The Miniaturisation of the Latin Bible During the 13th Century (13.6.)
9. Juni 2023
von Markus Trapp — abgelegt in: Ausstellungen und Veranstaltungen — 925 Aufrufe
Tuesday, 13 June 2023, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm CEST
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Conference Room 260 (2nd floor).
A Technical Challenge to Produce Portable Manuscripts
Dr. Chiara Ruzzier (University of Namur/CNRS-IRHT)
The 13th century witnessed major changes in the history of the Latin Bible manuscripts. The most notable innovation was the portable Bible, made possible by the rapid development of a standardised production of one-volume Bibles and the dissemination of a reorganised text — the so-called Paris Bible. The main place of this production was Paris, where a professional manufacturing network had developed thanks to the presence of the University. This network facilitated a series of new technical solutions that allowed the long Bible text to be compressed into small volumes without compromising its readability. The talk will focus on the miniaturisation process and the techniques implemented in terms of parchment quality, quire structure and layout.
Portable Bibles were handy manuscripts, intended for personal use, which turned out to be particularly useful to mendicant friars for their itinerant preaching. The portable format was rapidly adopted also in England and in Italy and portable Bibles were disseminated throughout Europe in thousands of copies, two of which are kept in the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg and will be presented at the end of the talk.
A talk organized by the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures.
Please register here.