1.Introduction (1.introduce yourself(不少于8句话))

1.Introduction (1.introduce yourself(不少于8句话))

This module is designed to walk you through, step-by-step, the process of how a typical manuscript was made. One has to be careful in speaking of a “typical” manuscript, because in fact, one of the salient characteristics of medieval manuscripts, in contrast to printed books, is that every one is different. Early printed books, even those from a single print run, can differ from one another as well — for example, in the paper stock, the type font, corrections, etc. — but by comparison with manuscript copies, the distinctions can be quite subtle.

Manuscript scholars sometimes speak of the “manuscript matrix.” By this is meant the combination of distinctive physical elements and features that, in addition to the reader’s own outlook and horizon, shape his or her experience of the book and its contents.

Today it’s sometimes said that one can’t judge a book by its cover — yet medieval books, especially treasure codices designed for use in the liturgy, were conceived as display objects that were installed on the altar along with other liturgical furnishings or carried in processions. Studded with gemstones and decorated with elaborate metalwork, they were designed to make a powerful, auratic impression.

The book itself as an object gave presence to the word of God, in Christianity conceptualized as the “Logos,” the Word, in keeping with the opening of the Gospel of John (1:1): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Of course, not all medieval manuscripts held religious texts. Over the course of the medieval millenium, many new textual genres, many of them non-religious in content and function, developed. In this module, you will encounter a wide variety of the different types of book created in the Middle Ages.

Video 1.1

Saint Jerome: An Archetypal Author, Reader, Scholar and Scribe

In the later Middle Ages, St. Jerome (ca. 347–420) served as the patron saint of scholars on account of his having translated the bible from both Greek and Hebrew into Latin.

Paintings of the Church Father often show him in his study, surrounded by all the attributes of learning, above all, books.

We can look to these paintings for evidence of how books were used in the periods and places in which the paintings were produced. More important, they tell us something about attitudes towards book learning.

Jerome’s own attitude was ambivalent, an ambivalence that is reflected in different images of the saint.

Saint Jerome in his Study (1492)

Its one thing to look at books from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, quite another to imagine how they would have been perceived and used by their readers. We can turn to paintings of the period to get an idea of what contemporaries thought about their books, not only their content, but also their symbolic cultural value.

Here, were looking at a painting by the Italian artist, Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo. He came from Sansepolcro in Tuscany. He was active from around 1430 to 1495 and spent much of his career painting in Tuscany.

The work that were looking at depicts Saint Jerome, the church father, in his study, and it is dated 1492. It measures around 73 by 54 inches and is painted in mixed media, both tempera and oil. The painting presents us with the church father, Jerome, in his study surrounded by of the paraphernalia of writing. He is shown as a deeply learned man.

And indeed, Saint Jerome was often regarded as the patron saint of Renaissance humanists. He was a great philologist. He had translated the Bible not only from Greek, but also from Hebrew. He was regarded as a model scholar.

And we see him here at his writing desk copying a book, one book open above the other. Saint Jeromes left hand rests on the page. Hes holding a scraper in his left hand to erase mistakes, and in his raised right hand, hes shown holding a quill poised, ready to write. Were to imagine him engaged at this very moment in the act of translation. He looks out at us to engage our attention, a very arresting figure. And his attribute, the lion, who cowers at his feet, looks up at him as well in awe, providing yet another model for the viewer.

Behind Saint Jerome, we see a lectern of the kind that was often used in ecclesiastical settings for large liturgical books. Here, we see several books, one open, one with the cover virtually closed, resting on the lectern. Behind the open book, there is a scroll. And there are further scrolls, both on the shelf above Saint Jeromes writing desk, and still others down below in a cubbyhole, where his cardinals hat, his red cardinals hat with its broad rim, can be seen resting on yet another tome.

There are elements of a still-life painting in this work, but each of these objects is designed to evoke the meditative, studious, scholarly context in which this church father went about his work. And if we think of this painting hanging in the studiolo or the office of a Renaissance humanist, he would have been able to exchange glances with the church father and imagine himself carrying on his work.

Saint Jerome in His Study (1521)

Images of Saint Jerome in his Study come in many guises. Just as the saint himself was ambivalent about book learning, so too paintings reflect various aspects of attitudes towards books and, more generally, scholarship.

Here were looking at a painting by the Netherlandish artist, Joos van Cleve, who was active from around 1485 to the mid-16th century. He died in 1540 or 1541. This particular representation of Saint Jerome in his Study was completed in 1521 in Antwerp, where the artist had his workshop. Its painted in oil on panel. The work is about 40 by 33 inches.

Everything in this work, let alone the lustrous surfaces of the painting itself, is redolent of luxury. We are looking into a room rather reminiscent of the domestic interiors in which Netherlandish paintings of the Annunciation were staged that clearly reflects enormous wealth, and also humanist culture. Witness the introduction of classicizing motifs, such as the capital and the vine scroll with putti on the wall immediately behind the saint.

And yet, theres an element in this work that contrasts with, even contradicts, the proud splendor. The saint is shown in a deeply melancholic, contemplative pose. Hes holding his head in his hand. Its a pose that was associated with Job on his dung hill. And if one thinks of a famous work, such as Rodins Thinker, we see that this pose of reflection and introspection has a long tradition in European art.

The saints gaze is unfocused. Hes certainly no longer reading the open book in front of him. The pages are fluttering. With his left hand, he points ostentatiously to the skull, a vanitas symbol, a representation of the vanity of all human endeavor, including scholarship, the skull that is sitting on his desk.

There are other books in the picture. The one on the small lectern on the desk is closed. We see very clearly the clasps of the binding. These clasps would have served to keep the book closed and would have prevented the parchment pages from warping. And up above on the shelf, we see books perched precariously, awaiting use. But the fact that they look as if they might topple over could be construed as a vanitas symbol in itself.

Theres a strip of parchment attached to the wall, with the Latin words RESPICE FINEM, Behold The End, an appropriate sentiment in a painting such as this. And just below, in an epigraphic script, painted to appear as if its carved into the arch of the niche in the wall, we see the Latin words, HOMO BULLA, Man Is A Bubble. A bubble, another symbol of evanescence and vanity.

In sum, the Saint Jerome that we see here is less the scholar than the hermit. And the expansive landscape viewed through the window in the rear wall reminds us of Saint Jeromes other life as a desert father who held all things of the world in contempt.

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