Biondo Flavio was an erudite and prolific humanist writer who began his literary career in the 1430's and continued producing latin works until his death in 1463. Scholars have attributed Biondo with primary roles in the development of archaeology, topography, historical research, historical criticism, and historical periodization. His writings themselves influenced the content and approach of scholars across Europe for centuries.

This thesis looks at the modern recontextualization of the illuminated book. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to English literature and the arts, it illustrates the dialectic between word and image. In my writing, I explore artists’ books as a physical representation of the constant dialogue of the verbal-visual relationship and how they affect each other. In this endeavor, I create an artist book, a modern bestiary that alludes to the myths and folklore of the Indo-Caribbean, specific to the country of Guyana.

Royal Gifts: Conferring Personhood upon Gifted Artworks in the Courts of England, 1300-1600 aims to uncover the social mechanisms at play when an artwork was given as a courtly gift, with particular interest given to those gifts which could be classed as ‘inalienable’ from the donor. The essay opens with an examination of current anthropological definitions of inalienable artworks and their powerful influence when deployed reciprocally at court as a binding social glue, reinforcing the ties from one individual to another which may not be readily strengthened by any other means. The essay goes on to make an analysis of three such artworks which fit such a definition, in light of how their status as a gift has informed their making, artistry, and meaning.  The specific types of artwork analysed are two illuminated manuscripts commissioned by royal patrons, and a gold jewellery brooch or badge of fealty.Primary issues addressed by the essay are building a picture of existing scholarship which deals with medieval gift-giving, why and how an artwork might be made so as to be inalienable from the owner, and how this can alter a contextual interpretation of the artwork.  The reasoning behind why such gift-giving rituals ceased to be enacted is also explored.The essay found that inalienable possessions, especially artworks, are never given arbitrarily in a court setting. Often, the nature of the artwork given contains vital information about the relationship between donor and recipient.  Making an art historical analysis of such artworks also revealed details about certain artistic choices made at the time to artwork was commissioned. In short, the essay finds that rendering an artwork inalienable was beneficial as a device for strengthening one’s own identity and one’s relation to others.

O presente trabalho visa uma aproximação da sensibilidade medieval a respeito do tema da Criação de Eva a partir de códices iluminados, especialmente os presentes nos mosteiros portugueses mais importantes de Coimbra nos séculos XII e XIII. As tensões entre a carne e o espírito, o masculino e o feminino, elementos essenciais na mentalidade medieval serão abordados a partir das imagens e das discussões sobre a Criação e o Pecado e as vivências quotidianas pelos sentidos corporais, ajudando a compor, a partir das imagens, a visão polissêmica da figura feminina em Portugal medieval. / The present work approaches the medieval understanding of the theme of the Creation of Eve through the study of manuscript illuminations, and particularly those in the most important monasteries of Coimbra, in the Kingdom of Portugal, in the 12th and 13th Centuries. The tension between the flesh and the spirit, and between the masculine and the feminine essential elements of the medieval mentality- essential elements of the medieval mentality - will be explored based on images and debates related to Creation, Original Sin and the daily life as experienced through the senses, producing a polysemic view of the feminine figure in medieval Portugal.

O presente trabalho visa uma aproximação da sensibilidade medieval a respeito do tema da Criação de Eva a partir de códices iluminados, especialmente os presentes nos mosteiros portugueses mais importantes de Coimbra nos séculos XII e XIII. As tensões entre a carne e o espírito, o masculino e o feminino, elementos essenciais na mentalidade medieval serão abordados a partir das imagens e das discussões sobre a Criação e o Pecado e as vivências quotidianas pelos sentidos corporais, ajudando a compor, a partir das imagens, a visão polissêmica da figura feminina em Portugal medieval. / The present work approaches the medieval understanding of the theme of the Creation of Eve through the study of manuscript illuminations, and particularly those in the most important monasteries of Coimbra, in the Kingdom of Portugal, in the 12th and 13th Centuries. The tension between the flesh and the spirit, and between the masculine and the feminine essential elements of the medieval mentality- essential elements of the medieval mentality - will be explored based on images and debates related to Creation, Original Sin and the daily life as experienced through the senses, producing a polysemic view of the feminine figure in medieval Portugal.

This study examines painted leaves and fragments that were extracted from a set of choir books created in the last decade of the fifteenth century for the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. These remnants are currently housed within various library and museum collections throughout Europe and the United States. The set is agreed upon generally by scholars to have been commissioned by Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, 1431-1503), who was pope from 1492 to 1503, as a gift to the church during his time as pontiff. The choir books for Santa Maria in Aracoeli contain the bulk of the known body of work by the enigmatic illuminator Fra Antonio da Monza. The best known items from this set of choir books are a complete gradual (or book of chants for the Mass) currently housed in the Getty Museum, called the Ludwig Aracoeli Manuscript, and a montage of cuttings in the Albertina Museum, Vienna, that features a miniature of the Pentecost. These are studied in the context of the artistic patronage of Alexander VI, and political and diplomatic gift cultures in papal Rome during the last decade of the Quattrocento. Alexander VI's gift to Santa Maria in Aracoeli served multiple functions. It advanced church music, but is also an example of a pontiff using custom luxury books for cultural diplomacy. The intent of the choir books was to build social relationships and augment the prestige of Alexander VI's regime with a local audience. Alexander VI sought to acknowledge the symbolic resonance of Santa Maria in Aracoeli and attempted to recuperate the site's importance for his reign through the gift. This study argues that the choir books were commissioned by the pontiff to promote his cultural and religious authority through abbellimento or "embellishment", the practice of commissioning ostentatious liturgical objects and additions to religious ceremonies for the purpose of developing esteem for an ecclesiastical office. This thesis argues that another purpose of the bestowment was to appease the Observant Franciscans in charge of the basilica in anticipation of Alexander VI's reforms of the Franciscan order.

Pagal iškeltus reikalavimus suprojektuojama šviečiančių dekoratyvinių objektų kompozicija. Atsižvelgiant į potencialius vartotojus ir jų lūkesčius, projekte sprendžiama reikalingumo, funkcionalumo ir erdvės apšvietimo problema. Kuriami objektai numatomi ilgalaikiam naudojimui. Susidedantys iš tvirtų ir atsparių medžiagų. Kompozicija projektuojama kaip meninis objektas. Kuri tampa kultūrine miesto erdvės dalimi. Suprojektuoti objektai sukuria poilsio zonas aplink kompoziciją. Projektuojant objektus buvo siekiama išlaikyti bendrą kompozicijos sukuriamą vaizdą, naudojantis ekonomiškomis ir ilgaamžėmis medžiagomis. Tai buvo pasiekta naudojant poliruotas nerūdijančio plieno plokštes, bei epoksidine derva impregnuotas jūrinės faneros plokštes. Tamsiuoju paros metu pro plieno plokštėse išpjautus ornamentus sklindanti šviesa, sukuria kitokį emocinį krūvį ir vizualią išraišką kompozicijai. / According requirements imposed Project of Illuminated objects in the city is designed. In view of the potential users and their expectations, the project addressed the need, functionality and space lighting problem. Objects are designed for long-term use. Consisting of a strong and resistant materials. Composition is designed as an art object. Which becomes a cultural part of the city space. Designed objects creates rest zones around the composition. The design of the objects sought to keep the overall composition of the output image, using economical and long-term materials. This has been achieved by using decorated stainless steel plates and impregnated plywood. During the night through the ornament cutouts in steel plates illumination creates different emotional tension.

The house of canons regular in Roudnice nad Labem was founded 1333 by John IV of Dražice after his return from Avignon. It was a very important and richly supported monastery, which is demonstrated besides other things by the younger fragment of necrologium, dated 1458-1464 (State Regional Archive in Třeboň, fond Velkostatek Třeboň, registratura IA 3K β 28e). The thesis deals with the Bohemian illuminated manuscripts from the 2nd third of the 14th century from the library from Roudnice, which is quite unique between all the Bohemian houses of regular canons for the high percentage of illuminated manuscripts. The Missale of John of Dražice ( KNM XIII B 9) is an excellent example of some high quality manuscript in the time around 1340 in Bohemia. The ornamental initials show parallels to the recent Western European style. One of them, VD initial on the folio 57r, is filled by the coat-of-arms of the Dražice family, gold wine sprig with three leafs in the red field. But the most interesting is the canon leaf (65r), a classical representative of Central European linear style. The leaf was glued to its place. The same praxis we see in the slightly younger Missale of Chotěšov Monastery (NK XIV C 3). The canon leaf from Chotěšov (185v) is more delicate in its colors and forms, distinctly knowledgeable of...

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / William Blake was a painter, poet and printmaker. The author demonstrated a large experimentation in the production of his art, developing his own method of printing and publishing. Such method made possible the creation of the so called illuminated books, support in which was published most of his composite art, which combines poetry and painting in an inseparable way. This dissertation aims to examine the states of "Innocence" and of "Experience" in the illuminated books Songs of Innocence (1789), Songs of Experience (1794) and Songs of Innocence and of Experience - Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1794 ). Usually, the Blake's "Innocence state", in the text and in the visual compositions, is associated with idealized existence, childhood figures and fertile nature. "Experience", on the other hand, presents urban scenes or arid nature, adult images and a different perspective about life, without the characteristic idealization of "Innocence". However, although the titles of the volumes indicate which compositions would be of "Innocence" and what would be of Experience", the compositions have evidences that perhaps these states are not clearly defined or contrary, as the subtitle of the agglutinated edition indicates. Examples of it, besides adult figures on the Innocence book and childhood images on the Experience , are compositions that appear in both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, depending on the copy. Considering the switchable aspect of this collection of poems and the reallocations made by Blake in the several copies of the books, it will be observed what is the elements that fundaments the states of "Innocence" and of "Experience" on the three books of Songs. / William Blake foi pintor, poeta e gravurista. O autor demonstrou grande experimentação na produção de sua arte, elaborando o seu próprio método de impressão e publicação. Tal método viabilizou a criação dos chamados livros iluminados, suporte que possibilitou unir poesia e pintura de forma indissociável. Nesta dissertação, serão analisados os estados de Inocência e de Experiência nos livros iluminados Songs of Innocence (1789), Songs of Experience (1794) e Songs of Innocence and of Experience - Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1794). Comumente, o estado de Inocência em Blake é associado à existência idealizada, a figuras infantis e à natureza fértil, tanto nos textos quanto nas composições visuais. Experiência , por outro lado, apresentaria cenários urbanos ou de natureza árida, imagens adultas e um olhar diferenciado sobre a vida, sem a idealização característica de Inocência . Entretanto, embora os títulos dos volumes indiquem quais composições seriam sobre a Inocência e quais versariam acerca da Experiência , as composições possuem indícios de que talvez esses estados não sejam claramente delimitados ou contrários, como indica o subtítulo da edição conjunta. Exemplos disso, além de figuras adultas na parte de Inocência do livro e de presenças infantis em Experiência , são os poemas que aparecem tanto em Songs of Innocence quanto em Songs of Experience, dependendo da cópia do livro. Considerando o aspecto cambiável desse conjunto de poemas e as realocações realizadas por Blake nas diversas edições das obras, serão observados os elementos que fundamentam os estados de Inocência e de Experiência dentro dos três exemplares de Songs.

The Diploma thesis "The Illuminated Manuscripts of Jan IV of Dražice" is devoted to a set of illuminated manuscripts connected with a last bishop of Prague Jan IV of Dražice. After briefly summary and assesment of topical literature is in the next part of thesis appreciation of donation activities of Jan IV of Dražice. The emphasis is on his sojourn in Avignon and his donation activities in Prague and Roudnice nad Labem. Jan IV had an important influence to the development of illumination production in the Czech Countries. The goal of this diploma work is differentiation and monographic interpretation of manuscript's corpse connected with a figure of Jan IV of Dražice. Appreciation of donation activities of Jan IV z Dražic in cultural and historical time framework is mainly focused on explanation of his contribution to the development of illumination production in the Czech Countries. Work is mainly based on combination of methods of formal, iconographic and basic codicological analysis and where possible on iconological intepretation.