The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe: A Free Online Course from the University of Colorado

Dr. Roger Louis Martínez-Dávi­la and Ana B. Sanchez-Prieto–two aca­d­e­mics work­ing out of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado and Uni­ver­si­dad Com­plutense Madrid (Spain)–have teamed up to present Deci­pher­ing Secrets: The Illu­mi­nat­ed Man­u­scripts of Medieval Europe. The free course cov­ers the fol­low­ing ground:

Per­haps no oth­er rel­ic of the Euro­pean Mid­dle Ages cap­tures our imag­i­na­tion more than illu­mi­nat­ed medieval man­u­scripts, or those doc­u­ments dec­o­rat­ed with images and col­ored pig­ments. Serv­ing as win­dows unto a lost world of kings, ladies, faith, war, and cul­ture, they com­mu­ni­cate com­plex visu­al and tex­tu­al nar­ra­tives of Europe’s col­lec­tive cul­tur­al her­itage and pat­ri­mo­ny. In this fash­ion, illu­mi­nat­ed man­u­scripts are dynam­ic mes­sages from our com­mu­nal past that are still rel­e­vant today in fields like graph­ic design and typog­ra­phy.

In this sev­en-week course, stu­dents will explore the mate­r­i­al cre­ation, con­tent, and his­tor­i­cal con­text of illu­mi­nat­ed medieval Euro­pean man­u­scripts. Stu­dents will acquire an intro­duc­to­ry knowl­edge of their dis­tin­guish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics, their cat­a­logu­ing and peri­odiza­tion (when they were cre­at­ed), the meth­ods uti­lized to pro­duce them, and their his­tor­i­cal con­text and val­ue.

You can take The Illu­mi­nat­ed Man­u­scripts of Medieval Europe for free by select­ing the audit option upon enrolling. If you want to take the course for a cer­tifi­cate, you will need to pay a fee.

The Illu­mi­nat­ed Man­u­scripts of Medieval Europe has been added to our list of Free His­to­ry Cours­es, a sub­set of our col­lec­tion, 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Dis­cov­er the Great Medieval Man­u­script, the Book of Kells, in a Free Online Course

The Medieval Mas­ter­piece, the Book of Kells, Is Now Dig­i­tized & Put Online

How Illu­mi­nat­ed Medieval Man­u­scripts Were Made: A Step-by-Step Look at this Beau­ti­ful, Cen­turies-Old Craft

800 Illu­mi­nat­ed Medieval Man­u­scripts Are Now Online: Browse & Down­load Them Cour­tesy of the British Library and Bib­lio­thèque Nationale de France

160,000 Pages of Glo­ri­ous Medieval Man­u­scripts Dig­i­tized: Vis­it the Bib­lio­the­ca Philadel­phien­sis