The materiality of devotion in late medieval northern Europe
Images, objects and practices
Henning Laugerud, Salvador Ryan & Laura Katrine Skinnebach, editors
‘A quality production, pleasantly heavy in the hands and beautiful to behold …. It [has a] clean traditional layout, thick glossy paper, and a centre section of 34 high-resolution color figures. Fortunately, equal attention has been paid to the research, writing and immaculate proofreading, as to the outward appearance. This book [pushes] forward many intertwined fields in medieval studies … this volume, while illuminating the Middle Ages in unexpected ways, also sheds light on how the modern seems to mediate our senses differently – and how we need to be aware of that to better understand the past and ourselves’, Laura Saetveit Miles, Kunst og Kultur (2016).
‘One of the very lovely things about this volume is the way in which the authors interact with each other’s work, both commenting on and building upon ideas across the articles. This is not just a collection of articles around a particular theme, but a volume which tries to integrate information and ideas across the individual pieces’, Mary Jane Chase, British Catholic History (2017).
‘[This book] offers access to the latest northern European scholarship on the historical use of devotional objects. The range of objects studied is comprehensive, including mystical visions as well as paintings, reliquaries, a variety of meditation rituals and tools, and the claims of such phenomena as bleeding hosts and oil-exuding corpses. The inclusion of thirty-four colour plates as well as many black-and-white images greatly enhances the volume’s usability … While this volume will especially appeal to specialists in material history, liturgy and spirituality, it also can serve those in other theological specializations as an introduction to how devout late medieval people practised rich bodily engagement with mediated theological doctrines’, Mary Frohlich, Theological Studies (June 2017).
‘The substance of the book offers considerable interest over a wide spectrum of scholarly concerns … It thus offers a smörgåsbord of stimulating new perspectives across an interdisciplinary range of approaches … well illustrated’, Jim Bugslag, The Medieval Review (June 2017).
‘This book, which is a deeply learned one, is provided as well with pages of gorgeous illustrations which give an astonishing insight into just what was painted, done, made and practised in the Middle Ages … This is a most interesting book, opening up the ways in which an earlier age approached the non-material through the material. The papers are filled with interesting ideas beyond the scope of a short review to discuss, but this is a book which will open the eyes of many to lost beauties of Christian art’, Peter Costello, Irish Catholic (February 2016).
‘The translations of the texts not originally written in English seem sound and the book is thoroughly edited and contains few typographical errors … [the images] are beautiful and of good quality. The index at the end is helpful and comprehensive … the book is warmly recommended to all readers who wish a broad-ranging and well-informed guide to the materiality of medieval devotion’, Ragnhild M. Bø, Nordic Review of Iconography (2015).
‘This extraordinary book comprises an anthology of the material aspects of medieval religion in Northern Europe, exploring how each of the five human sense interacts with texts, holy imagery and many other instruments of devotion … this anthology brings together the ideals of medieval mystical writing and the increasingly tangible and material practice of piety … this volume comprises a wealth of insightful ideas capable of challenging the ways we interact with religious articles. Stylistically, the book is beautifully, passionately written and is also accessible throughout. Although it is specifically aimed at students and historians conducting research in religious symbolism, it will equally appeal to anyone with an interest in the materiality of medieval devotion. Furthermore, fellow historians who wish to further their study in this particular field will find the reference section enormously helpful and comprehensive’, Antonio Battagliotti, Open History (2016).
‘The Materiality of Devotion is a welcome collection that focuses on the climate of devotion at a time when late-medieval discourse was broadening to include the visionary experience of women, their experience in lay society and as anchorites, and male interest in new modes of affective piety, even new religious orders such as the Brethren of the Common Life … Multidisciplinary, the volume includes perspectives from philosophy, art criticism, psychology, and history. It is also remarkably comprehensive in its scholarship. It is rare to find such wealth of reading in English, French, Dutch/Belgian, and German authors dealing with contemporary theory and contextual research with equal enthusiasm … the illustrations are well selected and of excellent quality; and the decisions on the color plates support the thrust of the argument', Virginia C. Raguin, Church History (June 2017).
‘These essays engage fruitfully with theology … The contributors are all members of the European Network on the Instruments of Devotion (ENID) based at Bergen University, a group focused on media devotion and how media both reflect and shape spirituality. The collection (which includes translated essays) provides valuable perspective on Northern European scholarship in this area ... this is a beautifully produced volume including many black and white images and sixteen pages of colour images ... both lovely to the touch and durable', Mary Ages Edsall, Renaissance Quarterly (2017).
‘What this collection offers theologians and pastors is an extraordinarily rich, and richly illustrated, appreciation of the materiality of medieval devotion', Conor McDonough, The Furrow (2017).
'The book focuses not just on interiorized meditation on and arising from the material but also the capacity of the material, whether art or practices, to mediate grace in its own right. This determination to hold the interior and the exterior in tension rather than opposition is a definite merit, and one that moves the debate on from the sometimes rather amorphous concepts of meditation and devotion, and equally from the philosophical hierarchy that, theoretically at least, placed the material as at best the lowest rung in the ascent from human life to the divine. As Hans Henrik Lohfert Jørgensen suggests in his conclusion, the tempting myth that “pure” belief should be direct and unmediated is culturally constructed, whereas such mediation may in fact be fundamental to human experience', Kim Woods, Material Religion (2018).
'This volume of eight essays centers on the sensory aspects of late medieval religious life and on how a diverse range of devotional instruments served to mediate, shape and enrich the Christian spiritual experience in a variety of ways ... An introductory chapter by the editors succinctly lays out the major currents of the work through a summary of medieval thought concerning perception and senses, the materiality of medieval devotional experience, and how these operated together ... This work as a whole will be of interest to historians of medieval and early modern art, devotional literature, and religious and intellectual life', Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, Speculum (Oct. 2018).
'The essays here are wide ranging, and the audiences for this volume are not confined to medievalists: social historians and historians of religion of other periods will find it enriching in its themes and methodologies. The bibliography provides an excellent starting point for further research. There is also much here for the specialist [...] This is an extremely handsomely produced volume [...] with a lavish set of colour plates that aptly assist the reader’s experience of the book. In sum, the volume serves as a welcome contribution to the ongoing discussion of materiality and the senses within late medieval devotion', Philippa Turner, Innes Review (Nov. 2018).
'The eight essays here approach the subject from a range of perspectives, including history, art history and theology, and demonstrate the rich potential for further inquiry into the interaction of objects, devotional practices and the sense in late medieval Europe', Michael Staunton, Studia Hibernica (2018).
'Wonderfully produced, this publication, the second in the series, is beautifully illustrated with sixteen pages of full colour plates and black and white images and includes an extensive bibliography [... The book] will be of interest to those who wish to reassess the pastoral importance of the multitude of ways in which humanity articulates its religious beliefs. Scholars who are drawn to the broad and as yet unexplored area of liturgical epistemology, including questions of "communication" in liturgy and the ritual generation of meaning within the worshipping assembly, will also find here a rich source of material to ponder', Thomas R. Whelan, Worship (April 2019).
“many of these pieces contain valuable insights and the whole is well worth the effort. It may prove very useful not only to scholars of the late medieval period but also, without consciously meaning to be so, to others who find the use of ‘holy’ objects in modern religious practice baffling, as many do.” Margaret Harvey, Heythrop Journal, October 2021.
