Description
Book SynopsisA study of the representation of education in material culture, at a period of considerable change and growth. On the facade of Chartres cathedral serene personifications of the arts of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy present passers-by with a vision of education as an improving process leading to greater knowledge of God. The arts proved a popular subject in medieval imagery, and were included in manuscripts, stained-glass and luxury metalwork objects as well as on the facades of churches. These idealized figures contrast with many textual accounts of education, in which authors recorded the hardships of student poverty and the temptations of drink and women to be found in the cities where teachers were increasingly establishing themselves. Thisbook considers how and why education was explored in the art and architecture of the twelfth century. Through analysis of imagery in a wide range of media, it examines how teachers and students sought to use images to enhance their reputations and the status of their studies. It also investigates how the ideal models often set out in imagery compared with contemporary practice in an era that saw significant changes, beginning with a shift away from monastic education and culminating in the appearance of the first universities. LAURA CLEAVER is Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies, Institute of English Studies, University of London.
Trade ReviewA very welcome book in several respects . . . As an introduction to an intriguing world of learned imagery and visualisation of abstract thought, the book is . . . a most welcome addition to the growing body of research into the medieval schools. * H-SOZ-KULT *
The delightful attention that Cleaver gives throughout this book to the humor of medieval artistry and pedagogy only enhances the steady and reliable scholarship that marks this volume from cover to cover. . . . We can now examine with all the more profit images that many of us have admired for years but never fully appreciated, thanks to the explanations offered by the meticulous analysis present in this volume. * PEREGRINATIONS *
A must-read for any scholar interested in the history of learning and visual culture. * ÓENACH *
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Liberal Arts: Making Education Visible Learning to Read in Texts and Images Telling Tales: Art for the Illiterate Learning to Speak: The Art of Logic The Image of the Master The Art of Music Arithmetic and Geometry in the Classroom and Beyond Looking at the Heavens: Astronomy in Images Conclusion Bibliography
