Diagramming Devotion: Berthold of Nuremberg’s Transformation of Hrabanus Maurus’s Poems in Praise of the Cross

Jeffrey F. Hamburger

Published by University of Chicago Press 2020

Diagramming Devotion

Berthold of Nuremberg’s Transformation of Hrabanus Maurus’s Poems in Praise of the Cross

Jeffrey F. Hamburger

In the series Louise Smith Bross Lecture Series

https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226642956

Overview
Contents

About this book

During the European Middle Ages, diagrams provided a critical tool of analysis in cosmological and theological debates. In addition to drawing relationships among diverse areas of human knowledge and experience, diagrams themselves generated such knowledge in the first place. In Diagramming Devotion, Jeffrey F. Hamburger examines two monumental works that are diagrammatic to their core: a famous set of picture poems of unrivaled complexity by the Carolingian monk Hrabanus Maurus, devoted to the praise of the cross, and a virtually unknown commentary on Hrabanus’s work composed almost five hundred years later by the Dominican friar Berthold of Nuremberg. Berthold’s profusely illustrated elaboration of Hrabnus translated his predecessor’s poems into a series of almost one hundred diagrams. By examining Berthold of Nuremberg’s transformation of a Carolingian classic, Hamburger brings modern and medieval visual culture into dialogue, traces important changes in medieval visual culture, and introduces new ways of thinking about diagrams as an enduring visual and conceptual model.

Author / Editor information

Jeffrey F. Hamburger is the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture at Harvard University. He is the author of many books, including Painting the Page in the Age of Print.

Reviews

“Hamburger has accomplished a rare feat among twenty-first-century scholars by bringing unknown illuminated manuscripts to light. Acutely sensitive to subtle changes made in Berthold’s revision, he locates the novelties in their theological context; and, moving from image to word and from diagrams to theological arguments, Hamburger provides a rich compendium of medieval thought and offers a subtle and complicated analysis of the late thirteenth-century version that engages the most important intellectual issues of the day. Like its subject, Diagramming Devotion is at once profoundly learned and inspiringly original.”

— Herbert Kessler, author of Experiencing Medieval Art

“Hamburger impressively combines the historical analysis of medieval diagrams with a discussion of modern and contemporary notions of diagrams and the diagrammatic. Diagramming Devotion presents a whole range of fascinating new visual material and broadens the art historical canon in showing how closely diagrammatic and figural modes were linked in medieval visual culture. Hamburger not only demonstrates a profound knowledge of the diagrammatic in medieval imagery but also explores its many multidisciplinary aspects. In considering the personal, emotional, and sometimes even irrational dimensions of diagrams, Hamburger opens new ways to think about the role of diagrams in medieval art and thought. Diagraming Devotion is elegantly written, a pleasure to read, and an important contribution to the field of medieval art history.”

— Kathrin Müller, Humboldt-Universität

“Hamburger’s deeply learned study highlights the significance of Berthold’s endeavor, offering a pathbreaking argument about the diagrammatic disposition of medieval culture. In daring and fruitful juxtapositions, Hamburger shows how medieval and modern times share a strong reliance on diagrams, examining the expressive powers of their relational and processual modes and their claims to making truth in multiple areas of human inquiry. Within a comprehensive interpretative framework, Hamburger’s exploration of numerous manuscripts and lavish illustrations extracts new layers of meaning. His analysis sustains a consistently brilliant commentary on the implications of the medieval diagram as a meditational medium, animated by a poignant desire to demonstrate, and not simply to represent, the truth of salvation history.”

— Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak, New York University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface & Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Medieval Art as Diagram Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Diagram as Paradigm in Medieval Art—and Beyond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2 Configured Commentaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3 From Cross to Crucifix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
4 In Praise of the Virgin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
5 Typological Logic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Drawing Conclusions: The Maker’s Mark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Appendix: Description and Partial Edition of Forschungsbibliothek Gotha der Universität Erfurt, Memb. I 80 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Manuscripts Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397

Language: English
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 384
Illustrations
- Other: 220 color plates, 1 halftone
Keywords: Middle Ages; manuscript illumination; Carolingian art; Dominicans; diagrams; logic; Marian devotion; devotional imagery; typology

eBook

Published: September 21, 2020
ISBN: 9780226642956