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Alphabet—History
Alphabets
Illumination of books and manuscripts
Illumination of books and manuscripts--History
Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manuscripts by
Arab painting is treated here as a significant artistic corpus in its own right. Rejecting the traditional emphasis on individual paintings, the distinguished contributors to this volume stress the integration of text and image as a more productive theoretical framework.
Hand Lettering A to Z : a World of Creative Ideas for Drawing and Designing Alphabets by 
Illuminated Manuscripts by
Those who have had the chance to hold a medieval manuscript in their hands cannot fail to have been impressed by the feeling of being in touch with a long-passed epoch. Back when a book was a true handicraft and every copy the result of a laborious process, the object was more a work of art than a volatile commercial product. The Mega Square Illuminated Manuscripts puts the reader in touch with amazing medieval illustrations and unique adornments, which document the imaginative power of their creators.
Images, Texts, and Marginalia in a "Vows of the Peacock" Manuscript (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS G24) by
The "Vows of the Peacock" was composed in 1312 in France. One of the extant manuscripts stands out for its beautiful miniatures and scurrilous marginalia (PML, MS G24). It includes a catalogue and concordance of all Peacock manuscripts.
The Islamic Manuscript Tradition: Ten Centuries of Book Arts in Indiana University collections by
Over the course of ten centuries, Islam developed a rich written heritage that is visible in paintings, calligraphies, and manuscripts. The Islamic Manuscript Tradition explores this aspect of Islamic history with studies of the materials and tools of literate culture, including pens, inks, and papers, Qur'ans, Persian and Mughal illustrated manuscripts, Ottoman devotional works, cartographical manuscripts, printed books, and Islamic erotica. Seven essays present new scholarship on a wide range of topics including collection, miniaturization, illustrated devotional books, the history of the printing press in Islamic lands, and the presence and function of erotic paintings. This beautifully produced volume includes 111 color illustrations and provides a valuable new resource for students and scholars of Islamic art.
The Letter and the Cosmos: How the Alphabet has Shaped the Western View of the World by
The Letter and the Cosmos is a sharp and entertaining examination of how languages, letterforms, orthography, and writing tools have reflected our hidden obsession with the alphabet,
Limbourg Brothers: Reflections on the Origins and the Legacy of Three Illuminators from Nijmegen by
In 2005 Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen presented the exhibition 'The LimbourgBrothers. Nijmegen Masters at the French Court (1400-1416)'. This was the first time that original miniatures fromfour manuscripts by the Limbourg brothers were shown in the Netherlands. The exhibition formed an excellentopportunity to invite prominent scholars to share their views on the art of the Limbourg brothers during a two-dayconference. This publication presents in written form the conference papers delivered by some of the leading scholars in the field.
Receptacle of the Sacred: Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult in South Asia by
In considering medieval illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of cultic innovation, Receptacle of the Sacred explores how and why the South Asian Buddhist book-cult has survived for almost two millennia to the present. A book "manuscript" should be understood as a form of sacred space: a temple in microcosm, not only imbued with divine presence but also layered with the memories of many generations of users. Jinah Kim argues that illustrating a manuscript with Buddhist imagery not only empowered it as a three-dimensional sacred object, but also made it a suitable tool for the spiritual transformation of medieval Indian practitioners. Through a detailed historical analysis of Sanskrit colophons on patronage, production, and use of illustrated manuscripts, she suggests that while Buddhism's disappearance in eastern India was a slow and gradual process, the Buddhist book-cult played an important role in sustaining its identity. In addition, by examining the physical traces left by later Nepalese users and the contemporary ritual use of the book in Nepal, Kim shows how human agency was critical in perpetuating and intensifying the potency of a manuscript as a sacred object throughout time.
Rereading Middle English Romance: Manuscript Layout, Decoration, and the Rhetoric of Composite Structure by 
Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering: A Source Book by
The introductory text provides a perceptive analysis of letter forms. Tschichold discusses lettering as a work of art, good and bad letters, older and recent letter forms, the use of capital and lower-case letters, word spacing, line spacing, the selection of appropriate letter styles, and the layout of groups of letters and signs.The type specimens are handsomely reproduced, most in their original size. Every alphabet was specially arranged by Tschichold, and forms a well-balanced graphic design. Many of the outstanding historical sources appear better here than in the often poorly printed originals. The book is identical to the original edition, first published in 1966, with a new introduction by designer and writer Ben Rosen.
Vision, Devotion, and Self-Representation in Late Medieval Art by
This book investigates the 'owner portrait' in the context of late medieval devotional books primarily from France and England. These mirror-like pictures of praying book owners respond to and help develop a growing concern with visibility and self-scrutiny that characterized the religious life of the laity after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The image of the praying book owner translated pre-existing representational strategies concerned with the authority and spiritual efficacy of pictures and books, such as the Holy Face and the donor image, into a more intimate and reflexive mode of address in Psalters and Books of Hours created for lay users. Alexa Sand demonstrates how this transformation had profound implications for devotional practices and for the performance of gender and class identity in the striving, aristocratic world of late medieval France and England.
The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet by
In a world of rapid technological advancements, it can be easy to forget that writing is the original Information Technology, created to transcend the limitations of human memory and to defy time and space. The Writing Revolution picks apart the development of this communication tool to show how it has conquered the world. Explores how writing has liberated the world, making possible everything from complex bureaucracy, literature, and science, to instruction manuals and love letters Draws on an engaging range of examples, from the first cuneiform clay tablet, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Japanese syllabaries, to the printing press and the text messaging Weaves together ideas from a number of fields, including history, cultural studies and archaeology, as well as linguistics and literature, to create an interdisciplinary volume Traces the origins of each of the world's major written traditions, along with their applications, adaptations, and cultural influences