Corso di laurea in Beni Culturali

The course requires the knowledge and skills acquired from at least one History of Medieval Art course (6 CFU) as a background, as well as a general familiarity with Medieval culture.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF BOOK ILLUMINATION

The course, intended for students who plan to focus on Medieval civilisation in their curriculum, provides the knowledge and skills to comprehend the main developments of the history of book illumination, together with a basic ability to apply these tools to simple case studies.

By the end of the course, students are expected to master:

– problems and methods of the History of Book Illumination;

– the distinctive features of Medieval book decoration;

– centers of production, works of art, artists, and patrons;

– main developments of Book Illumination from Late Antiquity to the international Gothic.

The main phases of the history of book illumination, from the end of the Ancient art to the early Modern Age, including:

– periodization and peculiarities of manuscripts;

– contexts and centers of artistic production;

– the Late Antiquity;

– the Mediterranean, the Continental, and the Insular worlds in the pre-Carolingian period;

– the Carolingian and Ottonian periods;

– the middle Byzantine period;

– the Romanesque;

– the transition towards the Gothic style;

– the development of the Gothic style;

– Giotto’s innovations and their diffusion;

– the international Gothic style and its dissolution.

Lectures in classroom accompanied by slides for a total of 36 hours (6 CFU). Classes will also be available live online, on the link https://unito.webex.com/meet/fabrizio.crivello (and https://unito.webex.com/meet/giovanna.saroni). Attendance is recommended but not mandatory. Course material will be available on the Moodle platform.

Knowledge is assessed by means of a written test together with an oral exam. The written test is designed to examine basic knowledge and is conducted electronically on the Moodle platform. It consists of 30 multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question. Students who pass the written test (with a score of at least 18/30) will be elegible to take the oral exam, which may also use images. Preparation will be considered adequate (with a grade out of thirty) if the student demonstrates the ability to discuss the course content with command of the appropriate vocabulary and proves familiarity with works of art, styles, iconographies, and ability to engage with them critically, without relying only on how they are framed in the literature; if the student is able to recognize or establish relationships and connections of interdependence between different components of course material, and to situate the works of art in their respective period, context, and cultural milieu. In particular, the ability to autonomously identify and contextualize works proposed by the course bibliography in the various historical-artistic contexts, along with the mastery of the necessary terminology, will be assessed with very good or excellent marks (28-30 cum laude). Passive knowledge of the same works and their contexts, accompanied by expository skills and a use of terminology that are not always adequate, will be graded from fair (21-24) to good (25-27). Limited familiarity with the works and course contents, combined with uncertainty in the use of terminology, will lead to a sufficiency grade (18-20); poor knowledge of the works and course contents, combined with inadequate use of terminology, will produce an insufficient grade (<18/30).

For students with disabilities or specific learning disability (SLD), the following services are available:

https://www.unito.it/accoglienza-studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa

https://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/studenti-con-disabilita

https://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/studenti-e-studentesse-con-disabilita/supporto-studenti-e-studentesse-con

Introductory readings: M. G. Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto, sub voce Miniatura, in Enciclopedia dell’Arte Medievale, VIII, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, Roma 1997, pp. 413-452; C. Segre Montel, Miniatura, in Arti e tecniche del Medioevo, a cura di F. Crivello, Einaudi, Torino 2006, pp. 105-119.

Reccomended readings: C. Nordenfalk, Storia della miniatura [1957-1958], Einaudi, Torino 2012; F. Avril, L’enluminure à l’époque gotique. 1200-1420 [1979], Bibliothèque de l’Image, Paris 1995; O. Pächt, Book Illumination in the Middler Ages. An Introduction [1984], Harvey Miller-Oxford University Press, London-New York-Oxford 1986, pp. 9-95.

For students who do not attend classes, the program, texts, and bibliography will remain unchanged.

It is recommended to proceed with the course registration in order to be included in the corresponding mailing list.

Start of teaching: Monday, February 10, 2025