Hanno Wijsman

Henri Willem Wijsman

This interdisciplinary study presents a two-part survey of the production and ownership of luxury manuscripts in the late-medieval Netherlands. Part I analyses a corpus of 3,700 illustrated manuscripts produced between 1400 and 1550 in the Low Countries. The result is a cornucopia of information about many aspects of manuscript production: chronological, geographical and gender distribution, the genres of texts, the languages used, the dimensions of books, the number of illustrations, and the relationship between the making of hand-written and printed books. Part II examines the libraries of the pre-eminent owners of illustrated manuscripts in the Netherlands: the ducal family and the noble elite. The great bibliophile Philip the Good set an example of book collecting that was emulated by the nobles of the court, creating a typical 'Burgundian' fashion in book ownership by which a small elite demonstrated a well defined group identity. Luxury Bound charts this new vogue in books and reading, an important aspect of cultural change in the late-medieval Low Countries.

Illustrated Manuscript Production and Noble and Princely Book Ownership in the Burgundian Netherlands (1400-1550)

Luxury Bound

Ann Kelders

Susie Speakman Sutch

In 2006, 500 years after his death, the Royal Library of Belgium organised an exhibition (curated by Bernard Bousmanne and Hanno Wijsman) revealing treasures from the era of Philip the Fair (1478-1506), last duke of Burgundy. This volume reunites most of the papers delivered at a conference held during the exhibition, increased with four new chapters. Ten specialists from Belgium, the Netherlands and the United States discuss the book market and its place in society in this transitional period when manuscripts and printed books were produced and used next to one another. The various chapters are illustrated with more than 70 reproductions, most of which formerly unpublished. The contributions are organised around five topics: Philip the Fair and his books, art in books, music in books, politics in books, the book market. Contributions by: Renaud Adam, Jean-Marie Cauchies, Marieke van Delft, Lieve De Kesel, Samuel Mareel, Zoe Saunders, Susie Speakman Sutch, Herman Pleij, Rob Wegman, and Hanno Wijsman.

Henri Willem Wijsman

Books

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