Demons and Devotion
January 24, 2010 8:51 AM Subscribe
Visitors to the Morgan Library in New York will have a rare opportunity to view one of the great masterworks of medieval illumination, the Hours of Catherine of Cleves. But if you don't have a chance to visit, all 157 miniatures have been digitized.
I kiss you, Horace Rumpole.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:04 AM on January 24, 2010
posted by madamjujujive at 9:04 AM on January 24, 2010
Thanks for the link, very cool. Except.
How can museums be so insensitive to user interface. You can either view it (with zoom) in a tiny square on your browser, or go into full screen mode where you can actually see some detail, but then have no way of doing page navigation.
So many photography and art sites really have horrible user interfaces. I'd think artists would be more conscious of this sort of thing than computer geeks, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:08 AM on January 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
How can museums be so insensitive to user interface. You can either view it (with zoom) in a tiny square on your browser, or go into full screen mode where you can actually see some detail, but then have no way of doing page navigation.
So many photography and art sites really have horrible user interfaces. I'd think artists would be more conscious of this sort of thing than computer geeks, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:08 AM on January 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
+1 to what Thorzdad said, and +1000000 to what CheeseDigestsAll said.
posted by milnak at 9:13 AM on January 24, 2010
posted by milnak at 9:13 AM on January 24, 2010
This is great; love the detail in all the different borders. Thanks, Horace Rumpole.
I see your point, Cheese, but as these digitized book things go I thought this was a fairly decent presentation.
posted by mediareport at 9:16 AM on January 24, 2010
I see your point, Cheese, but as these digitized book things go I thought this was a fairly decent presentation.
posted by mediareport at 9:16 AM on January 24, 2010
Yeah, I have to say, I've seen plenty of much clunkier interfaces for this kind of thing. The ability to jump to full screen mode is very welcome. What I can't quite figure out is the purpose of "Enlarge View". It seems to be the same size as "Zoom View" but without any functionality. (Unless it does something that doesn't work in Firefox?)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:23 AM on January 24, 2010
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:23 AM on January 24, 2010
I'm sorry, I'm the product of an attention-deficient media age; could you do me a link to the 5-second indents of Catherine instead?
Sillyness aside, what a great link. Thanks, Horace.
posted by Abiezer at 9:23 AM on January 24, 2010
Sillyness aside, what a great link. Thanks, Horace.
posted by Abiezer at 9:23 AM on January 24, 2010
Whoa, the page linked in mediareport's "all", where the border is drawn so as to look as if the page itself is folding back and opening up in the middle—that's slick.
posted by kenko at 9:30 AM on January 24, 2010
posted by kenko at 9:30 AM on January 24, 2010
God, these borders! Mussels & crabs & demons spearing hearts is my fave, but crossbows & arrows and pretzels & crackers ("The relationship of these baked goods to the apostle Bartholomew is either unknown or irrelevant") are close behind. Also, the general gruesomeness.
Firefox and aside from giving you a slightly bigger and clearer image at first pass, I'm not sure what the "Enlarge" view is meant for, either.
posted by mediareport at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2010
Firefox and aside from giving you a slightly bigger and clearer image at first pass, I'm not sure what the "Enlarge" view is meant for, either.
posted by mediareport at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2010
Simply amazing. Thanks for this, Horace Rumpole. Now to free up a couple hours...
posted by Ron Thanagar at 10:14 AM on January 24, 2010
posted by Ron Thanagar at 10:14 AM on January 24, 2010
This is NEAT!!! Thanks!
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:20 AM on January 24, 2010
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:20 AM on January 24, 2010
This is outstanding. Thankyouthankyou!
Regarding the interface confusion, "Enlarge view" should really be called "Quick view": it quickly loads and displays a single JPEG, in contrast to the Zoom view's slower-loading (but much more flexible) Flash interface. I've emailed the library/museum to suggest this label change.
posted by arm's-length at 10:56 AM on January 24, 2010
Regarding the interface confusion, "Enlarge view" should really be called "Quick view": it quickly loads and displays a single JPEG, in contrast to the Zoom view's slower-loading (but much more flexible) Flash interface. I've emailed the library/museum to suggest this label change.
posted by arm's-length at 10:56 AM on January 24, 2010
Now see I might use twitter if the first letter was illuminated.
posted by Babblesort at 11:35 AM on January 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Babblesort at 11:35 AM on January 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
And file sharing like THIS is the reason there's no money in illuminating manuscripts anymore.
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:39 AM on January 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:39 AM on January 24, 2010 [2 favorites]
wow, a post about medieval illuminated manuscripts and a post about tudor-era diseases in one day!!!! my historynerd heads asplodin'!!!
great post, HR, thanks!!!
posted by supermedusa at 11:44 AM on January 24, 2010
great post, HR, thanks!!!
posted by supermedusa at 11:44 AM on January 24, 2010
Thank you SO much! This is the kind of exhibit I'd not get to see (I'm on the opposite coast) but since it's not possible to actually sit down and page through the book itself I'd actually rather see the scans and be able to zoom in on these great details.
....and thanks to Babblesort I can't get the idea of what an illuminated Twitter would look like. (This is not a bad thing!)
posted by batgrlHG at 11:51 AM on January 24, 2010
....and thanks to Babblesort I can't get the idea of what an illuminated Twitter would look like. (This is not a bad thing!)
posted by batgrlHG at 11:51 AM on January 24, 2010
Another great link to another amazing exhibit, courtesy of HR. I'm hoping to get to NY to see this.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 1:36 PM on January 24, 2010
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 1:36 PM on January 24, 2010
Great post Horace.
I wish my Dad were around to see this, he made illuminated certificates and such. I can remember watching him work over his shoulder as a kid.
posted by Duke999R at 3:10 PM on January 24, 2010
I wish my Dad were around to see this, he made illuminated certificates and such. I can remember watching him work over his shoulder as a kid.
posted by Duke999R at 3:10 PM on January 24, 2010
Awesome. Thanks Horace Rumpole. What a wonderful site. Great visuals, so nicely offered, easy to navigate with excellent information. Must see this exhibit in person immediately.
posted by nickyskye at 9:27 PM on January 24, 2010
posted by nickyskye at 9:27 PM on January 24, 2010
Metafilten: either unknown or irrelevant.
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 2:28 AM on January 25, 2010
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 2:28 AM on January 25, 2010
NOOOOO MY FIRST EVER TAGLINE POST AND I BLEW IT
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 2:30 AM on January 25, 2010
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 2:30 AM on January 25, 2010
As a dad of a toddler I find this illumination particularly cute: little Jesus learns to walk in a wooden stroller while mum weaves and dad woodworks.
posted by joost de vries at 7:58 AM on January 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by joost de vries at 7:58 AM on January 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
Btw the button on the far right opens full screen view. Much more awesome.
Having grown up in the province of Guelders (of which she was a countess) and having gone to school in both the cities of Arnhem and Zutphen (the towns that sided with her in the war with her husband) I feel some form of unwarranted pride in this awesome getijdenboek as a cultural artefact of my ancestral grounds.
posted by joost de vries at 12:16 PM on January 25, 2010
Having grown up in the province of Guelders (of which she was a countess) and having gone to school in both the cities of Arnhem and Zutphen (the towns that sided with her in the war with her husband) I feel some form of unwarranted pride in this awesome getijdenboek as a cultural artefact of my ancestral grounds.
posted by joost de vries at 12:16 PM on January 25, 2010
I've emailed the library/museum to suggest this label change.
Hey, and they made the change! That was quick. As a former technical writer, thanks, arm's-length; the navigation makes much more sense now.
posted by mediareport at 3:36 PM on January 25, 2010
Hey, and they made the change! That was quick. As a former technical writer, thanks, arm's-length; the navigation makes much more sense now.
posted by mediareport at 3:36 PM on January 25, 2010
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posted by Thorzdad at 9:02 AM on January 24, 2010