Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-century England: Three Women and Their Books of Hours

Portada
University of Toronto Press, 1 de gen. 2003 - 364 pàgines

Art, Identity, and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England is the first major study of three profusely illustrated, textually diverse books of hours, the De Lisle, De Bois, and Neville of Hornby Hours, all of which were made for three English laywomen: Margaret de Beauchamp, the wife of a baron and loyal royal servant; Hawisia de Bois, a member of a distinguished knightly family; and Isabel de Byron, the matriarch of a rising gentry family.

Through detailed analysis of the manuscripts' visual and textual programs, and by embedding the books within a rich interpretive context constructed from religious and secular literature, sermons, and a broad range of artistic and historical evidence, Kathryn A. Smith examines how the three books mediated the devotional experience of their owners and constructed and confirmed their sense of personal, familial, local, and social identity. The study explores the potential functions of illustrated books of hours ? as vehicles for penitent self-examination, familial, and dynastic commemoration and legitimation, and instruction of one's children ? and reveals how the manuscripts' contents and design accommodated these functions. Art, Identity, and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England offers new insights into the issues of female patronage and book ownership, lay literacy, and the roles and uses of imagery in later medieval religion.

 

Continguts

Concepts of Time
57
Devotional Themes and Pictorial and Textual Strategies
152
Functions of the Book of Hours
249
The De Lisle Hours
297
Coats of Arms in the De Bois Hours
311
Bibliography
325
Index of Manuscripts Cited
345
Copyright

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Sobre l'autor (2003)

Kathryn A. Smith is an assistant professor in the Department of Fine Arts at New York University.

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