Jane Geddes
Digitising the middle ages
Jane Geddes is professor of art history at the University of Aberdeen. She has written extensively about illuminated manuscripts, including the 800-year-old Aberdeen Bestiary and the St Albans Psalter.
What’s been on your teaching schedule recently?
I took some students on a reading party to a country house retreat. In the evenings, we made tableaux vivants and one group of girls recreated the ancient statue of Laocoön, imaginatively using papier-mâché to make themselves look like gentlemen. That was a real ice-breaker.
What new discoveries have been made about the Aberdeen Bestiary?
We were pioneering in 1995 when we decided to digitise the book and put it online.
We have now developed a new interface, which can zoom into the smallest pore of parchment. We now understand it was used as a learning device; we can see puncture holes made to aid the replication of the pictures, early sketches by the artist, and tips on pronunciation.
The St Albans Psalter is not a straightforward liturgical tome, is it?
I don’t believe so. There’s evidence it was created for Christine of Markyate, an 11th-century hermit, by the abbot Geoffrey de Gorham. There are tales about the two of them sitting in her cell and people hearing moaning and groaning.
The psalter’s prologue talks about the book being written to silence gossiping tongues.
You’ve been researching the architecture of Yemen. Are there not safer places worthy of study?
When I was going regularly, the only problem was kidnapping but now there’s aerial bombardment and drones. It certainly wasn’t easy to get travel insurance. As a medievalist, their architecture is fascinating because the skills of their ancient craftsmen are unchanged. But I was a woman without a burka and Arabic who wanted to know what went on in forbidden citadels. There was a lot of gesturing and pointing.
Art history is just for posh girls. Discuss.
There are very few young men. We start teaching from “ground zero” here so the lack of art history in schools doesn’t make much difference. Our D.Litt in Art and Business was devised to ensure that an appreciation of art and cultural heritage could be used for social reform and regeneration and not just in high-end galleries.
What’s been on your teaching schedule recently?
I took some students on a reading party to a country house retreat. In the evenings, we made tableaux vivants and one group of girls recreated the ancient statue of Laocoön, imaginatively using papier-mâché to make themselves look like gentlemen. That was a real ice-breaker.
What new discoveries have been made about the Aberdeen Bestiary?
We were pioneering in 1995 when we decided to digitise the book and put it online.
We have now developed a new interface, which can zoom into the smallest pore of parchment. We now understand it was used as a learning device; we can see puncture holes made to aid the replication of the pictures, early sketches by the artist, and tips on pronunciation.
The St Albans Psalter is not a straightforward liturgical tome, is it?
I don’t believe so. There’s evidence it was created for Christine of Markyate, an 11th-century hermit, by the abbot Geoffrey de Gorham. There are tales about the two of them sitting in her cell and people hearing moaning and groaning.
The psalter’s prologue talks about the book being written to silence gossiping tongues.
You’ve been researching the architecture of Yemen. Are there not safer places worthy of study?
When I was going regularly, the only problem was kidnapping but now there’s aerial bombardment and drones. It certainly wasn’t easy to get travel insurance. As a medievalist, their architecture is fascinating because the skills of their ancient craftsmen are unchanged. But I was a woman without a burka and Arabic who wanted to know what went on in forbidden citadels. There was a lot of gesturing and pointing.
Art history is just for posh girls. Discuss.
There are very few young men. We start teaching from “ground zero” here so the lack of art history in schools doesn’t make much difference. Our D.Litt in Art and Business was devised to ensure that an appreciation of art and cultural heritage could be used for social reform and regeneration and not just in high-end galleries.