishing

An authoritative account of early Christian and Byzantine art.

Early Christian & Byzantine Art: A&I (Art & Ideas)

Phaidon Press

The Thomson Collection contains examples of the highest quality of most types of medieval ivory carving, both secular and religious. These include large statuettes of the Virgin and Child intended to stand on altars in chapels, small versions for private use in the home, and folding tablets or diptychs with scenes from the life of Christ carved in relief.

Medieval Ivories and Works of Art (The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario)

CHERRY, John

Paul Holberton Publishing

In 1966 Mark Gambier Parry bequeathed to the Courtauld Gallery the art collection formed by his grandfather Thomas Gambier Parry, who died in 1888. In addition to important paintings, Renaissance glass and ceramics, and Islamic metalwork, this included 28 medieval and Renaissance ivories. Since 1967 about half of the ivories have been on permanent display at The Courtauld, yet they have remained largely unknown, even to experts. This catalogue is the first publication dedicated solely to the collection. There are examples of the highest quality of ivory carving, both secular and religious in content, and a number of the objects are of outstanding interest. They are a revealing tribute to the perceptive eye of Thomas Gambier Parry, a distinguished Victorian collector and Gothic Revival artist responsible for a number of richly painted church interiors in England, such as the Eastern part of the nave ceiling, and the octagon, at Ely Cathedral. The earliest objects in date, probably late 11th century, are the group of walrus ivory plaquettes set into the sides and lids of a casket, portraying the Apostles and Christ in Majesty surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists. The style leaves little doubt that they should be associated with a group of portable altars at Kloster Melk in Austria. A gap of some two centuries separates the casket panels from the next important object – the central portion of an ivory triptych, containing a Deesis group of Christ enthroned between angels holding instruments of the Passion in the upper register, and the Virgin and Child between candle-bearing angels below. The style of the ivory relates it securely to the atelier of the Soissons Diptych in the Victoria &amp; Albert Museum. The Gambier-Parry fragment employs bold cutting of the frame to accentuate the three-dimensional quantities of the relief. Somewhat later in date, towards the middle of the 14th century, is a complete diptych of the Crucifixion and Virgin with angels, the faces of which Gambier-Parry described as “worthy of Luini”. The extraordinary foreshortening of the swooning Virgin’s head can happily be paralleled to a diptych in the Schoolmeesters Collection, Liège, by the “aterlie aux visages caractérisés”, as named by Raymond Koechlin. The Gambier- Parry diptych, must rank with the finest productions of the workshop.

Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery: The Gambier Parry Collection

Contents: Alixe Bovey; Introduction Michelle P. Brown; An Early Medieval Outbreak of 'Influenza'? Concepts of 'Influence', Medieval and Modern George Henderson; Insular Art: Influence and Inference Lawrence Nees; Godescalc's Career and the Problems of 'Influence' William Diebold; The Anxiety of Influence in Early Medieval Art Helen C. Evans; Pseudo-Bonaventura on the Euphrates Donal Cooper; Franciscan Art and Mendicant Manuscript Illumination in Italy: A Reconsideration of Iconographic Primacy Robert Gibbs; 'Sober as a Judge': The Influence of Bolognese Law Manuscripts on Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Justice in the Good Commune Lucy Freeman Sandler; Illuminated in the British Isles: French Influence and/or the Englishness of English Art, 1285-1385 T. A. Heslop; Authority and Imagination in the Illustration of Terence's Comedies Patricia Stirnemann &amp; Anne Ritz-Guilbert; Cultural Confrontations Ursula Weekes; The Interplay between Prints and Illuminated Manuscripts in Brigittine Convents of the Low Countries during the 16th Century Scot McKendrick; Between Flanders and Normandy: A Case of Influence within Collaboration between Flemish and Norman Miniaturists? Rowan Watson; Fit for a King? The Alfonso of Aragon Hours and Baronial Patronage in Late 15th-century Naples John Lowden; Under the Influence of the Bibles Moralisees Cecily Hennessy; The Lincoln Typikon: The Influences of Church and Family Justine Andrews; Crossing Boundaries: Byzantine and Western Influences in a 14th-century Illustrated Commentary on Job Dei Jackson; A Work Like No Other: Alfonso X's Cantigas de Santa Maria Kirstin Kennedy; Evidence for the Islamic Source behind the Miniatures in Alfonso X of Castile's 1283 Libro de Ajedrez, dados y tables David Ganz; Problems of Influence in the Utrecht Psalter.

Under the Influence. The Concept of Influence and the Study of Illuminated Manuscripts (Publications of the Research Centre for Illuminated Manuscri)

Brepols Publishers

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