THE ART OF READING IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Welcome to the ARMA PROJECT.
The project ‘The Art of Reading in the Middle Ages’ will show the importance of medieval reading culture as a European movement by bringing together (digitised) manuscripts produced between c. 500 and c. 1550 from across Europe, unlocking their educational potential by curational and editorial enrichment, using innovative ways for displaying and handling digital objects in an educational context.
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The Bibliophile of Bruges
Exploring the Manuscript Collection of Louis of Bruges
The 14th and 15th centuries witnessed the rise of great princely and aristocratic libraries all over Europe. These were composed of books that had been inherited, received as gifts, purchased or personally commissioned, either for private devotion and personal education, for pleasure and amusement or for display...
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Medieval monastic book inventories
Learn about medieval book lists and how they differ from today's library catalogues
Libraries are places of knowledge. Everyone who owns books and everyone who manages libraries has always wanted to know what exactly they have in their possession. This is as true today as it was in the nineteenth century, or even the Middle Ages.
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Corbie Abbey and today’s font
How Corbie Abbey's medieval manuscripts connect to today's fonts
When you think of the French region of Picardy, most likely important cities such as Amiens, Beauvais, or Laon come to mind. Corbie is less known and it is not that easy to find even on 18th-century maps of northern France.
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Female literacy in the Middle Ages
Female literacy during the Middle Ages was surprisingly high. Nuns were authors and scribes. Many other women encouraged reading and learning, especially noble woman. One example was Christine de Pizan, a poet at the court of King Charles VI of France.
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The workshop of Diebold Lauber in Hagenau
Books with (and without) pictures
Advertising is not a feature of modern times. Diebold Lauber, a 15th century scribe from the Alsace region, advertised his products in several manuscripts from his own workshop, such as the one ...
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Video Series: Exploring the Medieval Manuscript Book
Join eight show-and-tell sessions with unique artefacts in the reading room of the Leiden University Library
Medieval manuscripts were collected and read for the texts they contained, especially those surviving from classical antiquity. But the book can tell us so much more than solely the text it contains! Studying the materiality of books can provide important information about how, when, where and even why they were made. It can also show how books were used and valued during the many centuries of their existence.
