The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

12
Exhibitions
The Hours of Philip
the Bold, c. 1370 with
later 14th and 15th
century additions,
Fitzwilliam Museum,
MS 3-1954, fol. 92
made in East Anglia c. 1330, that is replete with large
and small pictures of religious subject matter,
marginal scenes and figures of bewildering variety,
whimsy and wit, as well as intricate decorative
elements. This timely acquisition drew widespread
attention to the Museum and exhibition. As this book
was in need of conservation and re-binding, it was
possible to dismember it so as to be able to mount a
great many of its illustrated and decorated pages for
separate display in the Shiba Gallery, thus enabling
viewers to gain first-hand experience of the breadth,
imagination and complexity of a major work of
English Gothic illumination as well as to appreciate
something of the interpretive problems it poses.
Visitors to the exhibition ranged from school
children to retirees, undergraduates and other
academics from Cambridge and elsewhere, and a
wide and diverse audience of the art- and bookloving
public. Every effort was made to engage such
wide audiences successfully. These included a set of
specially designed exhibition cases; an introductory
section of the exhibition devoted to the materials
and manufacture of medieval manuscripts; education
programmes which included studio demonstrations
of calligraphy and a course on the art of writing
(both by the distinguished calligrapher, Penny Price);
free lunchtime talks; fact sheets for teachers and
pupils; music programmes (three evening concerts,
all sold out); a website designed specifically for the
exhibition; the Museum’s first exhibition audio guide;
the publication (by Harvey Miller/Brepols) of a
beautifully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition
that combines detailed entries on individual works
with essays that explicate such topics as “Collectors
and Collecting,” “Making an Illuminated Manuscript,”
as well as the categories according to which the
exhibition was organised (the catalogue twice sold
out and is now in its third printing). Finally, The
Cambridge Illuminations International Conference,
organized by Stella Panayotova, brought together
more than 250 leading experts and students in the
fields of medieval history, literature, codicology,
palaeography and art history. The conference papers
will be published in 2007 to provide a sister volume
to the exhibition catalogue.
The Cambridge Illuminations met and exceeded
virtually all of its goals. It successfully introduced
medieval and Renaissance manuscripts to a wide
public. It also called deserved attention to a
significant proportion of the most important
illuminated manuscripts in Cambridge as part of a
broader effort to re-catalogue all of the medieval and
Renaissance manuscripts in Cambridge collections.
Observing visitors to the exhibition, many of whom
stayed for hours on end and returned for repeat
viewings, one could not fail to note how these
intricately fashioned works captured visitors’
attention and provoked their sense of wonder.
That is precisely what illuminated manuscripts were
intended to do, and it was gratifying to see that they
still retain that power, even across the considerable
cultural and intellectual distances that separate us
from the times in which they were created. Witness,
for example, the comments of one of the visitors to
the exhibition: “Your exhibition was stunning… the
display – exceptionally good and visible for such
fragile works. And the WOW factor – truly, truly
spectacular. I arrived at 9:55 – queues already – and