Capturing Biographies: Materiality, Mobility and Agency of the Illuminated Fragments Collection at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg

• Applicant: Dr. Beatrice Alai
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 452794801

Among the holdings of the Cabinet of Prints of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg (GNM) is a major collection of illuminated cuttings, consisting of more than three-hundred pages, initials, and ornamental borders, excised from German and Italian manuscripts from the 9th to 18th century. Despite its extraordinary importance, this collection has hitherto been overlooked and never thoroughly studied.The aim of this project is to investigate the meaning and the functions of these neglected works of art. By using an interdisciplinary methodology, which combines the study of the material aspects of the fragments with the analysis of the dynamics of their perception, the project seeks to reconstruct the biography of the cuttings from the original manuscripts until today, when they are intended as a mere museum display. Examining each phase of their bio, it will reveal the multiple identities of the fragments, whose status changed in both time and space from Middle to Modern Age: they went from being part of a book to being cut out and collected as Curiosities, then becoming ‘Monuments’ of lost primitive Art, or models in the wake of the Art & Crafts Movement, of the new reproduction technologies and academic disciplines. Tracing these object journeys will enable us to examine for the first time the reasons why – from the early 19th century on – private Nuremberg collectors, such as the GNM founder Hans von und zu Aufsess, chose to gather cut out illuminations from Italy and Germany. These discoveries will be clarified by putting the GNM fragments in relationship with their siblings (cuttings from the same manuscripts) in other German, English, French, Italian and American repositories. As a result, it will be possible to understand an hitherto unquestioned panorama, not only of iconographic and stylistic features, but also of economic, sociocultural and religious framework conditions, in which the fragments were born and then developed. Moreover, the project will add a fundamental tile in the mosaic of the study of the history of illumination collections in the European and American context, explaining how the GNM was the first National Museum in Germany and among the first three in Europe to have gained a cuttings collection.By doing so, not only will the GNM benefit from a solid comprehension of a crucial part of its holdings, this project will also make a great contribution to the wider critical studies, which are currently missing the German discourse on cuttings collections in Modern Age. Finally, as cuttings typically have a history of travelling across borders and time, this project will provide a rich and unique opportunity to create a public dialogue, using seminars and exhibitions to encourage scholars and participants to reflect on ideas of shared culture, heritage and belonging.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants