Manuscript Illumination Research Articles

Trading places with the traitor: Pieter Pourbus (c. 1523-1584) and sixteenth-century Last Supper iconography

Pieter Pourbus’ Last Supper of 1548 (Bruges, Groeningemuseum) contains some unusual iconographic elements that have not yet been extensively analysed: the figure of Judas, rising from the table and making a move to leave the gathering; the devilish creature entering the room from the right; the boy picking up the overturned chair in the foreground. By making use of recent scholarly insights into the employment of the anthropological concept of ‘liminality’ in the context of the visual arts (notably by Lynn Jacobs on Early and Renaissance Netherlandish painting and manuscript illumination), this contribution aims to show that these features were meant to enhance the contemporary viewer’s involvement in the depiction. The work seems to invite them to enter, as it were, the painted realm and to take Judas’ abandoned place. An investigation of Last Supper imagery in the Western European visual arts from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance reveals that in some cases the figure of Judas plays a distinctive role in the presentation of the iconography and in the viewer’s devotional and psychological experience of participation in the sacred story. Sometimes, as in a panel from the circle of the Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin (c. 1485-1500) or in the likewise anonymous Antwerp Last Supper (c. 1525-1530), a mortal human has been included in the painting, portrayed in the immediate vicinity of the scene and apparently being ready and prepared to take over Judas’ place once the latter leaves the gathering. Pieter Pourbus’ painting, which probably played a role in the literary-religious context of the Bruges rederijkers’ Chamber of the Holy Spirit, is more inventive in nature. Lacking an intermediary worshipper depicted in the foreground, it transfers this worshipper’s role to the viewer, thus establishing a bridge between the painted realm and the real world.

Advances in Automated Pigment Mapping for 15th-Century Manuscript Illuminations Using 1-D Convolutional Neural Networks and Hyperspectral Reflectance Image Cubes

Reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS) is invaluable in mapping and identifying artists’ materials in paintings. The analysis of the RIS image cube first involves classifying the cube into spatial regions, each having a unique reflectance spectrum (endmember). Second, endmember spectra are analyzed for spectral features useful to identify the pigments present to create labeled classes. The analysis process for paintings remains semi-automated because of the complex diffuse reflectance spectra due to the use of intimate pigment mixtures and optically thin paint layers by the artist. As a result, even when a group of related paintings are analyzed, each RIS cube is analyzed individually, which is time consuming. There is a need for new approaches to more efficiently analyze RIS cubes of related paintings to address the growing interest in the study of related paintings within a group of artists or artistic schools. This work builds upon prior investigations of 1-D spectral convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to address this need in two ways. First, an expanded training set was used—ten illuminated manuscripts created by artists stylistically grouped under the notname “Master of the Cypresses” (15th century Seville, Spain). Second, two 1-D CNN models were trained from the RIS cubes: reflectance and the first derivative. The results showed that the first derivative-trained CNN generally performed better than the reflectance-trained CNN in creating accurate labeled material maps for these illuminated manuscripts.

The Difference of Illumination Characteristics of the Sharaf al-Anām in British Library and Leiden University Library

Sḥaraf al-Anām is a prominent mawlīd text traditionally recited during the commemoration of Prophet Muhammad’s birth. This text enjoys widespread composition and utilization across the Muslim world, including Southeast Asia. The manuscript of Sḥaraf al-Anām is typically adorned with decorative ornaments encircling the text. This study investigates the ornamental illumination of two Sḥaraf al-Anām manuscripts housed in the EAP British Library and the Digital Collections of Leiden University Libraries. The former manuscript originates from Sri Lanka, while the provenance of the latter remains unidentified. Both manuscripts present Arabic text with interlinear Malay translations and are aesthetically decorated with diverse styles and patterns. The study analyzed the structural features, ornamental patterns and color designs of the illuminations in these manuscripts. It further explores the potential influences that may have contributed to the presence of such illuminations. This study found notable distinction as observed in the illumination characteristics between the Sḥaraf al-Anām in the EAP British Library collection and that in the Digital Collection of Leiden University Libraries. The comparison suggests that factors such as the provenance of the manuscripts, the artistic quality of the illuminator and the inherent creativity in the work may have contributed to this distinction. This study underscores the importance of these factors in understanding the diversity and richness of manuscript illumination in the Muslim world.

Symbolism and Aesthetics: Analyzing Mughal Motifs in Art and Architecture

Spanning from 16th to 18th of imperial rule in the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal Empire is an indelible mark on artistic expression through its meticulous cultivation of motifs in various mediums, including art, architecture, manuscript illumination, textiles and decorative arts. This paper examined the symbolism reflected in the Mughal art and architecture. Through a multidisciplinary approach drawing from art history, cultural studies and material culture analysis, this study examined the diverse typologies of Mughal motifs, which included the study of flora and fauna imagery on Mughal monuments, illustrated manuscripts, textile and costumes. By analyzing their aesthetic qualities, symbolic meanings attributed to floral motifs and historical contexts, this research seeks to unravel the complex layers of cultural synthesis and exchange that characterize Mughal art. Through a comprehensive exploration of primary sources, scholarly literature and visual analysis, this paper examined the motifs in shaping the artistic identities, cultural narratives and aesthetic sensibilities in the Mughal Empire and beyond.

An Example of Shahnameh Prepared for a Ruler (Promotion and Evaluation)

Ferdowsi' Shahnameh, which has been the subject of debate for a thousand years since it was written, is one of the most important works of world literature. There are examples of the work, of which we have encountered illustrated examples since the 14th century, that have not yet been discovered and have not reached a wide readership. The Shahnameh copy, which is the subject of our study, was prepared by artists from Samarkand for Ish Mohammad, who reigned in the Khiva region for a short time between 1556 and 1557. The work is preserved in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan N. 1811, where the original examples of Central Asian painting are kept. The importance of the copy stems from the fact that the work has survived to the present day as a complete text without fragmentation and the name of the miniaturist is mentioned in a few of the existing paintings. This indicates that the work has been preserved in an original way. In the copy, we encounter 115 paintings by another artist and a manuscript illumination bearing period characteristics. The copy contains several paintings by Mohammad Morâd Samarqandî, who represents the original Samarkand painting school, as can be understood from his signature. Some researchers claim that most of the unsigned paintings belong to Mohammad Morâd Samarqandî in terms of style, while the remaining paintings belong to the 17th century. The main purpose of this study is to introduce the work, which is not well known among the copies of Shahnameh, to introduce it to the masses, to evaluate it in terms of style, to give information about the content of the work, to introduce the artist, to explain the formation of the painting program, and thus to contribute to the literature.

X-ray fluorescence analysis in the study of paintings – an overview

Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRF) is an excellent method in investigations of cultural heritage treasures, including easel and wall paintings and illuminations in ancient manuscripts. As one of the few methods applicable for this purpose, it is non-destructive and non-invasive. It is often combined with other methods such as optical microscopy, visible light photography, UV fluorescence photography, infrared reflectography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray radiography, Raman spectrometry and others. The complex layered structure and mixtures of pigments, especially on easel paintings, represent a challenging task from the point of view of analysis. However, without taking samples it is only possible to analyse the thin surface layer of the investigated object with a thickness of tens to a few hundreds of micrometres. Nevertheless, this is not too much a problem when analysing paintings and even more so in the analysis of illuminations in manuscripts. The paper has an overview character and aims to summarise the possibilities, advantages and problems of XRF in this area and to demonstrate them on selected examples of published works, which in some cases are devoted to the works of leading painters from various historical periods (Giotto di Bondone, Antonello da Messina, Raffaelo Sanzio, Antonio Allegri da Corregio, Anthonis van Dyck, Rembrandt van Rijn, Giorgio Marini, Pablo Picasso and others). This review includes also a brief mention of selected research carried out in our laboratory.

Imagining women working stone: the ancient sculptor Marcia in Boccaccio’s De mulieribus and responses in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art literature

This article confronts the widespread stereotype of the supposedly natural inability of women to work stone through an analysis of the iconographic tradition of the ancient sculptor Marcia. A small corpus of fifteenth-century manuscript illuminations shows the ancient artist at work. This case study allows us to trace the memory of a woman artist working in stone that was already circulating at that time. The textual basis for the iconography under discussion was introduced by Giovanni Boccaccio in his biography of Marcia, part of his De mulieribus claris. Boccaccio’s text was received by subsequent generations of authors and reprinted in an Italian version four years before Giorgio Vasari published his account of the life of Properzia de Rossi in his Lives. The article introduces a fresh perspective on the relationship between Boccaccio’s Marcia and Vasari’s Properzia and provides new evidence for connections between the querelles des femmes and sixteenth-century art literature.

The Colors in Medieval Illuminations through the Magnificent Scriptorium of Alfonso X, the Learned

This pioneering work studied the medieval color palette of four manuscripts produced in the scriptorium of Alfonso X, king of the Crown of Castile (r. 1252-84), including the Songs of Holy Mary (Cantigas de Santa Maria, in Rich Codex and Musicians’ Codex), Lapidary (Lapidario), and Book of Games (Libro de los juegos). Scientific analysis based on fiber-optics reflectance spectroscopy in the visible and Raman spectroscopy showed a color palette based on lapis lazuli, indigo, azurite, vermilion, red lead, orpiment, yellow ochre, two different greens (bottle green and vergaut), lead white, carbon-based black, and most importantly, brazilwood pinks, reds, and purples. So, it is now the first reported use of this lake pigment in European medieval manuscript illumination. The painting technique is also discussed. The diversity of colors and techniques, with the presence of lapis lazuli, brazilwood lake pigments, purple, and gold, demonstrates Alfonso X’s desire to produce sumptuous manuscripts.

Red Dyes from West to East in Medieval Europe: From Portuguese Manuscript Illuminations to Romanian Textiles

Red is the color par excellence, its symbolism being linked with protection and magic through its primary attributes, fire and blood. It was the predominant color from the earliest times, certainly during the Greek and Roman periods and into Medieval Europe, until blue became a competitor around the 13th century. Mineral pigments, like iron oxides, were the first red sources, used to draw lines, dots, or spots on cave walls or stones. Later, other mineral red pigments were also exploited: Cinnabar, natural mercury sulfide, since the Neolithic, and realgar, arsenic trisulfide, in Ancient Egypt. Scientific investigation revealed that, although inorganic pigments were mainly used in painting, iron oxides and cinnabar were also the first available sources for coloring textiles. Plant dyes have been known since the Neolithic, exploited by people living in climatically mild areas rich in vegetation. Their use is strongly connected with two other fundamental textile processes: Spinning and weaving. Scholarly literature indicates Egyptian privet (henna, Lawsonia inermis) as the oldest red vegetal source used. Although widely known as a source of brown, the dried leaves, when powdered and treated with lime water, yield an intense orange red, which is efficient for dyeing the body — skin and hair — and textiles of animal origin. Madder (Rubia tinctorum or relatives) was the first dye to be reported from archaeological European Bronze and Iron Ages textiles preserved in the Hallstatt salt mines, Scandinavian bog sites, and other European burials. Apart from madder, the most widely appreciated red dye sources in the European Classical period were kermes (Kermes vermilio and K. ilicis), purple (species of sea snails from the Muricidae family), and extracts of red tree resins, as dragon’s blood (e.g. Dracaena draco, Dracaena cinnabari, and Daemonorops draco). These sources were used for textile dyeing and as organic pigments in paintings.

Tracing Transitions in the Development of Nepali Paintings

This article traces the transitions on the process of the development of Nepali paintings. From early period to present time, many trends of paintings have appeared, disappeared and modified. The evolution and connection of these trends, techniques and forms have been presented chronologically. The genres of Nepali paintings like manuscript illumination, paubha, patachitra, portrait, landscape, expressive works and abstract arts use different techniques and forms to explore different contents. Shift from two dimensional forms to three dimensional forms, mysticism to realism, religious to secular, realistic to expressive, expressive to abstract, and objective to subjective are the major transitions in the history of Nepali paintings. The article compares and contrasts various trends and techniques of the paintings. This research is qualitative, for the conclusion has been drawn based on the interpretation of artworks, and the interpretation of the paintings can be multiple depending on the viewers' perspective.

The Case of the East Syriac Lectionary <i>Sir. 26</i>: Improvement or Forgery?

Among Syriac manuscripts of the Institute of the Oriental Manuscripts in Saint Petersburg, there is an East Syriac lectionary Sir.26. Being an Evangeliary (Evangelion), it is meant for the Gospel lections of the whole liturgical year. The manuscript contains a number of miniatures that were added to it later, as pointed out by Nina V. Pigulevskaia. The additional folia with the miniatures contain also the date of completion and the name of the person involved. Besides, a part of the representations is marked in his hand as ‘a new image’, while the others are called ‘an old image’. Their iconographic features and the data provided by the notes enable us to see in a new light various tendencies that appeared in the manuscript production of the Chaldean (East Syriac Catholic) Church in the 19th — early 20thcc. Besides, the ‘restorer’ wrote quatrains in the miniatures that used to accompany the latter, hence they became an important element of the manuscript illumination.

Early modern knitted caps (fifteenth to sixteenth centuries): analyzing dyes in archaeological samples using microspectrofluorimetry complemented by HPLC–MS

The knitted cap was the ubiquitous and most visible garment men wore throughout early modern society, from apprentices to royals. Documentary evidence also suggests that red was a conventional color for specific garments in the sixteenth century, including knitted caps. However, most knitted caps in museum collections are now a muddy brown characteristic of archaeological textiles, and their original color has seldom been studied. Considering the potential of microspectrofluorimetry for analyzing dyes in ancient textiles and manuscript illuminations, this technique was tested on six caps dating from the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries examined in the Knitting in Early Modern Europe research project. The colors are in good preservation condition in two samples, whereas the others show extensive degradation. The emission and excitation spectra acquired allowed the identification of the similarities and differences between samples, grouping them into different dye sources such as cochineal-based and madder-based (RED1 and RED2, respectively). For the coif cap and split-brimmed cap in good condition, analysis through HPLC–MS confirmed the sources of the dyes as Rubia tinctorum and cochineal. It also disclosed the source for another coif cap as Kermes vermilio (RED4). The other knitted items are possibly madder-based (RED3), but HPLC–MS did not allow confirmation of the madder source. The continuing development of a database of excitation and emission spectra acquired from historical textiles, such as the knitted caps, will support the identification of dye sources and specific formulations. Although this technique demands a comprehensive database of references for comparison with the complex signals identified, it allows for rapid spectra acquisition, providing tremendously valuable information.

AKTIVITAS EVENT SASTRA MELALUI PAMERAN MANUSKRIP MINANGKABAU DAN PRODUK INDUSTRI KREATIF OLEH SURI

A descriptive research method with a philological approach is used in this study. Field study methodologies and literature research were used to collect data. The article will explain the illumination of manuscripts through the formulation of the problem, which includes the understanding of SURI, the Relationship between Literary Event Activities and the Purpose of Forming a Creative Industry from SURI, the Exhibition of Manuscripts and Creative Products of the SURI Industry as a Form of Tourism Literary Event Activities, and the meaning behind the illumination of manuscripts contained in SURI products. The goal of this article is to understand and know that the SURI exhibition may be used as a valuable event activity involving tourism, as well as to explain why there are still many manuscripts that have not been researched about the meanings and philosophies in West Sumatra. The findings of this study are theoretical in terms of the research hypotheses proposed, as well as practical in terms of revealing how the literary activities, as well as the philosophy and meaning behind the illumination of Minangkabau manuscripts in West Sumatra.

Beards and Texts. Images of Masculinity in Medieval German Literature

Beards and Texts. Images of Masculinity in Medieval German Literature

Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia' by Helena Phillips-Robins

Reviewed by: Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia' by Helena Phillips-Robins Alejandro Cuadrado Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia'. By Helena Phillips-Robins. (The William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature, 19) Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 2021. xvi+307 pp. $60. ISBN 978–0–268–20068–8. The impressive slate of Dante-related publications by Notre Dame's Devers Series has its most recent instalment in Helena Phillips-Robins's Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia', a well-researched and interdisciplinary reading of the [End Page 249] role of liturgy in Dante's poem. In this book Phillips-Robins not only articulates the presence of liturgical song in Purgatorio and Paradiso, but argues that these songs invite readers of the Commedia to participate in the same performance as the souls depicted in the poem. The first chapter, 'Liturgy and Community', examines two liturgical moments that bookend a soul's time in Purgatory: the 'In exitu Israel de Aegypto' sung aboard the angelic ferry to Purgatory in Purgatorio ii and the Gloria sung in celebration of Statius's completed purgation in Purgatorio xx. Using evidence from liturgical practices attested in medieval Italian ordinals, Phillips-Robins hypothesizes a reader response in which Dante's reader would pause to complete the psalm or Gloria, and in doing so participate in a transformation similar to that experienced by the penitent souls in Purgatorio. The second chapter, 'Liturgy and Participation in Christ', continues the argument that Dante invites readers to participate in the psalms of the Commedia, first by examining the two psalms of Purgatorio xxiii ('Labïa mea, Domine' and 'Elì'). Leaning on patristic sources, Phillips-Robins argues that these psalms invite the reader to adopt the principle of imitatio Christi. The chapter then broadens its scope to include the liturgical songs in Paradiso x and Purgatorio xi as 'explicit invitations to the reader to engage in devotional activity' (p. 108). A section in the middle of the chapter catalogues at breakneck pace the passages in the Commedia in which Dante indicates that he is only partially citing a liturgical song. Given Phillips-Robins's convincing close reading of Purgatorio xxiii, one wishes she had given more attention to each passage listed. In 'The Shared Voice of Liturgical Prayer' (Chapter 3) Phillips-Robins turns her attention to the liturgical songs in the final cantos of Purgatorio: the 'In te, Domine, speravi' of Purgatorio xxx and the 'Asperges me' of Purgatorio xxxi. She also treats the Prayer to the Virgin of Paradiso xxxiii, arguing that intercessory prayer in Dante's Commedia involves both those praying and those being prayed for. The second half of this chapter turns to Giovanni di Paolo's celebrated manuscript illuminations in Yates Thompson 36, especially those that depict Marian devotion (three of these are reproduced in black and white). Phillips-Robins argues that 'Giovanni di Paolo shows himself to be particularly attuned to Dante's invitations to his readers to engage, in the first person, with the divine' (p. 163). The final chapter, 'Liturgy and Love', is at once the most successful and the one that strays furthest from the book's central theme. In this chapter Phillips-Robins traces a historical itinerary of the idea of 'believing in' from Augustine through to thirteenth-century theologians, including the prominent preacher Giordano da Pisa. Against this historical and theological context, Phillips-Robins offers a careful close reading of Dante's Credo in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, arguing that his creed engages in a 'movement in love toward' God (p. 191). One limitation is the extent to which Phillips-Robins insists that certain materials such as the Florentine ordinals are 'all but unknown in Dante studies' (p. 13) or 'as yet all but untapped in Dante studies' (pp. 14 and 31). A visit to her extensive and well-documented footnotes (especially nn. 50 and 57 in the Introduction) shows [End Page 250] that Dante scholars have tapped some of these sources, most notably in Francesco Ciabattoni's Dante's Journey to Polyphony (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010). Similarly, Alessandro Vettori's recent...

Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Régime du corps by Jennifer Borland

Reviewed by: Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Régime du corps by Jennifer Borland Winston Black Jennifer Borland. Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Régime du corps. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022. xv + 219 pp., 85 color and black and white illustrations. $114.95. ISBN: 978-0271090597. Like many teachers of the history of medicine, I have resorted to online searches for "medieval medicine" or "medieval health" to find engaging images for my slides and handouts. One of the most common results of these searches is a historiated initial V showing a bloodletting procedure in action: a barber-surgeon is incising a vein on the inner arm of a rosy-cheeked man, who looks away as his blood flows out into a bowl. This image comes from British Library Sloane MS 2435, the oldest copy of the popular health-care manual Régime du corps (hereafter Rdc), attributed to Aldobrandino of Siena, personal physician to Countess Beatrice of Savoy. Written in French around 1256, the Rdc is noteworthy as an early example of the vernacularization of learned medicine in later medieval European society. Seventy-five medieval copies of Rdc survive, of which twenty-three are illustrated with various depictions of medical treatments, copulation, breastfeeding, drunkenness, clothing, and food. Not surprisingly, many of these illustrations have been reproduced widely to educate, amuse, and titillate modern audiences, but rarely with any documentation or contextualization, leaving students and untrained professors to assume that such illustrations are typical of medieval medical thought and health practices. [End Page 160] Art historian Jennifer Borland seeks to remedy these oversights by exploring the meaning, purpose, and inspirations for the illuminations in manuscripts of Rdc in her book Visualizing Household Health. Central to her argument is that an analysis of gender is essential for understanding the Rdc and its illustrated copies, for many of the historiated initials show women as the agents of health care and bearers of medical knowledge in elite households. To support this argument, Borland focuses on a core group of seven deluxe manuscripts of Rdc that include historiated initials at the start of most chapters (from 37 to 147 in total). These historiated initials might seem shocking to modern audiences, as they share the format, appearance, and luxury of initials in contemporary Bibles and literary manuscripts but are used to depict earthy and even crude subjects such as cheese making and vomiting. But it is exactly this "juxtaposition of mundane topics and ostentatious manuscript design" that makes these elite copies of the Rdc fascinating subjects for research (123). This is not, however, a book about the text of Rdc; Borland rarely quotes from the text and remains dependent on the conclusions of Louis Landouzy and Roger Pépin in their 1911 edition and study of the work. However, because she refers several times to the prologue of the Rdc in her arguments, it would have been helpful to include a translation of that text (only a few pages in length) as one of her appendices. Borland provides a detailed analysis of the provenance and codicology of her seven core manuscripts. She divides them logically into an earlier and a later group (three manuscripts from ca. 1265–1350 and four from ca. 1450–1500), based on changes in the illustration program and in the potential audience, from royal patrons to the wealthy bourgeoisie. Other manuscripts include illustrated frontispieces or single illuminated initials, but she does not address these, as one of her guiding concerns is to explore the narrative and educational role of the longer series of historiated initials in the deluxe manuscripts. These illustrated copies provided medieval owners and still provide modern scholars a window onto an idealized domestic environment, where birth and childcare, food and clothing, the bodies of nobility and servants, and all facets of household management were governed by a simple yet comprehensive health regimen, or régime du corps. Although many scholars have studied these initials individually and used them as evidence for medical [End Page 161] ideas and procedures in the later Middle Ages, nobody until Borland has studied the initials in sequence and as a...

Redesain Dan Tradisi Visualisasi Dalam Iluminasi Naskah Melayu Nusantara

This paper study aims to unravel the existence of the visualization tradition of Malay society in the illumination of Malay texts in the archipelago and to detect the redesign of the legacy of illumination in the interests of today's society. The method used in this study uses a qualitative research method with a literature study approach that uses primary and secondary data sources that are searched by literature data collection techniques from various sources and then analyzed with the needs of researchers for the data presented in this study. In this study several conclusions can be drawn, the visualization tradition in the illumination of Malay archipelago manuscripts is a reflection of the intellectuality of the written tradition which is an indicator of cultural phenomena in the form of ideas, social system and practices. Then, the main element that always exists in Malay texts in the archipelago is bamboo shoots which have a philosophy to continue to grow tall, strong and strong from the wind. Second, the redesign of the Malay script illumination visualization tradition still occurs today, especially in the interests of socio-economic welfare for the creative industry as contained in the revitalization of the illumination design into a digital vector shape which helps make it easy to apply in various design formats for invitations, paintings, book cover frames, paintings. , and batiks. One that has materialized is to become batik cloth in various Malay regions. Seeing these conditions, the Malay Archipelago script has a great opportunity to be redesigned in the current context. This, in addition to preserving the Malay manuscript illumination visualization tradition through a distinctive representation of meaning, is a very valuable cultural heritage.

BATIK NASKAH KUNO: TRANSFORMASI ILUMINASI DARI NASKAH KUNO KE DALAM MOTIF BATIK

Ancient manuscripts are artifacts that indicate high intellectual abilities in old civilizations. The content is very valuable as well as a means of communicating and expressing ideas that can provide information about civilization and past life. Javanese society is one of the communities who inherited ancient manuscripts. The manuscript is decorated with beautiful illuminations that signify the aesthetics of the creators. The illumination has a n implied value and becomes a trace of the cultural identity of the society. The values implied in the manuscript will be much more useful if it is disseminated to provide high moral understanding and insight. In addition, ancient manuscripts can be a source of inspiration for creation that can support efforts to perpetuate cultural heritage in the archipelago. This paper discusses the results of research originating from the transformation process of ancient manuscript illumination into batik. The research method used is descriptive qualitative by making batik motifs based on visual manuscript illumination supported by the results of interviews with ancient manuscript experts and batik experts. The results of this study are expected to support batik motifs in Indonesia. Keywords: ancient manuscripts; batik; illumination; motiftransformation

The Position of Jewish Art and Exegesis in an Illustrated Christian Biblical Commentary: Ezekiel’s Vision of the Tetramorph in Fourteenth-and Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts and Printed Copies of Nicholas of Lyra’s Postilla litteralis

In the Postilla litteralis (Literal Commentary) (1322-1333), Nicholas of Lyra, a Franciscan biblical scholar at the University of Paris, compared Jewish and Christian commentaries on the Old Testament and designed illustrations and diagrams to augment those comparisons. The Postilla litteralis was copied with such an astounding frequency that it can be considered a medieval best seller. These manuscript and printed copies often included copies of Nicholas’ illustrations. This article uses a singular case study of Nicholas of Lyra’s visual comparisons between Latin and Hebrew exegesis regarding the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel’s vision of four winged creatures to shed light on how copies of Nicholas of Lyra’s illustrations represent Jewish visual and textual exegetical traditions. The goal of this article is to provide a nuanced exploration of fourteenth and fifteenth-century copies of Postilla litteralis manuscripts that display Nicholas’ illustrations of Ezekiel’s first vision. These images reveal a reliance on rabbinic commentary regarding literal meanings of scripture yet ultimately reject Jewish visual traditions of representing the divine, a strategy that supports Nicholas’ messianic interpretation of Ezekiel 1. This article uses illuminations and woodcuts in manuscript and printed copies of the Postilla litteralis, illuminations in Hebrew bible and prayer manuscripts, and illuminations in other Christian biblical commentaries to consider Nicholas’ multifaceted and varied perceptions of Jewish commentary on Ezekiel 1. I end by claiming that the copies of the Postilla litteralis’ visual comparisons between Jewish and Christian commentary operate to clarify inconsistencies within Christian iconography regarding Ezekiel 1.

World Views: Cartographers, Artisanship and Epistemology in Early Modern Italy

Scholars have long since demonstrated that no such occupation as “cartographer” existed in early modern Europe. Instead, the skills needed to produce maps often combined those of manuscript illuminators, scribes, mathematicians, letterpress operators, and engravers - to name only a few. Though it is common to speak of maps as offering insight into “world views,” we often assume these to be those of patrons and viewers rather than of the craftspeople who produced them. These artisans relied upon a host of tools, skills, and materials which varied tremendously from city to city even within discrete geographic regions. Moreover, though many early modern maps were only marginally related to the practical activity of way-Dinding, those who labored to create them were often themselves itinerant artisans moving across the Alps and beyond. In this essay, I chart the training, experiences, and know-how of the engineers, printers, painters, and woodworkers who made maps. I explore the ways in which the trans-national and often multilingual social-lives of these makers informed the material fabric of their maps and, in turn, shed light upon the sometimes unexpected interpenetration of biography, world view, and object that characterizes cartographic cultures between the Difteenth and seventeenth centuries. My approach thus seeks to bridge recent insights on the “artisanal epistemology” of makers with a critical approach to the agency of objects, informed both by anthropological theory and a renewed focus on materiality which has come to characterize studies of visual culture.