Program Overview

Deciphering Secrets: The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe

About This Course

Perhaps no other relic of the European Middle Ages captures our imagination more than illuminated medieval manuscripts, or those documents decorated with images and colored pigments. Serving as windows unto a lost world of kings, ladies, faith, war, and culture, they communicate complex visual and textual narratives of Europe's collective cultural heritage and patrimony. In this fashion, illuminated manuscripts are dynamic messages from our communal past that are still relevant today in fields like graphic design and typography. In this seven-week course, students will explore the material creation, content, and historical context of illuminated medieval European manuscripts. Students will acquire an introductory knowledge of their distinguishing characteristics, their cataloguing and periodization (when they were created), the methods utilized to produce them, and their historical context and value. Student achievement will be assessed using not only traditional multiple-choice quizzes, but more importantly will be evaluated based on individual student projects. In their final projects students will either (1) produce a board of commented images about medieval manuscripts or (2) prepare a physical manuscript using medieval methods.

Target Audience

• The general public with an interest in the European Middle Ages
  • Bibliophiles and collectors of medieval manuscripts in facsimile
• Students of European history and the history of arts
• Students of library and information science
• Students of cultural heritage and patrimony
• Graphic designers wishing to deepen their understanding of the roots of modern image, color, and icon design

Course Details

• Language: English
• How to Pass: Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
• User Ratings: Average User Rating of 4.6

Collaborations

This course is an exciting international collaboration between the University of Colorado (USA) and Universidad Complutense Madrid (Spain).