| FA-232675-16 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Nina Ariane Rowe | The World in a Book: Weltchroniken and Society at the End of the Middle Ages | 9/1/2016 - 8/31/2017 | $50,400.00 | Nina | Ariane | Rowe | | | | Fordham University | Bronx | NY | 10458-9993 | USA | 2015 | Art History and Criticism | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 | The completion of a book-length study on German medieval World Chronicle manuscripts and an interpretation of their illustrations.
This study will be the first comprehensive account of illuminated World Chronicle manuscripts and their relationship to the tastes and preoccupations of urban audiences in an era of growing middle class city life, from roughly 1330 to 1430. I investigate sixteen richly decorated manuscripts, filled with texts of a versified world chronicle, written in Middle High German, and adorned with illustrations. My book focuses on texts and images that evince a range of social preoccupations among late medieval city dwellers—commercial and political ambitions, skepticism about Christian religious practices, appreciation of artistic ingenuity, and ultimately the implications of the new technology of print. While most art historical considerations of the late medieval era consider sacred works, my project investigates the secular sphere. |