The following is a non-exhaustive list of book and articles that pertain to depiction of books in artwork during the pre- and early-modern period.
General Studies
Bared, Robert. Le livre dans la peinture. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2015.
Bollmann, Stefan. Women Who Read Are Dangerous. Translated by Christine Shuttleworth. New York: Abbeville Press, 2016.
Trigg, David. Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers. New York: Phaidon, 2018.
Collected Essays
Denoël, Charlotte, Anne-Orange Poilpré, and Sumi Shimahara, eds. Imago libri: représentations carolingiennes du livre. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018.
Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, François, ed. La symbolique du livre dans l’art occidental, du haut Moyen Âge à Rembrandt. Bordeaux; Paris: Société des bibliophiles de Guyenne; Institut d’étude du livre, 1995.
Eliot, Simon and Jonathan Rose, eds., A Companion to the History of the Book. Chichester: Blackwell, 2009.
Finklestein, David and Alistair McCleery, eds., The Book History Reader, Second Edition, Routledge, 2006. See especially Robert F. Darnton, “What Is the History of Books,” 9–26.
Watts, James W., ed. Iconic Books and Texts. Sheffield: Equinox, 2013. See especially Michelle Brown, “Images to Be Read and Words to Be Seen: The Iconic Role of the early Medieval Book,” 93–118; Dorina Miller Parmenter, “The Iconic Book: The Image of the Bible in Early Christian Rituals,” 63–92; James W. Watts, “Ancient Iconic Textx and Scholarly Expertise,” 407–418.
History & Social Contexts of the Codex
Eliot, Simon and Jonathan Rose, eds., A Companion to the History of the Book, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2009, 2012.
Petrucci, Amando. Writers and Readers in Medieval Italy: Studies in the History of Written Culture, edited and translated by Charles M. Radding, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. See especially “The Christian Conception of the Book in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries,” 19–42.
Roberts, Colin and T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Szirmai, J. A. The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999.
Images of Reading
Alexandre-Bidon, Danièle. “La lettre volée: apprendre à lire à l’enfant au Moyen Age.” Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 44, no. 4 (1989): 953–92.
Bollmann, Stefan. Reading Women. London: Merrell, 2006.
Camplin, Jamie and Maria Ranauro, The Art of Reading: An Illustrated History of Books in Paint. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2018.
Camplin, Jamie and Marie Renaura, Books do Furnish a Painting. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.
Cavallo, Guglielmo, and Roger Chartier, eds. A History of Reading in the West. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999.
Katz, Melissa R. “Regarding Mary: Women’s Lives Reflected in the Virgin’s Image.” In Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts, edited by Melissa R. Katz, 19–129. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Linton, David. “Reading the Virgin Reader.” In The Book and the Magic of Reading in the Middle Ages, edited by Albrecht Classen, 253–76. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Manguel, Alberto. A History of Reading. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.
Nies, Fritz. Imagerie de la lecture: exploration d’un patrimoine millénaire de l’Occident. Translated by Jacques Grange. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1995.
Nies, Fritz. “Reading in the Garden: Images au fil d’un demi-millénaire.” In Histoires de Jardins: Lieux et Imaginaire, edited by Jackie Pigeaud and Jean-Paul Barbe, 269–86. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2001.
Nies, Fritz, and Mona Wodsak. Ikonographisches Repertorium Zur Europäischen Lesegeschichte. Munich: Saur, 2000.
Schmidt, Peter. “Der Finger in der Handschrift, Vom Öffnen, Blättern und Schließen von Codices auf spätmittelalterlichen Bildern.” In Codex und Raum, edited by Stephan Müller, Lieselotte E. Saurma-Jeltsch, and Peter Strohschneider. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 2009, 85–125.
Schneider, Ulrich Johannes. Der Finger im Buch: Die unterbrochene Lektüre im Bild. Bern: Piet Meyer Verlag, 2020.
Sheingorn, Pamela. “‘The Wise Mother’: The Image of St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary.” Gesta 32, no. 1 (1993): 69–80.
Stewart, Garrett. The Look of Reading: Book, Painting, Text. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Trigg, David. Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2018.
Author Portraits
Budny, Mildred. “Dunstan as Hagiographical Subject or Osbern as Author? The Scribal Portrait in an Early Copy of Osbern’s Vita Sancti Dunstani.” Gesta 32 (1993): 83–96.
Enenkel, Karl A. E. “The Author’s Portrait as Reader’s Guidance: The Case of Francis Petrarch.” In The Authority of the Word: Reflecting on Image and Text in Northern Europe, 1400-1700, edited by Celeste Brusati, Karl A. E. Enenkel, and Walter S. Melion, 151–79. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F. The Birth of the Author: Pictorial Prefaces in Glossed Books of the Twelfth Century. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2021.
Lazzi, Giovanna and Paolo Viti, eds. Immaginare l’autore: Il ritratto del letterato nella cultura umanistica: Convegno di studi, Firenze, 26–27 marzo 1998. Florence: Polistampa, 2000.
Palazzo, Eric. Portraits d’écrivains: la représentation de l’auteur dans les manuscrits et les imprimés du Moyen Âge et de la première Renaissance. Paris: Fédération française pour la coopération des bibliothèques, 2002.
Pollock Renck, Anneliese. “Images of the Woman Reader and Writer in Fifteenth-Century France.” In Female Authorship, Patronage, and Translation in Late Medieval France, 45–68. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018.
Presentation Scenes
Buettner, Brigitte. “Le Don en Représentation.” In Hofkultur in Frankreich und Europa im Spätmittelalter, edited by Christian Freigang and Jean-Claude Schmitt, 65–71. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2005.
Inglis, Eric. “A Book in the Hand: Some Late Medieval Accounts of Manuscript Presentations.” Journal of the Early Book Society 5 (2002): 57–97.
The Early Middle Ages
McKitterick, Rosamond. “Essai sur les représentations de l’écrit dans les manuscrits carolingiens.” In La symbolique du livre dans l’art occidental, du haut Moyen Âge à Rembrandt, edited by François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, 37–64. Bordeaux; Paris: Société des bibliophiles de Guyenne; Institut d’étude du livre, 1995.
Miles, Laura Saetveit. “The Origins and Development of the Virgin Mary’s Book at the Annunciation.” Speculum 89, no. 3 (2014): 632–69.
Petrucci, Armando. “The Christian Conception of the Book in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries.” In Writers and Readers in Medieval Italy: Studies in the History of Written Culture, edited by Charles M. Radding, 19–42. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Schmidt, Victor. “Some Notes on Scrolls in the Middle Ages.” Quaerendo 41 (2011): 373–83.
Stammberger, Ralf M. W. Scriptor und Scriptorium: das Buch im Spiegel mittelalterlicher Handschriften. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 2003.
The Later Middle Ages
Amtower, Laurel. “The Image of the Book.” In Engaging Words: The Culture of Reading in the Later Middle Ages, 45–77. New York: Palgrave, 2015.
Guéret-Laferté, Judith. “Aspects de la symbolique religieuse du livre dans l’enluminure de la fin du Moyen Âge.” In La symbolique du livre dans l’art occidental, du haut Moyen Âge à Rembrandt, edited by François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, 65–86. Bordeaux; Paris: Société des bibliophiles de Guyenne; Institut d’étude du livre, 1995.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F. “Openings.” In Imagination, Books & Community in Medieval Europe: Papers of a Conference Held at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 29-31 May, 2008, edited by G. C. Kratzmann, 50–87. South Yarra: Macmillan, 2009.
Pastoureau, Michel. “La symbolique médiévale du livre.” In La symbolique du livre dans l’art occidental, du haut Moyen Âge à Rembrandt, edited by François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, 17–36. Bordeaux; Paris: Société des bibliophiles de Guyenne; Institut d’étude du livre, 1995.
Stirnemann, Patricia Danz, Claudine Chavannes-Mazel, and Henry Dwarswaard. “John the Baptist and the Book of Isaiah in the Ghent Altarpiece.” In Van Eyck Studies: Papers Presented at the Eighteenth Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting, Brussels, 19-21 September 2012, edited by Christina Currie, Bart Fransen, Valentine Henderiks, Cyriel Stroo, and Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, 144–54. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
The Renaissance/Early Modern Period
Acres, Alfred. “Rogier van Der Weyden’s Painted Texts.” Artibus et Historiae 21, no. 41 (2000): 75–109.
Białostocki, Jan. Livres de sagesse et livres de vanité. Paris: Editions des cendres, 1996.
Covi, Dario A. “Lettering in Fifteenth Century Florentine Painting.” The Art Bulletin 45, no. 1 (1963): 1–17.
Guze, Justyna. “Książka jako symbol treści intelektualnych w sztuce doby humanizmu: XV-XVI w.” In O ikonografii świeckiej doby humanizmu : tematy – symbole – problemy, edited by Elżbieta Karnowska, 159–243. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1977.
Kubiski, Joyce Marie. “Uomini Illustri: The Revival of the Author Portrait in Renaissance Florence.” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Washington, 1993.
De Leonardis, Francesco, and Angela Nuovo. “Il libro nella pittura del Rinascimento.” In Il libro nell’Italia del Rinascimento, by Angela Nuovo and Ennio Sandal, 105–59. Brescia: Grafo, 1998.
Macola, Novella. Sguardi e scritture figure con libro nella ritrattistica italiana della prima metà del Cinquecento. Venice: Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 2007.
McGrath, Thomas Howard. “Facing the Text: Author Portraits in Florentine Printed Books, 1545-1585.” Word & Image 19 (2003): 74–85.
McQuillen, John T. “Fifteenth-Century Book Networks: Scribes, Illuminators, Binders, and the Introduction of Print.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 107, no. 4 (2013): 495–515.
Pettegree, Andrew. The Book in the Renaissance. London: Yale University Press, 2018.
Schibanoff, Susan. “Botticelli’s Madonna del Magnificat: Constructing the Woman Writer in Early Humanist Italy.” PMLA 109, no. 2 (1994): 190–206.
Judaism, Islam, and Christian Perceptions thereof
Burman, Thomas E., and Leah Giamalva. “A Sixteenth-Century European Author Portrait of Muhammad and Medieval Latin Traditions of Qur’an Reading.” In The Image of the Prophet between Ideal and Ideology: A Scholarly Investigation, edited by Christiane J. Gruber and Avinoam Shalem, 201–22. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
Hillenbrand, Robert. “The Classical Author Portrait Islamicized.” In Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict, edited by Thomas Madden, James L. Naus, and Vincent Ryan, 47–74. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.
Rainer, Thomas. “L’image de la Torah: La représentation du livre sacré et son rôle dans la construction des identités religieuses dans l’Empire ottoman: Sabbataï Tsevi et son portrait.” Études Balkaniques: Cahiers Pierre Belon 124, no. 1 (2020): 209–49.
