Ewa Manikowska // Illuminated Manuscripts, Research Collections and the Second World War: Contextualizing a rediscovered German Photo-Archive
This project focuses on an unpublished, recently rediscovered German photo archive preserved today in the National Museum in Warsaw. Consisting of tens of thousands reproductions of illuminations of medieval manuscripts from major and minor European, American and Russian public libraries and ecclesiastical collections as well as reproductions of manuscripts appearing on the art market in the first half of the 20th century, this is to my knowledge the only photo archive of illuminated manuscripts of such size and breath. Furthermore, with most of the photographs acquired or commissioned between the late 1920s and 1943/44 this archive is also a reflection of the institutional and research history of the time of National Socialism.
This project has three general research objectives: 1. To reintroduce this unique photo archive into historiography, determine its exact provenance, recover its cultural and research value and contribute to photo archive research. 2. To contribute to the recent blooming research on the historiography, collecting and market of illuminated manuscripts by introducing the photo archive perspective. 3. To launch a discussion on the research and cultural value, potential and future of the legacy of German collections in Polish memory and academic institutions by considering the neglected heritage of photo archives.
[Caption: An example of German photo-archives in Polish collections: Photographs from the photo-archive of the Provinzial-Konservator der Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Schlesien, preserved in the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (photo: Piotr Jamski)]