Date:
The Panizzi Lectures 2022
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture, Harvard University
Drawing Conclusions: Diagrams in Medieval Art and Thought
Diagrams constitute an omnipresent feature of medieval art and thought. From Antiquity onwards, the forms and procedures of geometric reasoning held a privileged place in the pursuit of truth, the understanding of which remained closely linked to ideals of beauty and perfection.
Drawing on the collections of the British Library, whose holdings provide virtually comprehensive coverage of all ramifications of the diagrammatic tradition, this series of lectures examines the practical, theoretical, and aesthetic dimensions of medieval diagrams as matrices of meaning and patterns of thought informing diverse areas of medieval culture.
Jeffrey F. Hamburger's research focuses on the art of the High and later Middle Ages. He is the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture at Harvard University. Beginning with his dissertation on the Rothschild Canticles (Yale, 1987), his scholarship has focused on the art of female monasticism, culminating in an international exhibition Krone und Schleier (Crown and Veil), 2005. Professor Hamburger holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from Yale University. He previously held teaching positions at Oberlin College, University of Toronto and has been a guest professor in Zurich, Paris, Oxford, and Fribourg. In 2022 he received the Gutenberg Prize from the city of Mainz for his contributions to the history of the book.
Click on the links below for more information, and to book a ticket.
Lecture 1 Maps of the Mind: Diagrams Medieval and Modern
(Monday, Oct. 24, 18:30–20:30 London, UK)
Lecture 2 The Codex in the Classroom: Practical Dimensions of Medieval Diagrams
(Thursday, Oct. 27, 18:30–20:30, London, UK)
Lecture 3 Poetry – Play– Persuasion: The Diagrammatic Imagination in Medieval Art and Thought
(Tuesday, Nov. 1, 18:30–20:30, London, UK)
