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Alain.R.Truong
19 janvier 2025

'The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World' at the Morgan Library and Museum in New Yorkat

Master of the Geneva Boccaccio, Traponee (Sri Lanka), France, Probably Angers, ca. 1460-65, in the Book of the Marvels of the World, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 124, fol. 32r .

NEW YORK - From the tales of famous travelers like Marco Polo and Alexander the Great to the ancient encyclopedias of Pliny and Isidore, medieval conceptions of the world were often based more on authoritative tradition than direct observation. This exhibition presents one of the most fascinating examples of a medieval guide to the globe, known as the Book of the Marvels of the World. Written in France by an unknown author, this fifteenth-century illustrated text vividly depicts the remarkable inhabitants, customs, and natural phenomena of various regions, both near and far. Reuniting two of the four surviving copies, The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World brings to life medieval conceptions—and misconceptions—of a global world.

 

Additional objects in the exhibition demonstrate how foreign cultures were imagined in the Middle Ages, and what the assumptions of medieval Europeans tell us about their own implicit biases and beliefs. Highlights include rare illustrated manuscripts of Marco Polo and John Mandeville; a richly ornamented Ottoman Book of Wonders, made for a sultan’s daughter; and a spectacular medieval map of the Holy Land, based on pilgrimage accounts.

 

The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World is made possible with support from the New York Medieval Society, an anonymous donor, the Lucy Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, Martha J. Fleischman, the David L. Klein Jr. Foundation, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

 

January 24 through May 25, 2025.

Illustration by Johann Bämler to Book 8 (On Wondrous People), 1475, in The Book of Nature by Konrad von Megenberg, Augsburg. Morgan Library & Museum. Photo: Carmen González Fraile

Spread showing A Byzantine Church and the Lighthouse of Alexandria in The Book of Felicity, c. 1582, Istanbul. Morgan Library & Museum. Photo: Carmen González Fraile

Illustration of China from Mirror of History, c. 1475, by Vincent of Beauvais, Ghent. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

India, about 1460 – 65 from Book of the Marvels of the Worldilluminated by the Master of the Geneva, Boccaccio, colored washes, gold, and ink on parchment. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Scythia, about 1460, from Book of the Marvels of the World, illuminated by the Master of the Geneva, Boccaccio, vellum, colored washes, gold, ink on parchmentJ. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

A dragon and an elephant, about 1250 – 60, from the Northumberland Bestiary, English, pen-and-ink drawings tinted with body color and translucent washes on parchment. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Cinomologus; Anthropophagus; Himantopode; Artabatite, 1277 or after, from Wonders of the World, Franco-Flemish, tempera colors, pen and ink, gold leaf, and gold paint on parchment. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

'The Israelites’ fear of the giants, about 1400– 10, from World Chronicle, German, tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

King Avenir, Josaphat, and Nachor behold the Golden Calf, 1469, from Barlaam and Josaphat, illuminated by a follower of Hans Schilling from the workshop of Diebold Lauber, ink, colored washes, and tempera colors on paper. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

A siren and a centaur, about 1270, from bestiary, Franco-Flemish, tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

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