Expanding the Book: Image and Literacy in Valois France (P02815)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : ACE-P-P02815

This course examines the development of illustrated books in France from the fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, exploring ways in which illuminated manuscripts and early printed books were designed to function visually and aesthetically, as well as textually. Particular attention is given to programmes of illustration for which textual expositions of the pictures have survived, permitting clear assessments of the aims of the artists, their supervisors and their patrons. Several kinds of book are considered, including Books of Hours, new translations into French of works by classical authors, and late medieval romances and collections of poetry. A special focus is how the demands of audiences for new forms of book illustration expanded considerably during this period, challenging artists to devise evermore imaginative decorative schemes and pictorial possibilities. The interplay of sacred and secular themes is one topic that characterises the whole period.

? Keywords : Illumination; Book of Hours; Charles V; Charles VIII; René of Anjou; Pucelle; Limbourgs; Fouquet; Perréal; Christine de Pizan; Champfleury

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

History of Art, (School of Arts, Culture and Environment, Schedule A)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

• To introduce students to a selection of texts widely read in late medieval France and the illustrative programmes developed for them.
• To introduce students to the principle forms of manuscript illumination practised and developed during this period and to the chief artists responsible for them.
• To gain an understanding of how the visual aspects of books became a fitting topic for intellectual inquiry during the later Middle Ages.
• To develop the ability to ask questions about the uses of images in society and discover appropriate evidence to answer them.
• By the end of the course, having examined a number of select manuscripts (making use of rare facsimiles of key works and manuscript collections within Edinburgh), students will have an understanding of the key features of French painting in manuscripts of the period in question. Students will be able to assess the contribution of this episode to the broader development of visual culture in the West.