Trinita Kennedy

Medieval Bologna

Richly illustrated, this is the first major study in English to explore the art made during the late Middle Ages in Bologna, home to the oldest university in Europe. Beginning in the late eleventh century, masters and students flocked to Bologna to study Roman law, creating the academic setting that gave rise to the city's unique artistic culture. Professors enjoyed high social status, tombs carved with classroom scenes made for impressive lecture halls, and, most important, teachers and students created a tremendous demand for books. By the mid-thirteenth century, the city had become the preeminent center for manuscript production in Italy. Accompanying a major exhibition at Nashville's Frist Art Museum, the essays by academics, curators, and educators in Medieval Bologna create a rich context for the nearly seventy works of art in the exhibition. Drawn primarily from American libraries, museums, and private collections, many of the works have never been studied or published before. The authors discuss the illustrious foreign artists called to work in the city, most notably Cimabue and Giotto; the devastating wake of the Black Death; and the political resurgence of Bologna at the end of the fourteenth century. This captivating illustrated tour of medieval Bologna—its porticoed streets, stunning piazzas, mendicant churches, and more—shows us how the city became a center for higher learning and expands our understanding of art in the medieval world.