Art Historian Alexa Sand recently visited the University of Utah campus to present her lecture "Manuscripts of Unusual Size: Big Data and Tiny Books" and meet with Art History students in Professor Meekyung MacMurdie's Medieval Art class, Book Arts and English students to examine several manuscripts in Marriott Library's Special Collections.

Rare Books Curator Lyuba Basin and Collections Cataloger Alle McCormack generously curated a selection of manuscripts in various sizes and formats, from large Gospel scrolls to minuscule Books of Hours. Guided by Dr. Sand, the workshop provided participants a chance to interact with written formats that are less-common today, but that are essential to the history of medieval books. Participants also had access to different types of parchments, and could compare the different impacts of materials on medieval manuscript production.

Sand is Professor of Art History at Utah State University where she also serves as the Associate Vice President for Research. Her own research addresses the intersection of word and image in later medieval art in France, England, and Italy, with a focus on illuminating questions of gender, visuality, and devotion. In her teaching, Dr. Sand emphasizes student-centered learning and critically reimagines the boundaries of medieval art: historically, in the classroom, and for our contemporary society.

If you missed her lecture, you can watch it here, or find other art talks on our Visiting Artists and Scholars page!

This event is co-sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School, and organised by SoCFB fellow Meekyung MacMurdie. Made possible through the generous support of the Carmen Morton Christensen Endowment, the Department of Art & Art History, and the College of Fine Arts.