Conference Session organized by Thomas Rainer, Sabrina Schmid and Katharina Theil, VII. Forum Kunst des Mittelalters: Licht, Metaphysik und Naturwissenschaft im Mittelalter, Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, Jena, September 25-28, 2024. For more…

All three Abrahamic book religions closely associate the written word of God with light and luminosity and their scriptures were often seen as luminous or light-emitting media. To give just one example: in the Christian liturgy of the early Middle Ages, the entry of the Gospel book into the sanctuary and its procession to the altar and ambo were always accompanied by candle bearers. A wide variety of materials and surface-enhancing techniques were used to make the splendor of the books visible and sensually tangible. 

In this process, light, writing support, and script interacted in various ways, and the luminous quality of books in codex format was decisively shaped by the movement, not only of the closed book itself, but also of its pages as they were turned. The interplay of different light sources, movement, and the materiality of reflective and transparent surfaces determined the visual experience and affordance of sacred book objects. 

Gold and silver covers, silk bindings and veils, and the color play of translucent or opaque precious stones on the outer skin of the books created variegated iridescent and luminescent effects. These guided the perception of the books as media for the embodied experience of light in liturgical performances. Texts written and polished in gold and silver ink, which became visible when the codices were opened and pages were turned, manifested themselves in a fluctuating tension between script and writing surface, in the floating of the shiny letters over the often purple background. On a practical level, there was a tension between the legibility of the text and the brightness of its material support which was addressed early on in medieval sources. For example, Isidore (Etym. 6, 11, 2) reports that bright white parchment should be avoided because its shining effect, like gilded library ceilings, tires the eyes and hinders a refreshing reading experience.  

Program

Splendor Librorum – das Leuchten der Bücher. Buch, Licht und Bewegung / Splendor Librorum – the Radiance of Books. Books, Light, and Movement, Jena, 25.09.2024, 13:30-15:00

Thomas Rainer, Sabrina Schmid, Katharina Theil, Zürich
Introduction

Fabrizio Crivello, Turin
Gold glänzt auf Purpur. Zu den Initialzierseiten in den karolingischen
Evangeliaren

Magdalena Garnczarska, Krakau
Chrysography in Byzantine Miniature Painting after Iconoclasm: a
Representation of Natural or Divine Light? The Case of Ms Parisinus
Graecus 74

Martin Schwarz, Basel
The Splendor of Books and the Radiance of Truth in Lippo Memmi’s the
Triumph of Thomas Aquinas