Lucy Donkin and Hanna Vorholt (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265048
- eISBN:
- 9780191754159
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265048.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Jerusalem was the object of intense study and devotion throughout the Middle Ages. This book illuminates ways in which the city was represented by Christians in Western Europe, from the 600s the ...
More
Jerusalem was the object of intense study and devotion throughout the Middle Ages. This book illuminates ways in which the city was represented by Christians in Western Europe, from the 600s the 1500s. Focusing on maps in illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, it also considers views and architectural replicas, and treats depictions of the Temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre alongside those of Jerusalem as a whole. The chapters draw on new research and a range of disciplinary perspectives to show how such depictions responded to developments in the West, as well as to the shifting political circumstances of Jerusalem and its wider region. One central theme is the relationship between text, image and manuscript context, including discussion of images as scriptural exegesis and the place of schematic diagrams and plans in the presentation of knowledge. Another is the impact of trends in learning, such as the reception of Jewish scholarship, the move from monastic to university education, and the creation of yet wider audiences through mendicant preaching and the development of printing. The book also examines the role of changing liturgical and devotional practices, including imagined pilgrimage and the mapping of Jerusalem onto European cities and local landscapes. Finally, it seeks to elucidate how two- and three-dimensional representations of the city both resulted from and prompted processes of mental visualization. In this way, the book is conceived as a contribution to manuscript studies, the history of cartography, visual studies and the history of ideas.Less
Jerusalem was the object of intense study and devotion throughout the Middle Ages. This book illuminates ways in which the city was represented by Christians in Western Europe, from the 600s the 1500s. Focusing on maps in illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, it also considers views and architectural replicas, and treats depictions of the Temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre alongside those of Jerusalem as a whole. The chapters draw on new research and a range of disciplinary perspectives to show how such depictions responded to developments in the West, as well as to the shifting political circumstances of Jerusalem and its wider region. One central theme is the relationship between text, image and manuscript context, including discussion of images as scriptural exegesis and the place of schematic diagrams and plans in the presentation of knowledge. Another is the impact of trends in learning, such as the reception of Jewish scholarship, the move from monastic to university education, and the creation of yet wider audiences through mendicant preaching and the development of printing. The book also examines the role of changing liturgical and devotional practices, including imagined pilgrimage and the mapping of Jerusalem onto European cities and local landscapes. Finally, it seeks to elucidate how two- and three-dimensional representations of the city both resulted from and prompted processes of mental visualization. In this way, the book is conceived as a contribution to manuscript studies, the history of cartography, visual studies and the history of ideas.
Jinah Kim
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780520273863
- eISBN:
- 9780520954885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520273863.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter explains how the scenes from the life of the Buddha, often seen to be unrelated to the text of the Prajnāpāramitā sūtra, illustrate the main message of the text when understood together ...
More
This chapter explains how the scenes from the life of the Buddha, often seen to be unrelated to the text of the Prajnāpāramitā sūtra, illustrate the main message of the text when understood together as a group. A Buddhist book with systematic placement of illustrated panels with the Buddha’s life scenes is like a stūpa. I also suggest that the seemingly random placement of many holy sites within a single manuscript can invoke a mental journey or an imagined pilgrimage to these sacred sites, thus allowing a Buddhist practitioner to roam freely beyond the spatial boundaries and physical limits of his surroundings.Less
This chapter explains how the scenes from the life of the Buddha, often seen to be unrelated to the text of the Prajnāpāramitā sūtra, illustrate the main message of the text when understood together as a group. A Buddhist book with systematic placement of illustrated panels with the Buddha’s life scenes is like a stūpa. I also suggest that the seemingly random placement of many holy sites within a single manuscript can invoke a mental journey or an imagined pilgrimage to these sacred sites, thus allowing a Buddhist practitioner to roam freely beyond the spatial boundaries and physical limits of his surroundings.
