Module HIST41630: BOOK ILLUMINATION

Department: History

HIST41630: BOOK ILLUMINATION

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• The module aims to enable students to engage at a sophisticated level with primary evidence and modern interpretations relating to a significant area of medieval studies, in support of the intended learning outcomes of the MAs in Medieval History and Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Content

• The practicalities of illumination and their consequences for work in the medium
• The iconographic content of selected illuminations, their models, and their relationship to the text of the books(s) in which they are placed
• The style of the work, its parallels and significance
• The cultural context for, and hence broader implications of, the work as a whole

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module the student will have gained a specialist knowledge of important aspects of the practices, applications and implications of book illumination in general, and have a detailed knowledge of particular examples of the genre and their historical and cultural contexts; s/he will have the capacity to evaluate critically selected visual primary sources, along with germane textual sources, and will be familiar with modern scholarship in the field.

• An ability to read and understand the evidence of miniatures, historiations and decorations from a particular period or group of manuscripts

• The ability to deploy basic textual, art-historical, palaeographical and codicological information to arrive at a rounded interpretation of manuscript evidence, and the place of particular illuminations therein.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Appropriate specialised areas for focus are identified in dialogue between the module leader and individual students in weekly tutorials. These are also the means by which the module leader directs and monitors ongoing, directed reading of each student. They provide the framework within which each student plans, researches and writes, under the module leader's supervision, an extended essay, making use of original sources and the fruits of modern scholarship. Supplementary training directly relevant to this module will be provided by the general codicology course (which the student will be expected to take), and the palaeography course (which s/he will be strongly advised to follow).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

<enter text as appropriate for the module>

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University