ARTH 578
The "Book" Dissected: Making and Meaning in Medieval Manuscripts Fall 2024
Division I

How did medieval and Renaissance “books” work, when the codex was only one form of the book, which continually evolved, and when they weren’t only used for reading? This course will explore the book as object and the book as concept. Drawing on the collection of manuscripts, incunables, and later printed books at WCMA, Chapin, and surrounding museums, the course will consider how the forms and materiality of books could have affected readers’ reception and perceptions, and in turn, how religious, cultural, political, and economical forces shape their format, decoration, and paratext. While it will primarily deal with Western books, we will also consider early ones from around the world. Students will develop codicological and bibliographic analytical skills as we study our changing uses and relationships with and to books as instruments of doctrine and devotion, power and identity.