Curated OER
Flora and Fauna as Figures of Speech
Students view artwork in manuscript pages depicting insects, animals, plants, flowers, and ornate writing, such as those found in the Mira calligraphiae monumenta in the Getty Museum.
Curated OER
Passages of Man and Word
Third graders explore transportation and written communication prior to the Renaissance.
National Library of France
National Library of France: Beastiary in Medieval Illumination
A beautiful introduction to the types of exotic animals found in the illuminated manuscripts of medieval Europe. Learn about the symbolic significance of the lion, the ox, the bear, and the dove and view numerous examples of these and...
Other
Depicting Devotion: Illuminated Books of Hours
A digital page-by-page walk through an illuminated Middle Age Book of Hours.
Library of Congress
Loc: A Video Selection of Illuminated Manuscripts
A video selection of various medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, including bibles and books of hours.
Other
Medieval Bestiary: Animals in the Middle Ages
Bestiaries, illustrated volumes of animals and birds, were an expression of the intersection of the natural and religious worlds in medieval art and science. At this large database on the subject, you can learn about the symbolic content...
Library of Congress
World Digital Library: Illuminated Manuscripts From Europe: Map
A collection of primary source materials linked to a map that showcase illuminated manuscripts from 764 to 1889 that are in European museums and libraries. Click on a numbered circle and a popup appears showing one or more thumbnails and...
Library of Congress
World Digital Library: Illuminated Manuscripts From Europe: Timeline
A collection of primary source materials presented on a timeline that showcase illuminated manuscripts from 764 to 1889 that are in European museums and libraries. Click on an image to go to a page with descriptive information about each...
Stanford University
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Divine Illumination
Excellent article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy tracing the development of "divine illumination" throughout the classical and medieval Christian philosophical tradition. Describes how this distinctively Christian...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Islamic Art: Late Medieval Period: History
A solid introduction to Islamic art of the late medieval period (approximately A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1450) that relates historical events to the art production of the time. With informative descriptions and wonderful reproductions that...
J. Paul Getty Trust
J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts From Belgium and the Netherlands
Highlights from an exhibition of painted manuscripts from the late Middle Ages. Find examples of a range of works from the time, along with audio files of commentaries from the exhibition's curators.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: What Is a Butt Tuba and Why Is It in Medieval Art?
A rabbit attempts to play a church organ, while a knight fights a giant snail and a naked man blows a trumpet with his rear end. These bizarre images, painted with squirrel-hair brushes on vellum or parchment by monks, nuns and urban...
Art Cyclopedia
Artcyclopedia: Manuscript Illuminators
Artcyclopedia maintains an impressive list of links related to known medieval European manuscript illuminators, from the 13th century to the 16th. Page includes links to museum sites and archives where images of illumination can be...
J. Paul Getty Trust
J. Paul Getty Museum: Imagining the Past in France: 1250 1500
View highlights from an exhibition of medieval French manuscripts, whose subjects range from the religious, to the courtly, to the historical. See a slideshow (with narration) of featured works from the exhibition and sample three...
University of Chicago
University of Chicago Library: Le Roman De La Rose (The Romance of the Rose)
Find a description of a medieval poem about courtly love, and view the digital manuscript of the poem.
Other
Educastur: Caballeros Y Castillos
Terrific introduction to the Middle Ages, in Spanish. Learn about the people, cities, and life by clicking through beautifully illustrated screens while a jester narrates. Click objects, e.g., the castle gate, a cathedral door, or a...
National Library of France
Bibliotheque Nationale De France: Tresors Carolingiens (Carolingian Treasures)
All in French, but the beautiful illuminated manuscripts can be appreciated without reading the detailed explanations. Advanced French students will enjoy the audio explanations.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages
Fully illustrated blog about the art of medieval draftsmen shown in a special exhibition at the Metropolitan in 2009. Includes access to exhibition images, written assessments of important themes in medieval works on parchment, and...
National Library of Scotland
National Library of Scotland: Digital Archive: The Murthly Hours
Browse pages from the Murthly Hours, a kind of prayer book popular in medieval Europe, with many, many illuminated illustrations depicting scenes from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
British Library
British Library: The Priceless Lindisfarne Gospels
A page-through exploration of the duly famous Lindisfarne gospels, an extraordinary illuminated manuscript of the seventh century. Includes helpful commentaries, which can be read or listened to, and a magnifying glass for looking at the...
ibiblio
Ibiblio: Web Museum: Les Tres Riches Heures Du Duc De Berry (Book of the Hours)
The complete text and artwork of a Medieval book known as a "book of the hours". It was a collection of written and visual materials dealing with each liturgical hour of the day. They were hand-made and are quite rare. This example was...
British Library
British Library: Illuminating the Renaissance: Flemish Manuscripts
A selection of high-quality images from the Flemish manuscripts in the British Library along with a timeline of contemporary European events.
University of California
University of California Berkeley: Digital Scriptorium
Browse and search an image database of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts from many participating institutions.
Other
University of Aberdeen: Aberdeen Bestiary
Digitized version of the Aberdeen Bestiary, written and illuminated in England around 1200. Access full-page displays and detailed views of illustrations, along with transcriptions of the text in English and the original Latin. Also...