Love triangle for the ages

July 19, 2024 12:29 PM

Close Looking: Lieven van Lathem's Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies Join the Getty's ongoing video series on close-looking, where intriguing personalities explore the details of art works they cherish. Do you want to hear how a Flemish illuminator, Lieven van Lathem dazzled readers in 1464 with the manuscript, Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies? Senior Curator of Manuscripts, Beth Morrison selects her favorite pages from the romance story that showcases a love triangle, exotic adventures, and extraordinary worlds in tiny manuscript spaces. SLYT 6:43
posted by bq (2 comments total)

I've loved manuscript illumination ever since viewing books in Nurnberg Germany in the late 60's...I especially like how the colors have perhaps mellowed over time. Lovely pastels, and of course gold accents.
posted by Czjewel at 2:10 PM on July 19

In the video, Beth Morrison is not wearing those ubiquitous white gloves when handling the manuscript. A number of years ago, I was given a tour of a rare book collection at the Vallejo Public Library. A local doctor had donated it to them. I saw they had William Morris’s Kelmscott Chaucer, one of my favorite books, and I asked to see it. They pulled it out and set it on a table, there you go they said. Where are the white gloves? I asked. We don’t use those, they said, those gloves make people damage the manuscripts. They explained that the gloves deaden the feeling of the pages and hence people turn pages and then tear them. Just be careful, and grab the page on the edge, and not the top or bottom. They went on to say that in the rare book world, those gloves are becoming anathema. Clean hands only.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:01 AM on July 20 [1 favorite]