Review: 'Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World Through Illuminated Manuscripts', edited by Bryan C. Keene

 As some of you know, I am once again back to studying my grand passion: the Middle Ages. I started reading this book in May 2020 as I was preparing to move back to the EU and begin my second MA in Medieval Studies. I have taken my time with this book, in order to make sure that I was able to take in everything that was on offer. Thanks to Getty Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 9/29/2019
Publisher: Getty Publications

This important and overdue book examines illuminated manuscripts and other book arts of the Global Middle Ages. Illuminated manuscripts and illustrated or decorated books—like today’s museums—preserve a rich array of information about how premodern peoples conceived of and perceived the world, its many cultures, and everyone’s place in it. Often a Eurocentric field of study, manuscripts are prisms through which we can glimpse the interconnected global history of humanity.
 
Toward a Global Middle Ages is the first publication to examine decorated books produced across the globe during the period traditionally known as medieval. Through essays and case studies, the volume’s multidisciplinary contributors expand the historiography, chronology, and geography of manuscript studies to embrace a diversity of objects, individuals, narratives, and materials from Africa, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas—an approach that both engages with and contributes to the emerging field of scholarly inquiry known as the Global Middle Ages.
 
Featuring 160 color illustrations, this wide-ranging and provocative collection is intended for all who are interested in engaging in a dialogue about how books and other textual objects contributed to world-making strategies from about 400 to 1600.

This was a fascinating book to read as a burgeoning medievalist. Due to my education so far I have been pre-dominantly focused on Northern Europe and it was very gratifying to have my horizon opened this way. Although we all know the rest of the world was there, we are very tied to focusing on the consequences of the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Carolingian mini-Renaissance, the following Ottonian Renaissance etc. So when the blurb says that this book is overdue, it is absolutely correct. It also focuses on illuminated manuscripts which are not just stunning but also an invaluable resource when it comes to finding out more about the Middle Ages. It is not just important to know what they wrote down but how they illuminated it, why they were willing to spend a lot of money on it (illumination was expensive!) and how some of these manuscripts made it to the other side of the world.

The scope of this work is enormous, covering a huge variety of territories and approaches. Clocking in at 27 contributors, there is a mountain of expertise available to the reader here which was at times almost overwhelming. I took my time reading this book, wanting to make sure it all sunk in. The cartography section was very interesting, although the more codicological approach to forms of texts was especially interesting to me. Identity in the Middle Ages is currently a major area of research and I enjoyed the various approaches in this book. As someone from various cultures myself, my favourite section of the book was the one discussing the interchange of cultures and the wide spread of medieval travel. We like to think of the Middle Ages as "dark" and limited, but there was so much interaction between various cultures. The Renaissance would not have been possible had it not been for the wide variety of people moving about and sharing knowledge during the Middle Ages.

As someone continuing to study the Middle Ages the very extensive bibliography is also a joy. I will definitely be revisiting that! One note to make is that not every essay is equally accessible. It does require a strong interest in the Middle Ages and a patience for academic writing. As someone with a background in Medieval Studies I struggled with some essays, as they covered fields I wasn't experienced with. But there is so much to gain that the struggle is usually worth it. The illustrations are also stunning and of a great quality, which should be expected from Getty Publications. 

I give this book...

5 Universes!

Toward a Global Middle Ages is an invaluable addition to academic writing on the Middle Ages. It expanded my (intellectual) horizon, but it will require a strong, academic reader.