The Visitation (detail) in a Book of Hours, about 1415–20, unknown illuminator. Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink on parchment. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Touching the Past: The Hand and the Medieval Book
GETTY CENTER
North Pavilion, Plaza Level
Precious historical artifacts, manuscripts preserve some of the finest examples of medieval art. Seen in libraries and museums behind glass, these books have been largely removed from the realm of touch, making it easy to forget that their lavishly illuminated pages were once turned, stroked, stitched, and sometimes even sliced by generations before us. Drawn primarily from the permanent collection, Touching the Past: The Hand and the Medieval Book explores manuscripts as tangible, tactile objects that invited touch and were handled—reverently, carelessly, obsessively, and critically—by medieval audiences.
