Preface & Acknowledgments

That this art is hidden in books, rather than framed and hung on walls, explains why much of it has escaped attention for so long. With this exhibition, a significant number of the illuminated manuscripts in Boston-area collections have been brought into view, many for the first time. A far larger quantity of unillustrated and non-European manuscripts, of no less interest on account of their textual contents, material qualities, and origins, still awaits systematic study and, not least, aesthetic appreciation. It is our hope that this exhibition will serve as a stimulus to further investigations and discoveries.

Distributed over three venues—the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the McMullen Museum at Boston College, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—the exhibition contains more than 250 objects (bound volumes, single leaves, and cuttings)—making it the largest exhibition of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books ever held in North America. The multi-venue format reflects the consortial nature of the project, which includes loans from nineteen libraries and museums spread across Boston and its immediate vicinity. Dividing the books into three groups permitted shifting thematic focus—at the Houghton Library, the monastic library; at the McMullen Museum, the lay library; at the Gardner Museum, the Italian humanist library—which both accommodated the disparate nature of the collections at our disposal and also allowed us to present in bold strokes the history of the book from the early Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Reformation. Although each of the three sections of the exhibition has its own integrity and can be viewed separately, the three were conceived as an interlocking, integrated whole.

An exhibition always consists of more than the objects on view, just as a catalogue such as this can never fully recapture the experience of the objects within their respective installations. The exhibition provided the stimulus to conserve and digitize many, if not all, of the manuscripts, thereby making them far more accessible than ever before. Many of the manuscripts have been described in greater detail than was previously the case. By assigning entries to leading specialists from North America and Europe—eighty-three in all—we were able to profit from their experience and expertise in a manner that will, we hope, make this catalogue more than a mere record of the exhibition, but rather a reference work that can supply the foundation for further study for years to come. To aid in that endeavor, we have created a website, BeyondWords2016.org, with additional images and information on each manuscript that surfaced in the course of research for this volume. It is our hope that this site will be updated in perpetuity as new discoveries are made.

Over the course of this project we have been aided by many. The curators owe a special debt of gratitude to the Houghton’s curatorial assistant Megan C. McNamee and research assistant Leland Grigoli, the catalogue’s copyeditor Kate Shugert, designer John McCoy, indexer Florence Grant, and installation designers Diana Larsen and Stephen Saitas.

An advisory committee of distinguished experts Consuelo W. Dutschke, Susan L’Engle, Anne D. Hedeman, James H. Marrow, Francesca Manzari, Barbara A. Shailor, and Roger S. Wieck played a key role in the shaping of this project and receive our heartfelt thanks.

We also gratefully acknowledge the scholarly contributions of colleagues, both those who wrote for this catalogue listed on the Editors & Contributors page and others who aided our research and organization of the exhibition including: Valerio Brambilla, Bodo Brinkmann, Albert Derolez, Meredith J. Gill, Margaret Goehring, John Hodgson, Margriet Hulsmann, Lieve de Kesel, Anne Korteweg, Thomas Kren, Berthold Kress, John Lancaster, Johan Oosterman, Alexander Rostel, Erik Saak, Nancy Southworth, and Ed van der Vlist. Christopher de Hamel and Richard Linenthal evaluated many of the manuscripts to be displayed. For assistance with grant applications we thank Max Marmor, Samantha Schwartz, and Kay Sutton.

At our lenders’ institutions we wish to acknowledge the contributions of: Berj Chekijian and Gary Lind-Sinanian (Armenian Museum of America); Elizabeth Barker and Stanley Cushing (Boston Athenaeum); Rachel Chamberlain, Diana Larsen, John McCoy, and Kate Shugert (Boston College, McMullen Museum of Art); Thomas Wall, Christian Y. Dupont, Amy Braitsch, Barbara Hebard, and Kathleen Williams (Boston College, John J. Burns Library); Jack Eckert (Boston Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine); David Leonard, Sean Casey, Susan Glover, Elizabeth Holbrook, Beth Prindle, Kim Reynolds, and Vivian Spiro (Boston Public Library); Kara M. Jackman (Boston University, School of Theology Library); Anne Woodrum and Sarah Shoemaker (Brandeis University, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections); Martha Tedeschi, A. Cassandra Albinson, Maureen Donovan, Deborah Martin Kao, and Miriam Stewart (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum); Laura Linard and Christine Riggle (Harvard Business School, Baker Library); Nell Carlson and Douglas Gragg (Harvard Divinity School, Andover-Harvard Theological Library); Lesley A. Schoenfeld (Harvard Law School, Historical & Special Collections); Sarah Thomas, Thomas Hyry, Franziska Frey, Brenda Bernier, Catherine Badot-Costello, Susi Barbarossa, Katherine Beaty, Alicia Bowling, Irina Gorstein, Leland Grigoli, Mary Haegert, Saira Haqqi, Amanda Hegarty, Laura Larkin, Emily Lynch, Debora Mayer, Hope Mayo, Carie McGinnis, Megan C. McNamee, Abigail Merritt, Adam Novak, Joshua O’Driscoll, Graham Patten, Kelli Piotrowski, Alan Puglia, Theresa Smith, Christopher Sokolowski, and Robert Zinck (Harvard University, Harvard Library and Houghton Library); Peggy Fogelman, Anne Hawley, Christina Nielsen, Nathaniel Silver, Maria Antifonario, Lauren Budding, Jessica Chloros, Marie Coste, Lisa Long Feldmann, Cynthia Kais, David Matthews, Shana McKenna, Maureen O’Brien, Hepzibah Rapoport, Elizabeth Reluga, Christopher Richards, Mary Ellen Ringo, Kathy Sharpless, Ann Walt Stalling, Valentine Talland, Amanda Venezia, and Sarah Whitling (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum); Stephen Skuce (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Archives & Special Collections); Matthew Teitelbaum, Tracey Albainy (f), Marietta Cambareri, Annette Manick, Tom Michie, Janet Moore, Patrick Murphy, and Ben Weiss (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); Giordana Mecagni and Michelle Romero (Northeastern University, Snell Library, Archives & Special Collections); Christopher Barbour and Mary Travers (Tufts University, Tisch Library); Ruth Rogers (Wellesley College, Margaret Clapp Library, Special Collections).

And of course, the realization of this project would not have been possible without the aid of our sponsors, listed in the catalogue’s Foreword. We also extend heartfelt thanks to them.