Medieval Alsace: Herrad of Hohenbourg's Garden of Delights
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Gillian B. Elliott
Organizer Affiliation
Corcoran College of Art + Design
Presider Name
Gillian B. Elliott
Paper Title 1
Who Else Was Able to Read Greek? Plea for an Illumination Workshop within the Hohenbourg Convent
Presenter 1 Name
Christian Forster
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. Leipzig
Paper Title 2
Turning the Crank: The Wheel of Fortune in Herrad of Hohenbourg's Hortus deliciarum
Presenter 2 Name
Cheryl Goggin
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Southern Mississippi
Paper Title 3
A View from the Top: Monastic Landscapes and the Garden of Delights
Presenter 3 Name
Danielle B. Joyner
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Notre Dame
Paper Title 4
Respondent
Presenter 4 Name
Sarah Celentano
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. of Texas-Austin
Start Date
8-5-2014 1:30 PM
Session Location
Bernhard 209
Description
During the last quarter of the twelfth-century, the abbess Herrad of Hohenburg (d. after 1196) compiled a richly illuminated manuscript, the Hortus deliciarum or the Garden of Delights, to instruct and edify the community of nuns at the monastery of Mont Sainte-Odile at Hohenburg in the region of Alsace, France. Herrad’s original manuscript was lost during a fire in 1870 started by Prussian-German troops, but fortunately this magnificent illuminated encyclopedia is still known today through copies. In 1979 Rosalie Green assembled a number of scholars to reconstruct a two-volume facsimile of the Hortus, but the rich and layered meanings of the images in the manuscript have only begun to be deciphered. In 2007 Fiona Griffiths published a monograph on the Hortus, a book that has shed new light on the historical and social context of the manuscript created by reformed Augustinian nuns. Thanks to this detailed study, scholars now have a concrete framework from which to approach the complex theological and allegorical iconography of this monumental and densely illustrated manuscript. This session welcomes papers that explore iconography, the relationship between text and image, the sources that may have influenced the manuscript, communities of nuns and pedagogy in Alsace, or the comparison of the Hortus to other manuscripts or works of art.
Gillian B. Elliott
Medieval Alsace: Herrad of Hohenbourg's Garden of Delights
Bernhard 209
During the last quarter of the twelfth-century, the abbess Herrad of Hohenburg (d. after 1196) compiled a richly illuminated manuscript, the Hortus deliciarum or the Garden of Delights, to instruct and edify the community of nuns at the monastery of Mont Sainte-Odile at Hohenburg in the region of Alsace, France. Herrad’s original manuscript was lost during a fire in 1870 started by Prussian-German troops, but fortunately this magnificent illuminated encyclopedia is still known today through copies. In 1979 Rosalie Green assembled a number of scholars to reconstruct a two-volume facsimile of the Hortus, but the rich and layered meanings of the images in the manuscript have only begun to be deciphered. In 2007 Fiona Griffiths published a monograph on the Hortus, a book that has shed new light on the historical and social context of the manuscript created by reformed Augustinian nuns. Thanks to this detailed study, scholars now have a concrete framework from which to approach the complex theological and allegorical iconography of this monumental and densely illustrated manuscript. This session welcomes papers that explore iconography, the relationship between text and image, the sources that may have influenced the manuscript, communities of nuns and pedagogy in Alsace, or the comparison of the Hortus to other manuscripts or works of art.
Gillian B. Elliott