Script as Image

By Jf Hamburger and Jeffrey F. Hamburger

In the Middle Ages, writing conveyed far more than information. Incontradistinction to the modern separation of image and text and, byimplication, form and content, which was reified with the invention ofprinting, illuminated manuscripts made images out of words. Inconsonance with Christian doctrine, which declared that the Word hadbecome flesh, letters painted on parchment assumed bodily presence tocreate effects of power and persuasion. Painted letters elicited modesof performance, oral recitation and ritual action. Far from calligraphicornament or a medium with prescribed boundaries, medieval letteringreveals itself as a flexible instrument in which various categories ofhuman experience and expression -- the audible, the visible, thesymbolic and the figurative -- come together. Among the topics touchedon by this book are display scripts, monograms, nomina sacra and carminafigurata, epigraphic inscriptions, chrysography and color, speechscrolls, relationships among author, scribe and artist as expressedthrough scripts, the anthropomorphic dimensions of abstract lettering, and the impact of iconic scripts on the reader.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9042930357
• ISBN13: 9789042930353
• Release Date: February 2014
• Publisher: Peeters
• Length: 77 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.7" x 11.9"