Until recently, the phenomenon of copying in medieval book painting has been considered mainly in terms of the reconstruction of pictorial sources used for the composition or iconography of miniatures, initials, or decorative elements. Although historic sources only rarely mention the circumstances of manuscripts' production, one particular widely-accepted hypothesis has prevailed until now, according to which artists used model drawings or sketch books with the aim of facilitating the production of copies and the creation of new picture cycles. However, it is no longer sufficient to regard medieval book painting in its diachronic dimension only through these lenses. Rather, one should consider Robert W. Scheller's critique that when using the model hypothesis one must always be mindful of other factors which are known to have played a part in the transmission of art in the Middle Ages. The contributions of this volume deal with these issues by focusing on book painting between the 10th and 16th centuries.
About the Author: Monika E. Muller received her PhD on San Pietro al Monte di Civate (Lombardy) in 2005, and is a Scientific Collaborator at the University Library of Dusseldorf. She has published in the fields of Medieval wall and book painting, and monastic libraries in Northern Germany. She currently teaches at the Universities of Gottingen and Dusseldorf.Peter K. Klein is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Universitat Tubingen. He has also taught at the Universities of Pittsburgh, Lexington, Geneva, Paris-Nanterre, Los Angeles and Marburg. He has published work on Medieval book illumination, Romanesque sculpture, cloisters, and Spanish art history.Laurence Ternier Aliferis received her PhD from the University of Geneva in 2011, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Centre Andre Chastel - Paris IV Sorbonne. Her research focuses on artistic models during the 12th and 13th centuries, style in the 1200s, and Eucharist theology.Guido Siebert is a PhD candidate, with a dissertation on the glass paintings of the west choir in Naumburg Cathedral. He served as secretary of the 2011 exhibition Der Naumburger Meister, and has been Director of Communication at the Foundation Schloss Friedenstein Gotha since 2013.Cynthia Johnston is a PhD student at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and studies the development of pen-flourished decoration to manuscripts in 13th century England. Her research has been funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.Joris Corin Heyder is a PhD student at the Freie Universitat Berlin, participating in the History and Cultural Studies graduate program, and holds a PhD-scholarship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. He is a Research Associate and Lecturer at the Freie Universitat Berlin.Miranda Bloem is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, specialising in illumination in the Northern Netherlands. Her dissertation on the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg will be finished by summer 2014.Christine Seidel is a Fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and completed her doctoral thesis on the book painter Jean Colombe and the Art in Bourges during the reign of Charles VII. of France at the Freie Universitat Berlin in 2013.