A Saving Science: Capturing the Heavens in Carolingian Manuscripts

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Description

In A Saving Science, Eric Ramírez-Weaver explores the importance of early medieval astronomy within the Frankish empire, the use of as his lens an astronomical masterpiece, the deluxe manuscript of the Handbook of 809, painted in more or less 830 for Bishop Drogo of Metz, considered one of Charlemagne’s sons. Created in an age during which careful study of the heavens served a liturgical purpose—to reckon Christian feast days and seasons correctly and thus reflect a “heavenly” order—the diagrams of celestial bodies within the Handbook of 809 are strange signifiers of the intersection of Christian art and classical astronomy.

Ramírez-Weaver shows how, by studying this lavishly painted and carefully executed manuscript, we gain a unique figuring out of early medieval astronomy and its cultural significance. In a time when the Frankish church sought to renew society through education, the Handbook of 809 presented a model during which study aided the spiritual reform of the cleric’s soul, and, by extension, enabled the spiritual care of his community.

An exciting new interpretation of Frankish painting, A Saving Science shows that constellations in books such as Drogo’s weren’t simple copies for posterity’s sake, but functional tools within the service of the rejuvenation of a creative Carolingian culture.

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