As a follow-up to the display Fragmented Illuminations: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Cuttings at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (now extended to 26 June), a symposium will take place online on 7-8 July (pm).

The Fragmented Illuminations Symposium will seek to make sense of these detached leaves, cut-out initials and other ornamented snippets.

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY 7 JULY, PM
Day 1 will examine the practice of collecting pieces and leaves cut from illuminated manuscripts, with a particular focus on the 19th century.

13.00 – 13.15
Welcome: Joanna Norman and Catherine Yvard

Session 1: 13.15 – 14.30 Manuscript cuttings at the V&A
Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton Library, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) // Milan’s loss, South Kensington’s gain: Luigi Celotti and the Brera Academy
Catherine Yvard, V&A // An overview of the formation of the South Kensington Museum collection
William Stoneman, Houghton Library, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) // The Victoria and Albert Museum, Sydney Cockerell and the 1908 Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts

Session 2: 14.30 – 15.25 The V&A model in Vienna
Helena K. Szépe, University of South Florida (Tampa, FL) // The model of the V&A and the Illuminations Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Fergus Bovill, University of York // Littifredi Corbizzi, Johann Anton Ramboux and a dismembered Italian Renaissance choirbook

Tea break: 15.25 – 16.00

Session 3: 16.00 – 16.55 Collecting manuscript cuttings in Germany
Beatrice Alai, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen- Nuremberg // The miniatures collection of Hippolyte Destailleur and the dream of a Museum of Graphic Arts in Berlin
Mark Mersiowsky, University of Stuttgart // Collecting medieval cuttings in Germany

La cerise sur le gâteau: 17.00 – 17.30
Rowan Watson, formerly V&A // Living with fragments
Followed by discussion.

FRIDAY 8 JULY, PM
Day 2 will investigate the original context of some of these cuttings, the books they came from and the artists involved.

13.00 – 13.30
Introduction

Session 4: 13.30 – 14.25 New research on Italian cuttings
Anna Melograni, Ministero della Cultura (Rome) // From Milan to Rome and back: Four Lombard cuttings inspired by Pinturicchio’s grottesche
Margherita Zibordi, University of Verona // New findings on two illuminated fragments with blessing Christ in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Session 5: 14.30 – 15.25 The part and the whole
Federica Toniolo, University of Padua, and Matteo Cesarotto, Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours) // The St Giustina cuttings: New perspectives
Innocent Smith, St Mary’s Seminary and University (Baltimore) // The part and the whole: Victoria and Albert Museum Ms 8997A-H and the Poissy Antiphonal

Tea break 15.25 – 16.00

Session 6: 16.00 –16.55 Beyond the V&A
Hannah Goeselt, Simmons University (Boston, MA) // Beginning to reconstruct Ege’s Cambridge Bible
Agnès Bos, University of St Andrews // From Paris to Philadelphia: The Book of Gospels from the Order of the Holy Spirit rediscovered

17.00 – 17.30
Closing remarks with Sandra Hindman, Les Enluminures Ltd, followed by discussion

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Joining is free, but attendees need to register online prior to the event.

Full programme: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/fragmented-illuminations-symposium-on-7-8-july.
To register: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/lEaByE1aWee/fragmented-illuminations-symposium-jul-2022