by The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library—part of Special Collections in the Saint Louis University Libraries—announces the opening of an exhibition of medieval and Renaissance manuscript facsimiles, “Meditations on the Life of Christ.”
Between the end of the 2015 academic semester and the beginning of the New Year, many communities prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Much as people in the Middle Ages turned to icons and sacred images for focused spiritual meditation, this exhibition provides an opportunity for us all to reflect on the many stages and events in Christ’s brief life, as recorded in biblical, devotional, and apocryphal sources.
The original manuscripts—here reproduced in photographic facsimiles—were produced in Europe and western Asia from the ninth through the sixteenth centuries. Representing a variety of devotional, biblical, and liturgical texts, they were read and used in monasteries, cathedrals, and in private homes. Craftsmen and illuminators, working in the artistic styles and imagery of their respective time periods, created decorative motifs and narrative compositions to embellish these books and illustrate the story of Christ’s birth, the activities and episodes of his ministry, his death, and resurrection. Each exhibition case concentrates on specific aspects of his life:
Case 1: Nativity and Childhood, Mission and Miracles
Case 2: Nativity and Childhood
Case 3: Nativity, Childhood, Mission
Case 4: Passion and Crucifixion: The Last Supper
Case 5: Passion and Crucifixion
Case 6: Resurrection and Ascension
The exhibition is free and open to the public and will be on display in the 2nd floor gallery during Pius XII Memorial Library’s regular hours, through 31 January 2016. For further information, contact Susan L’Engle, Assistant Director of the Vatican Film Library, at 314-977-3084, lengles@slu.edu.
