1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
3.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
4.
Palladian architecture
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Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. That which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladios original concepts, Palladios work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. From the 17th century Palladios interpretation of classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the end of the 18th century, Palladianism became popular briefly in Britain during the mid-17th century, but its flowering was cut short by the onset of the Civil War and the imposition of austerity which followed. In the early 18th century it returned to fashion, not only in England but also, the style continued to be popular in Europe throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, where it was frequently employed in the design of public and municipal buildings. However, as a style it has continued to be popular and to evolve, its pediments, symmetry. Buildings entirely designed by Palladio are all in Venice and the Veneto, with an especially rich grouping of palazzi in Vicenza and they include villas, and churches such as Redentore in Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting, if on a hill, such as Villa Capra, facades were frequently designed to be of equal value so that occupants could have fine views in all directions. Also, in cases, porticos were built on all sides so that occupants could fully appreciate the countryside while being protected from the sun. Palladio sometimes used a loggia as an alternative to the portico and this can most simply be described as a recessed portico, or an internal single storey room, with pierced walls that are open to the elements. Occasionally a loggia would be placed at floor level over the top of a loggia below. Loggias were sometimes given significance in a facade by being surmounted by a pediment, Villa Godi has as its focal point a loggia rather than a portico, plus loggias terminating each end of the main building. Palladio would often model his villa elevations on Roman temple facades, the temple influence, often in a cruciform design, later became a trademark of his work. Palladian villas are built with three floors, a rusticated basement or ground floor, containing the service and minor rooms. The proportions of each room within the villa were calculated on simple mathematical ratios like 3,4 and 4,5, earlier architects had used these formulas for balancing a single symmetrical facade, however, Palladios designs related to the whole, usually square, villa. Palladio deeply considered the purpose of his villas as both farmhouses and palatial weekend retreats for wealthy merchant owners. These symmetrical temple-like houses often have symmetrical, but low, wings sweeping away from them to accommodate horses, farm animals. The wings, sometimes detached and connected to the villa by colonnades, were designed not only to be functional but also to complement, the Palladian, Serlian, or Venetian window features largely in Palladios work and is almost a trademark of his early career
5.
Murray Hill, Manhattan
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Murray Hill is a neighborhood in midtown Manhattan in New York City. Murray Hill derives its name from the Murray family, 18th-century Quaker merchants mainly concerned with shipping and overseas trade. Robert Murray, the patriarch, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1732. He quickly established himself as a merchant and eventually owned more shipping tonnage than any other New Yorker, about 1762 Murray rented land from the city for a great house and farm. His great house, which he named Inclenberg, but which was popularly termed Murray Hill, was built on a hill at what is today Park Avenue. The total area was just over 29 acres, in today’s terms, the farm began a few feet south of 33rd Street and extended north to the middle of the block between 38th and 39th Streets. At the southern end, the plot was rather narrow, and it had a natural rise from 34th Street, sinking towards 42nd Street and reaching from Lexington Avenue to Broadway. Burrows and Mike Wallace observe, their primary purpose—besides providing refuge from epidemics—was to serve as theaters of refinement, Mary Lindley Murray is credited with delaying William Howe and his army during General Washingtons retreat from New York following the British landing at Kips Bay,15 September 1776. This detention and the stories told by the fair friend saved 4,000 men, james Thacher, M. D. a gossipy surgeon with the Continental Army, kept a journal that is one of the prime sources of information about the military happenings of the times. By this happy incident general Putnam, by continuing his march, escaped. It has since become almost a common saying among our officers, the most illustrious member of the family was the oldest child, Lindley Murray. A New York lawyer, he was forced into exile after the Revolution as a loyalist, some 16 million copies of Murrays books were sold in America. His English Reader utterly dominated the American market for readers from 1815 into the 1840s, during the 19th century, this neighborhood was uptown with the city ending with the reservoir at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street covering what today is the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. To the north was for the most part farmland and this Park Avenue Tunnel, enlarged and relined, has been devoted to automobile traffic since 1937. In mid-century, the rich temporarily, and the middle class more permanently. For much of the 20th century, the neighborhood was a quiet and rather formal place, in 1905, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt lived close by Franklins mother Sara Roosevelt in the Murray Hill neighborhood. Since the late 1990s, many people in their twenties have moved to the area from the suburbs of New York. As reported in the New York Times in 2011, on weekends, the raucous restaurant-and-bar scene along Third Avenue, beyond the traditional eastern limits of Murray Hill, particularly reflects this change. The area also includes 10 East 40th Street, an example of art deco architecture, on January 29,2008, the Whitney Museum of American Art branch gallery at what had been the Philip Morris headquarters opposite Grand Central Terminal closed after a 25-year run
6.
J. P. Morgan
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John Pierpont J. P. Morgan was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in late 19th and early 20th Century United States. In 1892, Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and he was instrumental in the creation of the United States Steel Corporation, International Harvester and AT&T. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907 and he was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business. Morgan has been described as America’s greatest banker, Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. His fortune was estimated at only US$80 million, prompting John D. Rockefeller to say, Morgan was born into the influential Morgan family in Hartford, Connecticut, and was raised there. He was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan and Juliet Pierpont, Pierpont, as he preferred to be known, had a varied education due in part to the plans of his father. In the fall of 1848, Pierpont transferred to the Hartford Public School and then to the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut, boarding with the principal. In September 1851, Morgan passed the exam for The English High School of Boston. In the spring of 1852, an illness struck which was to more common as his life progressed. Rheumatic fever left him in so much pain that he could not walk and he convalesced there for almost a year, then returned to the English High School in Boston to resume his studies. After he graduated, his father sent him to Bellerive, a school near the Swiss village of Vevey and his father then sent him to the University of Göttingen in order to improve his German. He attained a level of German within six months and also a degree in art history, then traveled back to London via Wiesbaden. Morgan went into banking in 1857 at the London branch of merchant banking firm Peabody, in 1858, he moved to New York City to join the banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Company, the American representatives of George Peabody and Company. Morgan had avoided serving during the war by paying a substitute $300 to take his place, from 1860 to 1864, as J. Pierpont Morgan & Company, he acted as agent in New York for his fathers firm, renamed J. S. Morgan & Co. upon Peabodys retirement in 1864, from 1864–72, he was a member of the firm of Dabney, Morgan, and Company. In 1871, he partnered with the Drexels of Philadelphia to form the New York firm of Drexel, at that time, Anthony J. Drexel became Pierponts mentor at the request of Junius Morgan. After the death of Anthony Drexel, the firm was rechristened J. P. Morgan & Company in 1895, retaining close ties with Drexel & Company of Philadelphia, Morgan, Harjes & Company of Paris, and J. S. By 1900, it was one of the most powerful banking houses of the world, Morgan had many partners over the years, such as George W. Perkins, but always remained firmly in charge
7.
McKim, Mead & White
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McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm that thrived at the turn of the twentieth century. The firms founding partners were Charles Follen McKim, William Rutherford Mead and they hired many other architects, partners, associates, designers and draftsmen, who came to prominence during or after their time at the firm. The firms New York City buildings include Manhattans former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, elsewhere in New York State and New England, the firm designed college, library, school and other buildings such as the Boston Public Library and Rhode Island State House. In Washington, D. C. the firm renovated the West and East Wings of the White House, and designed Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair and the National Museum of American History. Across the United States, the firm designed buildings in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, other examples are in Canada, Cuba and Italy. McKim and Mead joined forces in 1872 and they were joined in 1879 by White, who, like McKim, had worked for architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Its vision was to clean up the confusion of American cities and imbue them with a sense of order. The firm retained its name long after the deaths of founding partners White, McKim, among the firms final works under the name McKim, Mead & White was the National Museum of American History in Washington, D. C. Designed primarily by partner James Kellum Smith, it opened in 1964, Smith died in 1961, and the firm was soon renamed Steinmann, Cain and White. In 1971, it became Walker O. Cain and Associates, lewis Colt Albro – who formed a partnership with Harrie T. Lindeberg from 1906 to 1914. Henry Bacon – worked at the firm from about 1886 through 1897, boring – worked at the firm in 1890 before forming a separate partnership with Edward Lippincott Tilton. Page Brown - worked with the beginning in the 1880s, went to California. Walker O. Cain – worked at the firm, he took it over in 1961, john Merven Carrère – worked with McKim, Mead & White from 1883 through 1885, then joined Thomas Hastings to form the firm Carrère and Hastings. Arthur Loomis Harmon – later of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, Thomas Hastings – of Carrère and Hastings, worked with McKim, Mead & White from 1883 through 1885. William Mitchell Kendall, worked with the firm from 1882 until his death, Harrie T. Lindeberg – started at the firm in 1895 as an assistant to Stanford White and remained with the firm until Whites death in 1906. Austin W. James Kellum Smith – a member of the firm from 1924 to 1961, full partner in 1929, and he primarily designed academic buildings, but his last major work was the National Museum of American History. Egerton Swartwout of Tracy and Swartwout – both Tracy and Swartwout worked together for the firm on multiple projects prior to starting their own practice, robert von Ezdorf – took over much of the firms business after Whites death. William M. Wells – worked as firms first Chief Draftsman from 1879–90, often considered to be the fourth partner
8.
Illuminated manuscript
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An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders and miniature illustrations. Comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted, islamic manuscripts may be referred to as illuminated, illustrated or painted, though using essentially the same techniques as Western works. This article covers the technical, social and economic history of the subject, for an art-historical account, the earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period 400 to 600, produced in the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire. The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent artistic and historical value, had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity, most literature of Greece and Rome would have perished in Europe. As it was, the patterns of textual survivals were shaped by their usefulness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians, the majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity. The majority of manuscripts are of a religious nature. However, especially from the 13th century onward, a number of secular texts were illuminated. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices, which had superseded scrolls, a very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, which does not last nearly as long as vellum or parchment. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment, beginning in the late Middle Ages manuscripts began to be produced on paper. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in the early 16th century, Manuscripts are among the most common items to survive from the Middle Ages, many thousands survive. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting, indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting. There are a few examples from later periods, the type of book that was most often heavily and richly illuminated, sometimes known as a display book, varied between periods. In the first millennium, these were most likely to be Gospel Books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Romanesque period saw the creation of many huge illuminated complete Bibles – one in Sweden requires three librarians to lift it. Many Psalters were also illuminated in both this and the Gothic period. Finally, the Book of Hours, very commonly the personal book of a wealthy layperson, was often richly illuminated in the Gothic period. Other books, both liturgical and not, continued to be illuminated at all periods, the Byzantine world also continued to produce manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. See Medieval art for other regions, periods and types, reusing parchments by scraping the surface and reusing them was a common practice, the traces often left behind of the original text are known as palimpsests. The Gothic period, which saw an increase in the production of these beautiful artifacts, also saw more secular works such as chronicles
9.
Lindau Gospels
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The upper cover is late Carolingian work of about 880, and the text of the gospel book itself was written and decorated at the Abbey of Saint Gall around the same time, or slightly later. The lower or back cover is older than the text and presumably added from another book and it was perhaps originally a front cover. A few Irish cumdachs or metal book-shrines or reliquaries for books have survived, which show broadly comparable styles, however, the St Cuthbert Gospel, a decorated leather binding thought to date from around 700, is the earliest intact European binding. The design centres on a cross pattée, that is, a cross with curving, spreading members, the spaces between the members of the cross are filled with chip-carved interlace including snake-like beasts and a central stud set with a gem. Each arm of the cross has a figure of Christ with a cruciform halo, what distinguishes the cover from the few other surviving pieces of Insular metalwork is the extensive use of enamel, which it is thought may have been learned from north Italy. Some of the enamels are in a style of sunk enamel only found here, the original book covered was slightly smaller, and parts of the borders, which do not match each other, were added to bring it up to the new size. Inside the border there are four plaques in the showing the Four Evangelists with their symbols. Around the central topaz are four monograms, IHS, XPS, DNS, the upper cover is very lavishly studded with large gems, and uses low repoussé relief. The composition also centres on a cross, but here a whole Crucifixion scene with a figure of Jesus on the cross and much smaller ones of the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist. Each of these is in a compartment below the arms of the cross, paired with iconographically unusual female figures, all eight figures are represented crouching or sideways, or hovering horizontally in the case of the angels, above and below clusters of gems. More usually they are to either side of the cross-shaft, or at the ends of the arms, also Sol here lacks his usual rays, suggesting an eclipse is represented, following the Gospels. The border contains most of the gems, held in typically Carolingian plant motif settings, the cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, which can be precisely dated to 870, is probably a product of the same workshop, though there are differences of style. This workshop is associated with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles II and its location remains uncertain and much discussed, but Saint-Denis Abbey outside Paris is one leading possibility. The Arnulf Ciborium, now in the Munich Residenz, is the major work in the group. Recent scholars tend to group the Lindau Gospels and the Arnulf Ciborium in closer relation to other than the Codex Aureus to either. The text is the Four Gospels preceded by the Epistle of S, the style of illumination lacks the Insular elements of that work. Six or seven scribes worked on the text, one shared with the Folchard Psalter, the illuminations, unlike the covers, entirely lack human figures. The two pages imitating textiles interest scholars because many carpet pages, as their name suggests, may do the same, in both cases the idea may have been the emulation of a textile shroud or cover, such as those used to wrap relics
10.
Morgan Beatus
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Having been created at some time in the 10th century, the Morgan Beatus is the oldest example of a revived Spanish apocalypse tradition. According to the style it was created in Iberia, the Apocalypse and the commentary on this scripture by Saint Beatus of Liébana became one of the most important religious texts of the Middle Ages, and was often illustrated very fully. Jeromes Commentary on Daniel, and an exposition of the Apocalypse. This last is a synopsis of a variety of sources and, apparently and its current dimensions are 387mm x 285mm. Early folios indicate the removal of the gold and redrawing of letters by Magius, the creator of the manuscript. The 300 leaves of the manuscript are of fine-quality parchment, thick, margins are wide, script and illuminations, generally well preserved. Several folios are damaged by dampness or fire, the colors are remarkably well preserved and vibrant. Magius is identified as the maker by means of a colophon on f.293. The colophon also provides a date and references to the commissioning abbot. The collation of the quires is difficult to determine due to the loss of some leaves. In the course of combining bifolios into quires, the medieval bookmakers needed a system by which they could keep the various quires in their proper order, catchwords eventually became the standard tool for this purpose. The Morgan Beatus, however, does not utilize this technique, instead, this manuscript makes use of signatures consisting of Roman numerals followed by the letter Q There are two miniature bearing folios signed in this fashion. Intact quires consist of eight leaves, most signatures are in the corner of the lower margin of the final verso. The fact that these signatures are Roman numerals, and not arabic, at the same time it is seen as evidence dating the manuscript to the first half of the tenth century. The opening folios seem to be an addition, not only because they lack these signatures. Apocalypse, The Illustrated Book of Revelation, ASIN, B008WAK9SS Walther, Ingo F. & Wolf, Norbert Codices Illustres, the worlds most famous illuminated manuscripts,400 to 1600. D. 500-1200, a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
11.
Hours of Catherine of Cleves
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The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is an ornately illuminated manuscript in the Gothic art style, produced in about 1440 by the anonymous Dutch artist known as the Master of Catherine of Cleves. It is one of the most lavishly illuminated manuscripts to survive from the 15th century and has described as one of the masterpieces of Northern European illumination. This book of hours contains the offices, prayers and litanies in Latin, along with supplemental texts, decorated with 157 colorful. Today, both parts of the manuscript that forms this book are housed at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The Hours of Catherine of Cleves was commissioned for Catherine, Duchess of Guelders and Countess of Zutphen, upon the occasion of her marriage to Arnold, Duke of Guelders, on 26 January 1430. Dr. John Plummer, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the Morgan Library, suggested that this Horae was commissioned for the wedding in 1430, the Hours was produced in Utrecht and not completed until after 1434, probably around 1440. The earlier date is based on the picture of a coin, minted in 1434 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, shown in the border of M.917, p.240, Plummer, Plate 117. The Hours was commissioned for Catherine of Cleves by either her father or her husband, since the 11th century, the town of Cleves had been the home of the venerable and wealthy Counts of Cleves. The Counts were elevated to a house in 1417, the year Catherine was born. The first two full page miniatures celebrate her illustrious lineage, the first page shows Catherine of Cleves kneeling before the Virgin and the Christ Child, who take a personal interest in her salvation. Catherine is identified by her arms, in the bottom, shown with those of her husband. Catherine of Cleves is shown kneeling before The Virgin and the Christ Child, M.945, folio 1 verso, Plummer, Plate 1. She is shown giving alms in Piety, the gift of the Holy Spirit, M.917, p.65, Plummer. Catherine is also shown kneeling, with the Virgin, before Christ, in The Crucifixion, M.917, p.160, Plummer, Plate 96. Her husband, Arnold, Duke of Guelders, may be the lord shown kneeling before Christ in Fear of the Lord, in the reconstructed book, his portrait follows that of Catherine’s in Piety. And, some of his coinage is shown in the border of M.917, p.240, Plummer, the Master of Catherine of Cleves was the anonymous illuminator, who is named after this masterpiece of Netherlandish illumination. The Cleves Master might have been a member of the van Aken family of painters, a study of the miniatures indicates that the Cleves Master designed and painted over 157 miniatures, as well as the principal border decorations, with minimal assistance from two workshop assistants. Hell was usually not depicted in Books of Hours, though normal in the Last Judgements in churches, the surrounding tableau of demons tormenting the souls of the dead was painted nearly 50 yrs before Hieronymus Bosch painted his
12.
Manuscript
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A manuscript is any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some automated way. More recently, it is understood to be a written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts, manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in form, scrolls or in codex format. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations. The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS. ms or ms. for singular, and MSS. mss or mss. for plural are also accepted. The second s is not simply the plural, by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as pp. means pages. Before the invention of printing in China or by moveable type in a printing press in Europe. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls or books, manuscripts were produced on vellum and other parchment, on papyrus, and on paper. In Russia birch bark documents as old as from the 11th century have survived, in India, the palm leaf manuscript, with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, when Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a scriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud. Manuscripts in Tocharian languages, written on leaves, survived in desert burials in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of antiquity are virtually all lost. Originally, all books were in manuscript form, in China, and later other parts of East Asia, woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is the Diamond Sutra of 868, in the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450. Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive, private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. In the Philippines, for example, as early as 900AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus and this type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the document in the hot
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