Step into the rich world of medieval devotion, art, and script with the Woellhof Collection. This collection features 153 leaves from treasured works including Books of Hours, Breviaries, a Ferial Psalter, Graduals, Choir Books, and Bibles—each page a window into centuries-old craftsmanship and religious life.
To explore the collection in more detail or learn how to access specific materials, please refer to the Woellhof Collection Finding Aid below.
Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1272 by
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, texts about the recent and more distant past were produced in remarkable numbers in the lands controlled by the kings of England. This may be seen, in part, as a response to changing social and political circumstances in the wake of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The names of many of the twelfth and thirteenth-century historians are well known, and they include Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, John of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Gerald of Wales, and Matthew Paris. Yet the manuscripts in which these works survive are also evidence for the involvement of many other people in the production of history, as patrons, scribes, and artists. Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World focuses on history books of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to examine what they reveal about the creation, circulation, and reception of history in this period. In particular, this research concentrates on illuminated manuscripts. These volumes represent an additional investment of time, labour, and resources, and combinations of text and imagery shed light on engagements with the past as manuscripts were copied at specific times and places. Imagery could be used to reproduce the features of older sources, but it was also used to call attention to particular elements of a text, and to impose frameworks onto the past. As a result, Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World has the potential to change the way in which we see the medieval past and its historians.
Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts of the Yahuda Collection of the National Library of Israel Volume 2 by
The Yahuda Collection was bequeathed to the National Library of Israel by one of the twentieth century's most knowledgeable and important collectors, Abraham Shalom Yahuda (d. 1951). The rich and multifaceted collection of 1,186 manuscripts, spanning ten centuries, includes works representing the major Islamic disciplines and literary traditions. Highlights include illuminated manuscripts from Mamluk, Mughal, and Ottoman court libraries; rare, early copies of medieval scholarly treatises; and early modern autograph copies. In this groundbreaking Arabic catalogue, Efraim Wust synthesizes the Islamic and Western manuscript traditions to enrich our understanding of the manuscripts and their compositions. His combined treatment of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts preserves the integrity of the collection and honors the multicultural history of the Islamic intellectual traditions.
Visual Translation by
Visual Translation breaks new ground in the study of French manuscripts, contributing to the fields of French humanism, textual translation, and the reception of the classical tradition in the first half of the fifteenth century. While the prominence and quality of illustrations in French manuscripts have attracted attention, their images have rarely been studied systematically as components of humanist translation. Anne D. Hedeman fills this gap by studying the humanist book production closely supervised by Laurent de Premierfait and Jean Lebègue for courtly Parisian audiences in the first half of the fifteenth century. Hedeman explores how visual translation works in a series of unusually densely illuminated manuscripts associated with Laurent and Lebègue circa 1404-54. These manuscripts cover both Latin texts, such as Statius's Thebiad and Achilleid, Terence's Comedies, and Sallust's Conspiracy of Cataline and Jurguthine War, and French translations of Cicero's De senectute, Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium and Decameron, and Bruni's De bello Punico primo. Illuminations constitute a significant part of these manuscripts' textual apparatus, which helped shape access to and interpretation of the texts for a French audience. Hedeman considers them as a group and reveals Laurent's and Lebègue's growing understanding of visual rhetoric and its ability to visually translate texts originating in a culture removed in time or geography for medieval readers who sought to understand them. The book discusses what happens when the visual cycles so carefully devised in collaboration with libraries and artists by Laurent and Lebègue escaped their control in a process of normalization. With over 180 color images, this major reference book will appeal to students and scholars of French, comparative literature, art history, history of the book, and translation studies.
French Books of Hours by
The Book of Hours was a 'best-seller' in medieval and early modern Europe, the era's most commonly produced and owned book. This interdisciplinary study explores its increasing popularity and prestige, offering a full account of the Book of Hours as a book - how it was acquired, how it was read to guide prayer and teach literacy and what it meant to its owners as a personal possession. Based on the study of over 500 manuscripts and printed books from France, Virginia Reinburg combines a social history of the Book of Hours with an ethnography of prayer. Approaching the practice of prayer as both speech and ritual, she argues that a central part of the Book of Hours' appeal for lay people was its role as a bridge between the liturgy and the home. Reinburg describes how the Book of Hours shaped religious practice through the ways in which it was used.
Illuminated manuscripts are handwritten books distinguished by elaborate painted decorations, often enhanced with precious metals such as gold and silver. Typically produced on parchment made from the skins of calves, sheep, or goats, these manuscripts represent a remarkable intersection of artistic, religious, and intellectual labor.
Between 1100 and 1600, illuminated manuscripts flourished as both devotional and cultural artifacts. Their earliest production took place in monastic scriptoriums, where manuscripts were created for liturgical use and theological study. As interest in these works grew beyond the cloister, wealthy patrons began commissioning manuscripts for private devotion and scholarly pursuits. This patronage stimulated the growth of commercial workshops, particularly in the urban centers of France and Italy during the 13th to 15th centuries, where manuscript production became a refined and specialized craft.
The tradition began to decline with the rise of the printing press in the 15th century. As books became more accessible and literacy rates increased, demand shifted toward printed texts that could be produced quickly and in greater volume. The illuminated manuscript, once a symbol of exclusivity and devotion, gradually gave way to the democratizing force of print.
The form and scale of these manuscripts varied according to their intended use. Large-format choir books were designed for communal reading, allowing multiple singers to follow the text from a distance. In contrast, the small, palm-sized prayer book was created for private devotion, tailored to the needs and status of an individual patron.
Book of Hours leaf, Italy, c. 1300. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_001. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf, Picardy or Amiens, France, about 1325. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_005. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf, Rouen, France, about 1430. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_019. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf, Aix or Marseilles, France, about 1465. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_036. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf with an illuminated O containing the portrait of the Holy Virgin, Poiters, France, about 1470. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_045. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf, Paris France, about 1490. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_057. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf with full page miniature of Christ on the cross, Rouen France, c. 1500. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_060. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf, by Thielman Kerver, Paris France, c. 1500. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_064. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf with calendar months October and November, by Gilles and Germain Hardouyn, Paris, France, 1512. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_068. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Book of Hours leaf with a miniature of St. Peter, by Gilles and Germain Hardouyn, Paris, France, about 1520. Woellhof Collection, RBM 204_069. Schreiner University, Logan Library Special Collections.
Codex: Book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, or similar materials, typically reserved for manuscripts.
Book of Hours: Devotional text often enriched with images and intended for private use.
Facsimile: An exact copy of written or printed material.
Folio: General term for a page, sheet, or leaf of paper, especially in manuscripts.
Historiated Initials: An initial or enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or section of text that contains a picture.
Illuminated Manuscript: Manuscript enriched with images, including pictures, embossed initial letters, or full-page images.
Incipit: Opening words of a text, manuscript, early printed book, or chanted liturgical text.
Index/Manicule: Symbol, often of a hand, directing the reader's attention to a section of text.
Paleography: The study of ancient and historical handwriting, including deciphering, reading, and dating historical texts.
Recto: Right-hand or front page of a hand-written or printed loose-leaf paper bound in a codex, pamphlet, broadsheet, or book.
Rubrication: Medieval manuscript technique designed to create emphasis in text with the addition of read headings.
Scroll: A roll of paper, parchment, or papyrus containing writing.
Shelf Mark: Notation such as numbers and letters on a book showing its place in a library.
Verso: Left-hand or back page of a hand-written or printed loose-leaf paper bound in a codex, pamphlet, broadsheet, or book.
Vellum: Prepared animal skin or membrane used as a material for writing.
The Online Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts is a searchable database of some of the western illuminated manuscripts in the British Library. The Library holds one of the richest collections of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the world.
Search across a consortium of American libraries and museums' collections of digitized pre-modern manuscripts.
The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge is a magnificent collection of over 600 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and around 8,000 books printed prior to 1850.
Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
CORSAIR is a single database providing unified access to over 250,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects.
Collaborative project of Bibliotheque Mazarine, Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, le CNRS- Institute de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, le Centre Informatique National de l'Enseignement Superieur, le Ministere de l'Education nationale. Advanced search screen provides index lists of manuscript title and numbers, artist/school,subject of illumination, etc. Selected pages and illuminations have been digitized. The database contains more than 1600 manuscripts and 31,000 images.
Glen Gunhouse, Hypertext book of hours – ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF LATIN TEXTS IN BOOKS of HOURS
The Getty Museum http://tiny.cc/Getty_Book_of_Hours
Discover over a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries.
Aims to investigate the textual tradition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Researchers have established a system of transcription for all the manuscripts and early printed editions of the Canterbury Tales into computer-readable form and transcribed around 65% of the texts using this system.
From the University of Aberdeen, images of and resources about the Abderdeen Bestiary, one of the best examples of its type, written and illuminated in England around 1200.
Digital collection of primarily Western manuscripts.
From Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Digital collection.
Collection includes nearly three hundred manuscripts and documents ranging in date from ca. 1900BC to the 20th century, with particular focus on the eras of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Access images and resources.
