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Loading... Images in the Margins (2009)by Margot Nishimura
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The third book in the Getty Museum's series of short, lavishly illustrated books about aspects of medieval manuscripts. This is also the book of the manuscript exhibit at the Getty Museum on the same topic. The majority of the mss. in the book are from the Getty's collection, and in some cases show pages not normally displayed. The text is brief but explains the tradition from which the marginalia arose (inhabited initials), what is normally depicted (everyday life, animals, mythical beasts, hybrids, and the world turned upside down), and how the images relate to the text (sometimes literally, sometimes evoking additional traditions, and sometimes nothing at all). The photos are better than the exhibit in that they are larger and well-lit. The photos are less perfect than the exhibit because they don't show the play of light on the page as it, or the reader, moves, and not all pages in the exhibit are in the book (I particularly miss a complex knotted Q I was hoping to peruse at my leisure). Recommended for the beautiful pictures and as a decent overview of the topic. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Series
Images in the Margins is the third in the popular Medieval Imagination series of small, affordable books drawing on manuscript illumination in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library. Each volume focuses on a particular theme and provides an accessible, delightful introduction to the imagination of the medieval world. An astonishing mix of mundane, playful, absurd, and monstrous beings are found in the borders of English, French, and Italian manuscripts from the Gothic era. Unpredictable, topical, often irreverent, like the New Yorker cartoons of today, marginalia--images drawn in the margins of manuscripts--were a source of satire, serious social observation, and amusement for medieval readers. Through enlarged, full-color details and a lively narrative, this volume brings these intimately scaled, fascinating images to a wider audience. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)745.67The arts Graphic arts and decorative arts Decorative Arts Calligraphy, illumination, heraldic design Illuminated manusciptsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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