The Annunciation, from Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, about 1525–1530, Simon Bening. Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf on parchment. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Power in Patronage: When Medieval Women Made Books
GETTY CENTER
Museum Lecture Hall
In the Middle Ages, women of great wealth and social status often exercised their power and influence through the objects they commissioned, especially books. Christine Sciacca, associate curator at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, introduces several women book patrons, including a duchess, a middle class woman, and a community of nuns who commissioned manuscripts for their personal use, who shaped the history of medieval book production as we know it today.
