{"id":137430,"date":"2023-10-13T10:49:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T14:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=137430"},"modified":"2023-10-13T10:49:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T14:49:31","slug":"manuscripts-in-ucf-libraries-special-collections-provide-unique-learning-experience-to-art-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/manuscripts-in-ucf-libraries-special-collections-provide-unique-learning-experience-to-art-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Manuscripts in UCF Libraries\u2019 Special Collections Provide Unique Learning Experience to Art Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each week, students in Associate Professor Margaret Zaho\u2019s Medieval Art<\/em> class are transported to the past in an immersive, hands-on experience that allows them to get up close to history. The upper-level course covers art from the fifth through 13th centuries. Through a collaboration with UCF Libraries Special Collections and University Archives, Zaho has found an innovative way to ensure students gain a full appreciation and understanding of this period of art, which includes painting, architecture, sculpture, stained glass and illuminated manuscripts.<\/p>\n

Unlike the classical Greek and Roman periods or the ever-popular Renaissance, Zaho finds the medieval period to be one of the least understood and least taught eras of art and architecture, creating a gap in the art history curriculum she hopes to fill. With this course, Zaho seeks to shed light on the period\u2019s many overlooked yet fascinating characteristics and even end some common misconceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy banner is to remind people that the Middle Ages, or the medieval art period, were not dark,\u201d Zaho says. \u201cThey were not lost. They were not forgotten. Instead, they were examples of incredible craftsmanship, and it was quite colorful. \u2018Dark Ages\u2019 is just such a misnomer. There\u2019s nothing dark about the Middle Ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the medieval art period coincides with the rise of the codex and the replacement of the traditional scroll, students learn about and work with illuminated manuscripts, ornate texts decorated with elaborate marginalia. As most illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are inaccessible due to age or restrictions \u2014 such as the Vatican Virgil, a 400 CE illuminated manuscript owned by the Vatican with highly restricted access \u2014 students instead work with manuscript facsimiles, highly detailed, exact replicas.<\/p>\n

\u201cManuscript facilities are usually made in Germany or Switzerland \u2026 in a sense, for access,\u201d explains Zaho. \u201cSo, if you\u2019re a scholar, you may not be able to make it to the Vatican and you may never get clearance to see the Vatican Virgil, but you can get your hands on an illuminated manuscript facsimile that was made in the 1970s that, at the moment in time, recreates exactly what the Vatican Virgil looked like, meaning if the pages have been cut down or if things are missing, the manuscript facsimile recreates exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

ARH4200 students have the opportunity to view and handle facsimiles of the illuminated manuscripts they\u2019ve learned about in class.<\/p>\n