An abridged history of occidental illuminated manuscripts through exploration of the collections in Lyon

This course will examine the illustrated book production in Francia Occidentalis (6th-9th centuries), and then in the Kingdom of France until the 16th century. Beyond an introduction to the archaeology of the medieval book, it aims to provide essential elements for the understanding of illuminated manuscripts through lectures and concrete examples. The diversity of illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Lyon City Library also demands emphasis of the importance of the history of the collections in Lyon (and the history of the book in general) – the corpus considered includes, among others, a fine collection of Italian manuscripts.