News | June 6, 2024

Getty's New Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibition Features The Book of the Marvels of the World

Getty Museum

India, about 1460 – 65 from Book of the Marvels of the World, illuminated by the Master of the Geneva, Boccaccio, colored washes, gold, and ink on parchment

An exhibition of illuminated manuscripts depicting different places, peoples, and customs around the world from the perspective of medieval Europeans opens at The J. Paul Getty Museum on June 11.

Running through August 25, The Book of Marvels: Wonder and Fear in the Middle Ages, will feature two closely-related illustrated copies of The Book of the Marvels of the World, debuting one recently acquired by the Getty Museum in 2022, the second lent by the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. 

Written in medieval France as an encyclopedia of global wonders, the text weaves together tales of peoples based on ancient sources, medieval folklore, and the supposed travels of eyewitnesses. The global locations highlighted in the manuscript were paired with scenes of fantastical stories and creatures that medieval Europeans found captivating and bizarre. The places seen in the illuminations blurred the line between fact and fiction, with the locales situated far from Europe often viewed as dangerously different. 

“This exhibition highlights Getty’s recently acquired The Book of the Marvels of the World which provides many graphic insights into medieval Europe’s varied and often insular perspectives on the wider world,” said Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “This important exhibition will invite audiences to think about how fear of difference colored perceptions of diverse places and cultures in medieval times, as it can still today.”

A dragon and an elephant, about 1250 – 60, from the Northumberland Bestiary, English, pen-and-ink drawings tinted with body color and translucent washes on parchment
1/6
Getty Museum

A dragon and an elephant, about 1250 – 60, from the Northumberland Bestiary, English, pen-and-ink drawings tinted with body color and translucent washes on parchment

Cinomologus; Anthropophagus; Himantopode; Artabatite, 1277 or after, from Wonders of the World, Franco-Flemish, tempera colors, pen and ink, gold leaf, and gold paint on parchment
2/6
Getty Museum

Cinomologus; Anthropophagus; Himantopode;  Artabatite, 1277 or after, from Wonders of the World, Franco-Flemish, tempera colors, pen and ink, gold leaf, and gold paint on parchment

The Israelites’ fear of the giants, about 1400– 10, from World Chronicle, German, tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment
3/6
Getty Museum

The Israelites’ fear of the giants, about 1400–  10, from World Chronicle, German, tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment

King Avenir, Josaphat, and Nachor behold the Golden Calf, 1469, from Barlaam and Josaphat, illuminated by a follower of Hans Schilling from the workshop of Diebold Lauber, ink, colored washes, and tempera colors on paper
4/6
Getty Museum

King Avenir, Josaphat, and Nachor behold the  Golden Calf, 1469, from Barlaam and Josaphat, illuminated by a follower of Hans Schilling from the workshop of Diebold Lauber, ink, colored washes, and tempera colors on paper

Scythia, about 1460, from Book of the Marvels of the World, illuminated by the Master of the Geneva, Boccaccio, vellum, colored washes, gold, ink on parchment
5/6
Janny Chiu/The Morgan Library & Museum

Scythia, about 1460, from Book of the Marvels of the World, illuminated by the Master of the Geneva, Boccaccio, vellum, colored washes, gold, ink on parchment

A siren and a centaur, about 1270, from bestiary, Franco-Flemish, tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment
6/6
Getty Museum

A siren and a centaur, about 1270, from bestiary, Franco-Flemish, tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment

The twin manuscripts containing The Book of Marvels will highlight the images of Scythia and India, two of the numerous locations mentioned in the text. The Scythians, known as fearsome nomadic warriors, inhabited a vast area stretching from China to north of the Black Sea from around 900 to 200 BCE. In The Book of the Marvels they are portrayed simply as brutal attackers from a land far removed in time and geography from medieval Europe when in fact Scythians possessed a sophisticated culture with impressive achievements in technology and the arts. 

During the European Middle Ages, India was a place of highly developed and interlocking cultures, languages, and religions, yet was often mischaracterized as a land of savage peoples and strange customs in the pages of medieval manuscripts. The depictions of Scythia and India in the exhibition offer examples of how manuscripts like the Book of the Marvels reduced the identities of unfamiliar peoples and instilled xenophobia in the minds of readers.

“The compelling but mostly fictitious descriptions in The Book of the Marvels were intended to entice European readers with wonder, while simultaneously repelling them and reinforcing their ideas of superiority,” said Elizabeth Morrison, senior curator of manuscripts at the Getty Museum. “The exhibition shows how imagery can actively contribute to a process of exclusion in which individuals and groups are seen primarily in terms of their difference from one’s own community.” 

Additional objects, drawn from the Getty’s collection, will expand on the themes seen in The Book of Marvels manuscripts including an encyclopedic text from medieval Germany containing a map of the world as it was known in 1493. 

A complementary show, The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World, will take place at The Morgan Library and Museum from January 24 to May 25, 2025. On July 12, Getty will host a discussion about travel narratives, Art Break: An Armchair Traveler's Guide to the Medieval World, with Morrison and Markus Cruse, associate professor of French at Arizona State University.

read more