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The Figge holds a small but impressive collection of medieval and early Renaissance manuscripts from Europe, the Middle East, and India. This summer a selection of 12 of these works will be on view in the Lewis gallery and will allow for a cross cultural examination of hand painted book illustrations and typography from the 15th and 16th century. The decorations in the margins of these books include beautifully intricate paintings which illustrate the text written on the page. These illustrations were often created from pigments sourced from semi-precious materials like lapis lazuli and were often highlighted with gold leaf.
The Figge’s collection includes examples of musical notation for Gregorian chants, a page from a Benedictine Psalter, several examples of pages from a book of hours, as well as illustrations of Indian battle scenes. The text on these pages include inscriptions in Latin, Devanagari script, and Arabic. Translations of parts of the text on the manuscripts will be included with label information for some of the works. Images of the reverse side of each manuscript page will bel available as part of the audio tour.
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