{"id":2483,"date":"2014-09-18T03:13:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T03:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?page_id=2483"},"modified":"2018-02-21T06:24:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T06:24:01","slug":"neven-2013-congress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/abstracts\/neven-2013-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Neven (2013 Congress)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sylvie Neven (FRS-FNRS, Universit\u00e9 de Li\u00e8ge, and Max-Planck-Institut f\u00fcr Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin<\/em>), “Through Artists\u2019 Recipe Books: \u00a0Knowledge in and Transmission of Late Medieval Illuminators\u2019 Recipe Books”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abstract of Paper at the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 2013)
\nSession on \u201cThe Making of Medieval Manuscripts: \u00a0Analyzing the Materials and Methods of Scribes, Compilers, and Artists\u201d<\/strong>
\nOrganized by Sarah J. Biggs (The British Library \/ The Courtauld Institute of Art<\/em>)
\nSponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
\n2013 Congress<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

[First published on our first website on 15 May 2013 and updated on 8 December 2014<\/em>]<\/p>\n

This paper considers the interest in and the written transmission of medieval illuminators’ craft knowledge, through close examination of an original and primordial historical source:\u00a0\u00a0artists\u2019 recipe books. \u00a0The study is based on systematic research of the corpus of more than 400 recipe manuscripts, dating from about 1300 to 1500, produced mostly in Northern Europe.<\/p>\n

To date, most of these written sources have been largely unknown and unpublished. \u00a0In order to facilitate their consultation and exploitation, a detailed database containing records of and information for every recipe in these books has been established. \u00a0So far, more than 300 manuscripts have been examined and 5000 recipes have been transcribed and systematically recorded in the database. \u00a0The majority of these texts consists mainly of prescriptions for the manufacture of pigments and colorants, as well as of glues, mediums, inks, etc. \u00a0Some also describe the preparation of supports, the applications of pigments, including tempering, modelling, suitable mixtures, the use of gold and silver in gilding, and their imitations.<\/p>\n

In this talk, I demonstrate that these recipe books increase knowledge of the materials and techniques used both by illuminators and scribes in the making of manuscripts and the embellishment of printed books. \u00a0I also argue that some recipe books can be used to identify and delimit specific, datable practices and productions, especially when their compilers specify the name and\/or place of origin of the artists from whom they obtained their information. \u00a0In addition, it is possible to observe the development of specific artistic procedures and technical traditions, and to perceive in which ways they have been modified over time or by other external phenomena. \u00a0Thus recipe books allow us to study the geography, chronology, circulation, and transmission of the ‘practical knowledge\u2019 of artists.<\/p>\n

A finely-tuned interconnection between artists\u2019 recipe books and historical practices is revealed through specific cases in a delimited corpus of texts, grouped under the name of the \u2018Strasbourg Tradition\u2019. \u00a0The oldest witnesses of this textual and technical tradition were written in Southern Germany and Northern France between 1400 and 1500, composed partly from an older Alsatian treatise on illumination. \u00a0The chronological and geographical framework in which these books circulated, as well as the techniques and the characteristics of the materials that they describe, reveal specific and localized illuminators\u2019 practices. \u00a0Experimental reconstructions of recipes and comparison with historical witnesses in works of art created in the same area highlight correspondences between the recipes of the Strasbourg Tradition and medieval Alsatian illuminators\u2019 workshops. \u00a0An opportunity to carry out technical and analytical studies on several manuscripts produced in Northern Europe, including a relevant example attributed to an Alsatian illuminator\u2019s workshop\u00a0\u2014 the Ms. Wittert 3 preserved at the University of Li\u00e8ge\u00a0\u2014 allow a more accurate estimation of the close connection between this written tradition and contemporary practices.<\/p>\n

Finally, a consideration of the cultural context in which these recipe books were produced\u00a0\u2014 through external information related not only to the authorship but also to the composition and the reception of these books\u00a0\u2014 makes it possible better to estimate the significance of the attention and interest which both artists and contemporary scholars accorded to specific aspects of artistic knowledge, especially those related to the making of manuscripts.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Update<\/em>: We report the launch of Dr. Neven’s Colour ConText<\/strong> database dedicated to artistic and colour recipes in late-medieval and early-modern Europe.\u00a0 The current version is accessible here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sylvie Neven (FRS-FNRS, Universit\u00e9 de Li\u00e8ge, and Max-Planck-Institut f\u00fcr Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin), “Through Artists\u2019 Recipe Books: \u00a0Knowledge in and Transmission of Late Medieval Illuminators\u2019 Recipe Books” Abstract of Paper at the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 2013) Session on \u201cThe Making of Medieval Manuscripts: \u00a0Analyzing the Materials and Methods of Scribes, Compilers, and Artists\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1023,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2483"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4507,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2483\/revisions\/4507"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}