Les Enluminures

Les Enluminures podcasts transform the past into the present with untold stories, research, science, and histories of Medieval and Renaissance artworks through illuminating lectures, gallery talks, in-house research, and interviews with collectors and scholars.

For our series Book of Hours Reimagined, Dr. Sandra Hindman welcomes Evelien Hauwaerts for a very special podcast episode. Together, they explore the exquisite and inspiring work Books of Hours, Books of Hope, delving into its artistry, historical significance, and the ways in which it reimagines the traditional devotional manuscript for a contemporary audience. Join us for an illuminating conversation that bridges past and present, offering fresh perspectives on this timeless treasure.

 

Cover image: © 2025 Hannibal Books / Simon & Schuster. Used for review/commentary.

Sandra Hindman and Benjamin Zucker meet in New York and discuss their long relationships with Diana Scarisbrick and their shared interest in historic rings.  On this day, the day before Diana's funeral in London (to be held on February 5), they celebrate Diana's life, her interests, and recall her special approach to two groups of rings as included in her fascinating book, an essential guide to Rings, Jewelry of Power, Love, and Loyalty (2007, repr. 2013), described as "equal parts eye-candy and wow-inducing art-history lesson."

Our 50^th podcast celebrates Les Enluminures’s Ten Years in New York.

Join President and Founder Sandra Hindman and Helen Allen, Executive Director of New York’s celebrated art fair The Winter Show, as they discuss all things New York-related. They explore the history of the New York gallery space, the anniversary exhibition ‘Timeless Treasures,’ plans for the future, amongst much more.   

The exhibition "Timeless Treasures: 10 Manuscripts to Celebrate 10 Years in New York" runs through December 21, 2022.

www.lesenluminures.com

Join host Sandra Hindman and Sonja Drimmer on a special episode of the Les Enluminures podcast! Sandra and Sonja sit down to discuss her most recent article in Speculum “Connoisseurship, Art History and the Paleographical Impasse in Middle English Studies,” as well as her recent work on the “rollodex,” framing the relationship between hybrid parchment objects living between the roll and the codex.

Drimmer is an associate professor at U Mass Amherst specializing in medieval European art with expertise in illuminated manuscripts and early print. She received her BA from Brown University and PhD from Columbia University. Drimmer’s research is largely concerned with premodern notions of authorship and authority, the collaborative nature of artistic production, media theory, reproduction, and the aesthetics and material culture of politics. She maintains a strong interest in historiography and in particular how reproduction and restoration shape the reception of objects over time. 

 

Publications and References for Sonja Drimmer:

Sonja Drimmer, The Art of Allusion: Illuminators and the Making of English Literature, 1403-1476 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018)

Sonja Drimmer in Speculum “Connoisseurship, Art History and the Paleographical Impasse in Middle English Studies” 2022. 

With an effect like melted glass, enamel work creates stunning, colorful effects on sculptures, enlivening their surfaces. Today, we take a look at the history and various technical processes of enameling. Covering cloisonné, champlevé, and enamel in ronde-bosse, we also examine works in the Les Enluminures collection which demonstrate these varied enameling techniques, including works by Castellani, Baroque rings, and Giuliano’s painted enamel. 

 

Resources:

Les Enluminures Castellani Quatrefoil Brooch 

Castellani Brooch at the British Museum  

Heart-Shaped Pendant with Cherub by Guliano  

Love Ring with Bow and Flowers 

 

Today we discuss the history of the Winter Show and philanthropic culture in the United States with Kristen Racaniello and Sandra Hindman. Tune in and discover the origins of the exhibition, the history of gifting in the USA, and hear about Sandra’s delightful journey to participating in the Winter Show. You can join us at the Winter Show in booth 1-11 starting today, Thursday March 31 to Sunday April 10. Regular hours begin at 12:00 but closing times vary. We hope to see you there! 

 

Resources:

Les Enluminures at the Winter Show

The Winter Show Website

Join our founder and host Sandra Hindman as she discusses the monstrous, marginalia and determining the center with Sherry Lindquist, co-author of Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders. This interview coincides with the topic of our Chicago gallery exhibition, “The Margins of Medieval Art: Questioning the Center,” which is open through March 30th. What are Sandra and Sherry’s favorite monsters? What determines if an image or subject is “central” to a manuscript folio or pushed to its borders? How does gender, sex, and “monsterizing” play a role in creating margins that frame, subvert, or support the center? Find out on this episode of the Les Enluminures podcast. 

 

Resources:

Sherry C. M. Lindquist and Asa Simon Mittman: Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders

The Margins of Medieval Art: questioning the Center, Chicago

Shocking as it may be a medieval bestseller was misery. That text, On the Misery of the Human Condition, is the subject of our podcast today. It was written by a soon-to-be Pope and remained wildly popular for five hundred years before mysteriously dropping out of favor. This text is filled with insights into the Medieval perspective through the meditations of Pope Innocent III, and our manuscript, TM557, is a classic example of the popularity of the Misery throughout time. It is an important historical record and a must-read text for anyone interested in medieval history and life.  

Resources: 
TM 557, On the Misery of the Human Condition 
On the success of Latin texts in the Middle Ages

Robert E. Lewis, ed. and tr., Lotario dei Segni (Pope Innocent III), De miseria condicionis humane, Athens, Georgia, 1978 
John C. Moore, Pope Innocent III (1160/61-1216). To Root up and Plant, Leiden, 2003 
John C. Moore, “Innocent III’s De miseria humanae conditionis: A Speculum curiae,” Catholic Historical Review 67 (1981), pp. 553-564. 

One of the most common, special objects that we have at Les Enluminures is the Book of Hours. Often, the Book of Hours is called the medieval “bestseller.” But what, exactly, does that mean? What determines if a book was “popular” or “best-selling” in the medieval world? How can we possibly know what was made most frequently in the Middle Ages? Find out answers to these questions today on the Les Enluminures Podcast.

 

Resources: 

On the success of Latin texts in the Middle Ages

http://fama.irht.cnrs.fr/en/en/more 

Pascale Bourgain and Laura Light, Bestsellers, Primer 4, Les Enluminures, 2014.

Lerner, Robert E. “New Light on ‘The Mirror of Simple Souls.’” Speculum 85, no. 1 (2010): 91–116.

Today we explore the gap in time between historical events and the present. Between then and now is a gap that creates desire and longing for contact. Creative attempts to close that gap produced a series of “revivalist” movements in the nineteenth century. Through our current exhibition “Ideal Jewels” we discuss the rise of art jewelry, the Pre-Raphaelites, and how revival iconography connects with the present day. What did St. Augustine and Aristotle think about time? What materials did revival jewelers use to research their designs? How can we connect the Victorian era with the medieval period? Find out today on the Les Enluminures podcast. 

 

Resources:

The Ideal Past: Revival Jewels

Carolyn Dinshaw, How Soon is Now?: Medieval Texts, Amature Readers, and the Queerness of Time