Exhibition Themes

The Bible: Illuminating the Word

The story of the handwritten illuminated book is closely linked with that of the Bible, which is one of the most influential books in the Western world. The Bible is in fact a library or a collection of sacred writings, the oldest of which originate in Judaism and go back centuries before Christ. Both Jews and Christians revere the books in the first part of the Bible. The Christians added writings about Christ, principally the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Letters or Epistles of the Apostles, and the Acts of the Apostles. The medieval Church also accepted the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, as part of the Bible.

In the Middle Ages, the Bible was known largely in the West in the Latin translation of St Jerome, called the Vulgate. Its texts were used for both prayer and study, and the format, script and illumination reflect these different functions.

The first section of the exhibition shows how Bibles, or books from the Bible, were written and illuminated from the 8th century to the invention of printing in the 15th century. Biblical texts and images also appear in many other parts of the exhibition, as the Bible was a fundamental part of medieval culture and permeated its forms of worship, art and literature.

The Book and Church Services: Liturgy and Ritual

Books have always played an important role in Christian worship, and readings from the Bible are part of the liturgy or formal Church service. The two most important services of the medieval Church – and of many Christian churches today – are the Mass, or Eucharist, and the Divine Office. The Mass obeys Christ’s instruction at the Last Supper to commemorate his death on the cross, and celebrates the mystery of his saving life, death and resurrection on behalf of the human race. The Divine Office involves the daily recitation or chanting of the psalms in praise of God at the official, or ‘canonical’, hours of prayer: matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers and compline.

Around the 11th century, the texts for the Mass were compiled in the missal and those for the Divine Office in the breviary. Images from the life of Christ and the saints often illustrated selected feasts of the Church year in these books. Sometimes they also contained Old Testament scenes, which were interpreted as foreshadowing the coming of Christ.

Fine examples of illuminated missals and breviaries from the 13th to the 16th centuries appear in this section of the exhibition, together with a group of service books that contain the ceremonies, rituals and blessings proper for a bishop or the abbot of a monastery. These pontificals and benedictionals often illustrate particular ceremonies, such as the sacrament of confirmation or ordination to the priesthood.

The Personal Prayer Book: Psalters and Books of Hours

The Psalter

The psalter, or book of the psalms, was often produced as an independent biblical book. Its 150 psalms, or songs of praise, thanksgiving and petition to God, written at different times in the history of the Jewish people, became the basis of Christian prayer. They were not only used in the public worship of the Church, but were also favoured for personal prayer by all parts of the Christian community – clerics, members of religious orders and lay people.

Sometimes the text of the psalms was preceded by a cycle of pictures from the life of David, who was considered their generic author, or by a narrative cycle relating to the life of Christ, since the psalms came to be applied to him or were prayed in his name. The text of the psalter was often introduced by a portrait of David, with his harp or psaltery, and historiated initials or miniatures marked the sections into which it was divided for weekly recitation in the Divine Office, so that the individual could tune in, as it were, to the rhythms of the public worship of the Church. Medieval psalters often contained portraits and heraldic references to their owners, and were also personalised by decorative borders of flowers and foliage, full of birds, animals, hybrids and drolleries of great variety.

In the transitional phase to the prayer book, called the book of hours, a selection of Offices and prayers from the breviary was attached to the psalter. Two fine examples are displayed here: the Aspremont-Kievraing Hours (vol 2) and the Liège psalter-hours.

The Book of Hours

In the late 13th century, a new personal prayer book began to challenge the psalter in popularity. Called the book of hours, its chief devotions were modelled on the Offices of the breviary, but they were shorter and did not usually vary throughout the year. The most popular of these devotions was the Little Office, or Hours of the Virgin. The contents of a book of hours varied according to the interests of the owner, but core texts included the Office of the Dead, the Hours of the Cross or the Passion of Christ, the seven penitential psalms, the Litany of the Saints, short excerpts from the four Gospels, and prayers, or memoriae, in honour of particular saints. Normally a calendar, with the feasts of the year, introduced the book.

Books of hours were often richly illuminated and, like the psalter, their illustration made personal allusions to their owners. Miniatures – independent paintings – as well as historiated initials introduced the major devotions. The Hours of the Virgin was often accompanied by a pictorial cycle, which introduced each of the canonical hours. This cycle was usually about the early life of Christ in which Mary also features prominently, with a final scene of her death or assumption and coronation in heaven. Alternatively, the Hours of the Virgin was illustrated with scenes from the Passion. The Office of the Dead was sometimes illustrated quite dramatically by macabre legends, as well as by the funeral service. The calendar was usually illustrated with the signs of the zodiac and a cycle of activities, or labours, appropriate for each month.

The book of hours has been called the bestseller of the Middle Ages, and some of the great advances in naturalistic painting – the convincing depiction of interiors and atmospheric landscapes and the capturing of engaging realistic details – take place on its pages.

The Book and Knowledge: Science, Law, Literature and History

Science and Law

In the Middle Ages, learning was divided into related branches of knowledge, presided over by theology, or the study of the divine. The quantitative, or scientific, disciplines were music, mathematics (arithmetic and geometry) and astronomy. Those of the humanities had to do with language and intellectual argument: grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. The habits of animals, birds and insects were also studied and related to those of humans. The practical application of knowledge in professions such as medicine was viewed as an art or craft that required both scientific knowledge and expert skill. There was also a desire for what has been called ‘the completeness’, or encyclopaedic, aspect of knowledge, so that later treatises on a subject were often copied along with earlier texts.

This section of the exhibition demonstrates the relationship in medieval manuscripts between the textual contents of books on the sciences and their visual presentation, which often included complex diagrams and tables as well as illustration. The books displayed include: 11th- and 12th-century copies of an ancient treatise on music by Boethius, in which compass-drawn diagrams illustrate musical intervals and their mathematical proportions; one of the oldest illustrated English bestiaries, or book of beasts; a copy of the first illustrated Western text on surgery; and medieval and Renaissance copies of treatises on astronomy and its relationship to astrology, alchemy and medicine.

The introduction of the teaching of canon (ecclesiastical) and civil (Roman) law into universities in the 12th century, at centres such as Bologna, Oxford and Paris, saw the production of numerous copies of legal texts, many of which were illustrated. Legal documents, relating to statutes or contracts for specific communities or individuals were also illuminated, and examples appear here.

Literature and History

In the later Middle Ages, books concerned with human behaviour and aspirations, both idealistic and imaginary, of various groups and individuals increased significantly, along with the use of the vernacular. These books attracted detailed illustrative and decorative programs, carried out by highly organised lay workshops, which had largely replaced monastic institutions in book production. These workshops often specialised in particular genres and texts.

The illuminated literary texts displayed here include allegorical and moral works, such as the very beautiful pages from a copy of the Parisian La Somme le Roi (The Summary for the King), written in the 13th century for the King of France and later copied for members of the royal family. Elegant Gothic figures personify the Virtues and Vices, and Old Testament scenes are also used to illustrate them. Featured too is a Parisian copy of the popular allegorical French poem Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose), and a rare translation into Lincolnshire dialect of a set of allegorical French poems based on the theme of a journey, or pilgrimage, through life.

Illuminated books on history also became popular at this time. They include vernacular translations of writers such as Titus Livy on the ancient history of Rome, and a chronicle of British history brought up to date by its 13th-century writer and illustrator, the monk Matthew Paris.

The Book and the Renaissance: The Humanist Book

The illuminated manuscript eventually gave way to the printed book, but its singular expression in the late 15th and 16th centuries, especially in Italy, side by side with the early printed book, is an extraordinary phase that speaks of transition and transformation rather than replacement. To some extent, this parallels the relationship today between the printed book and digital forms of publication.

In the Renaissance period, scribes took fresh interest in the production of meticulously written, lucid script that was largely uninterrupted by decorative flourishes or irrelevant ornamentation. The title page, or frontispiece, became the focal point of illumination, and classical motifs were interwoven with contemporary Christian imagery in new, elegant and restrained types of decorative borders. Ancient classical texts were copied anew for discerning humanist patrons, and illumination was extended to the printed book in the form of presentation copies, which were painted by distinguished artists.

The exhibition displays a group of the highest quality Renaissance illuminated manuscripts, among which is a copy of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae (History of the Roman Emperors), which was produced for Lorenzo de’ Medici, the great Florentine patron of the arts, and is embellished with his arms and devices, together with 81 portraits of the Roman emperors. Today this splendid book, still in its original Renaissance binding, is in the proud possession of the State Library of Victoria.