Houghton-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History: “Considering Withdrawal in Images of the Lives of the Desert Fathers”
Houghton Library and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies present Dr. Gallant on "Considering Withdrawal in Images of the Vitae patrum (Lives of the Desert Fathers).”
The Desert Fathers and Mothers defined their lives through acts of withdrawal. Anthony the Abbot’s withdrawal from the fringes of his village to the desert inspired a generation of ascetics and gave rise to an entire genre of hagiography, the vita. Through a close analysis of the lives of Onuphrius and Marina the Virgin, this talk explores how Morgan Library MS. M.626 teaches the 14th-century viewer to cultivate a rich inner life. Produced at a moment when lay Christians, like Giordano’s audience on the first Sunday of Lent, were being invited to withdraw to private “deserts” in their own homes, the illuminations in this manuscript promote the virtue of total reliance on God—a posture that is essential if withdrawal is to lead to salvation.
Dr. Gallant is an internationally-recognized scholar and specialist in European medieval art and architecture, with an emphasis on manuscript illumination and the figural arts of the Trecento. Her scholarly work explores issues of narrative, the rise of the eremitic ideal as exemplum virtutis, environmental imaginaries (such as the desert), race and ethnicity in late medieval Italy and issues of patronage in the Middle Ages. Her book, Illuminating the Vitae patrum: The Lives of the Desert Saints in Fourteenth-Century Italy (Penn State University Press, 2024), is the first work to examine comprehensively the Morgan Library’s richly illustrated manuscript of the VP (MS. M. 626), whose extraordinary illustrations comprise a singular witness to the rise of the eremitic ideal and its impact on the visual culture of late medieval Italy.
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Hands-On Workshops
Join Dr. Gallant for a hands-on workshop, "Books for the Soul: Personal Devotion in the Middle Ages." Medieval readers turned to books not only for knowledge, but also for the nourishment of their spiritual lives. In this workshop, we will explore manuscripts from Houghton Library that reveal the many ways books shaped practices of prayer, meditation, and moral reflection.
Together, we will consider these manuscripts as artefacts of personal devotion: how their texts, images, and physical features reflect the intentions of scribes and patrons; how signs of use capture the habits of readers; and how such books created spaces for private piety while also connecting to wider devotional communities. By situating them in their artistic and historical contexts, we will gain insight into the lived experience of devotion in the later Middle Ages. This workshop will be offered twice on Thursday, October 23 at Houghton. Follow the links for more information and to register for the morning session or the afternoon session.
We encourage persons with disabilities who would like to request accommodations or have questions about physical access to contact us.
