This book investigates the 'owner portrait' in the context of late medieval devotional books primarily from France and England. These mirror-like pictures of praying book owners respond to and help ...develop a growing concern with visibility and self-scrutiny that characterized the religious life of the laity after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The image of the praying book owner translated pre-existing representational strategies concerned with the authority and spiritual efficacy of pictures and books, such as the Holy Face and the donor image, into a more intimate and reflexive mode of address in Psalters and Books of Hours created for lay users. Alexa Sand demonstrates how this transformation had profound implications for devotional practices and for the performance of gender and class identity in the striving, aristocratic world of late medieval France and England.
Recently, the University Library of Groningen received a handwritten book of hours from the 15th century as a gift. Such books were a popular means of private devotion in the Low Countries at the ...time. Many people wanted to be good believers and they believed that reading or reciting prayers was an effective way to achieve this. One of them was Brecht, the first owner of this book of hours. Her book has a remarkable history and connection with Groningen, which is revealed here by Jos Biemans and Anne Korteweg.
This article presents two German Catholic prayer books written by the two sixteenth-century priests Johann Faber OP and Peter Michael Brillmacher SJ – known for their catechetical and apologetical ...work in areas of confessional division. Adding to the claims by early twentieth-century researchers that these books were used for “resisting and combating Protestantism,” I argue that they were tools for the re-Catholicising of Protestant populations. By referring to the Church fathers “and the old Christians” as proof for the ancient origin and the orthodoxy of beliefs and practices questioned by the Protestant reformers, and by countering “misconceptions” about the Catholic faith, the authors strived to lead their readers in the direction toward “true religion and divine worship.”
This article deals with the collections of prayers that Johannes von Indersdorf compiled for his penitents in the second quarter of the 15th century. The extraordinary preservation of the written ...records and especially the specific form of their common transmission in Cgm 29, which was obviously written under the supervision and with the collaboration ofJohannes von Indersdorf, not only allows for a precise description of the composition method, but also provides a strong indication of the authorship ofJohannes, which has only been suspected up to now.
Rubrics, Images and Indulgences in Late Medieval Netherlandish Manuscripts considers how indulgences (the remission of time in Purgatory) were used to market certain images and how images helped to ...spread indulgences in the decades before the Protestant Reformation.
Nature stood as an integral pillar in the Anglo-Saxon world, woven deeply into the fabric of its culture, beliefs, and artistic expressions, embodying a profound connection that resonated throughout ...society. Book of Cerne (Cambridge University Library, MS Ll. 1.10), a significant manuscript from the Anglo-Saxon era, unveils a captivating interplay between art and text. This paper delves into the realm of Anglo-Saxon art within this manuscript, with a particular focus on the portrayal of animals. By exploring the sources of inspiration behind these artistic renderings, we gain insight into the cultural and symbolic significance attributed to animals in Anglo-Saxon society, most particularly in the early ninth century. Through a careful analysis of the artwork and its relationship with the accompanying text, this study reveals the intricate tapestry woven between visual representations and written narrative, shedding light on the profound connections and meanings embedded within Book of Cerne's artistic depictions of animals.
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