As one of Indiana University’s greatest resources, The Lilly Library’s rich collection of materials bears witness to the development of the history of the book and of European media culture. The series Mediaevalia at the Lilly aims to better publicize our collection of medieval and renaissance manuscripts by bringing established scholars and experts for lectures and hands-on workshops for students and faculty. The series is organized under the auspices of the Medieval Studies Institute, and run by Hildegard Elisabeth Keller (Germanic Studies) in collaboration with Cherry Williams, Curator of Manuscripts at the Lilly Library. One seminar per year is conducted by a scholar from the field of manuscript study, the history of the book, or early printing. In seeking to combine lectures with workshops, our goal is to make abstract ideas, as presented in the classroom, concrete by confronting students with the intractable nature of sources and giving them some sense of just how much can be gleaned from handwriting, type, parchment, paper, watermarks, title pages, musical notation, format, decoration, in short, all material aspects of the book over the course of the period stretching from Late Antiquity to the Reformation.
This year, Mediævalia 2013, featured Dr. Roger S. Wieck, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum. In addition, Dr. Wieck has held curatorial positions at the Walters Art Museum and the Houghton Library at Harvard. He is the author of The Prayer Book of Claude de France (2010), The Hours of Henry VIII: A Renaissance Masterpiece by Jean Poyet (2000), Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art (1997), Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life (1988), and many other books and articles on medieval manuscripts. Prof. Keller’s interview with him can be seen on Youtube: