Illustration by the Luce Program in Scripture and the Arts at Boston University.

The basic visual unit that structures our experience of the medieval book is the opening. From the origins of codex as a medium in late antiquity, and in contrast to the scrolls used in the ancient world, the confrontation of the verso and recto provided the visual field within which scribes and illuminators operated. Openings also made possible the visible elaboration of the word with figurated initials, frames and full-page miniatures.

Jeffrey Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture at Harvard University, delivers a lecture  in which he explores the complex semantics and literally revelatory possibilities of this new medium as it developed over the medieval millennium.

This lecture, titled “Openings,” was presented by The Luce Program in Scripture and the Arts in the Department of Religion at Boston University.

Tags: Jeffrey Hamburger, literature, medieval book