The Middle Ages In Texts And Texture

The essays in this collection present a textured picture of the medieval world and offer models for how to reflect fruitfully on medieval sources.

Originally published in 1991, Medieval Texts and Images is a collection of essays which critically examines medieval manuscripts. The book contains a wide range of contributions, the first examines the relationship of the Légende Dorée and its relationship to the aristocratic patrons who commissioned these manuscripts; the second scrutinises the tradition of French illumination as it was developed in Paris in the so-called Bedford Master’s workshop in the 1420s. The text examines liturgical texts of the medieval period and written and liturgical contributions to Renaissance art. Other contributions include an investigation into the written scroll within the painted composition, comparing various compositional and thematic functions in the depiction of a Crucifixion and a study of Christian vernacular poetry. This collection provides a comprehensive overview of the use of text and image in medieval literature.

A re-evaluation of the Latin-texted motet during the age of Du Fay.

Projetc: Final concert Antiquity and Middle Ages Renaissance Baroque Classicism Romanticism 20th century Music of the world

The essays in this volume offer diverse, innovative approaches to medieval music and culture.

"Who are we to suppose we are capable of comprehending the world of which we are a part, and what is the world to suppose it can be understood by us, minuscule and insignificant spatiotemporal warps contained within it?" This provocative question opens Floyd Merrell's study of postmodernism and the thought of Charles Sanders Peirce, part of the author's ongoing effort to understand our contemporary cultural and intellectual environment. The specific focus in this interdisciplinary study is the modernism/postmodernism dichotomy and Peirce's precocious realization that the world does not lend itself to the simplistic binarism of modernist thought. In Merrell's examination of postmodern phenomena, the reader is taken through various facets of the cognitive sciences, philosophy of science, mathematics, and literary theory. Merrell's consideration of Peirce's complex and inadequately understood concept of the sign is enhanced through numerous charts and figures. Theories, hypotheses, and speculation in the physical sciences are then brought to bear on Peircean semiotics. The final chapter critiques the often undiscriminating acceptance of postmodern practices in today's academic world.

The computer revolution is upon us. The future of books and of reading are debated. Will there be books in the next millennium? Will we still be reading? As uncertain as the answers to these questions might be, as clear is the message about the value of the book expressed by medieval writers. The contributors to the volume The Book and the Magic of Reading in the Middle Ages explore the significance of the written document as the key icon of a whole era. Both philosophers and artists, both poets and clerics wholeheartedly subscribed to the notion that reading and writing represented essential epistemological tools for spiritual, political, religious, and philosophical quests. To gain a deeper understanding of the cultural significance of the medieval book, the contributors to this volume examine pertinent statements by medieval philosophers and French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian poets.