Power and Authority in Visual Paratext
When:
Monday, Mar 28, 2022 5:30p -
7:00p
Monday, Mar 28, 2022 5:30p -
7:00p
Where:
Houghton Library
29 Harvard Yard
Cambridge, MA 02138
Admission:
FREE
Categories:
History, University
Event website:
https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/event/8952991
Houghton Library-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History presents Anne D. Hedeman on "Power and Authority in Visual Paratext"
About this event:
Anne D. Hedeman is the Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Kansas.
In this lecture, Hedeman will explore visual elements in King Charles V’s Grandes chroniques de France (Paris, BnF Ms. fr. 2813), a French translation of a royal chronicle first written in Latin. This manuscript represents a unique case in which the manipulation of images and their associated titles or captions (called ‘rubrics’) work together to express power and to legitimate authority.
What was the role of these rubricated images in shaping perceptions of power in the emerging genre of French-language history in France, particularly in cases where rubrics were not part of the original authorial text? To suggest how these power dynamics work, Hedeman will consider the royal scribe’s groundbreaking inclusion of the rubricated visual cycle in this copy of the Grandes chroniques, developed at a specific political moment around 1370-75. The manuscript is also important because it contains a revised and extended rubricated cycle added a few years later by a second royal scribe.
