The New York Public Library’s collection of nearly three
hundred Western European illuminated manuscripts is one of the
largest in America but also one that is very little known. Dating
from the turn of the tenth century unto well into the period of the
Renaissance, these works give vivid testimony to the creative
impulses of the often nameless craftsmen who discovered ever-new
ways of animating the contents of hand-produced books through
inventive and sometimes exuberant manipulations of all the elements
of the book: form and format, layout, script, decoration,
illustration, and binding.
To introduce this magnificent collection and many of its most
important works to scholars and the wider audience, The Splendor of
the Word presents one hundred manuscripts of particular cultural,
historical, and artistic significance, selected from the
Library’s collection by three of the most distinguished
scholars in the field — Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Professor
of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, a
specialist in early medieval, Romanesque, and Italian illuminated
manuscripts; James H. Marrow, Professor Emeritus of Art
History at Princeton University, a specialist in late medieval
illuminated manuscripts; and Lucy Freeman Sandler, Professor of Art
History Emerita at New York University, a specialist in Gothic
illuminated manuscripts.
The makers of medieval illuminated manuscripts invested their books
with sparkle and visual energy. They did so to stimulate delight,
imagination, and memory—to make of them objects that
fascinate and charm as well as instruct. One need have no knowledge
of medieval languages or habits of thought to appreciate the high
quality and the aesthetic ebullience of the finely crafted
manuscripts shown here, for the very first time, to anyone
interested in the ways that books help to define the social,
intellectual, and imaginative horizons of their users.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Professor of Fine Arts at the
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, a specialist in early
medieval, Romanesque, and Italian illuminated manuscripts.
James H. Marrow, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Princeton
University, a specialist in late medieval illuminated
manuscripts
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Professor of Art History Emerita at New
York University, a specialist in Gothic illuminated
manuscripts.