This book concerns objects that were "meaningful" jewels, a term we
choose to designate a wide range of precious wearable objects that had
particular meaning. An Anglo-Saxon glass pendant, a Spanish "magic
belt," a Mexican lantern pendant (once adorned with New World feathers),
and an Imperial Memento Mori Skull, these are just a few of the
remarkable objects included. These intimate meaningful jewels are meant
to be opened, touched, manipulated, pinned, gathered and strung. In the
same series of books on jewelry inaugurated in 2007 with Toward an Art
History of Medieval Rings (repr. 2014), the present volume divides the
jewels into six sections (such as "Ways and Means of Prayer," "Hidden
and Revealed," "Kissed and Touched") that creatively explore the complex
meanings these objects held for their owners. Cynthia Hahn,
internationally known for her explorative groundbreaking studies of the
reliquary arts, has written the stimulating essays and accompanying
entries in the body of the book. She has collaborated here with Beatriz
Chadour-Sampson, who, with her great mastery of the history of jewelry,
has contributed a scholarly catalog that authenticates, describes, and
situates each object. Together the essays, entries, and catalog create a
context that helps us see this jewelry in a new way and adds new
research that establishes the historical and artistic importance of a
relatively little-studied group of "meaningful jewels." In the words of
Cynthia Hahn, "Jewels, and that word here includes jewelry, are
literally the foundation of art in the Middle Ages. It is surely not
irrelevant that these things are so beautiful." Sandra Hindman, Founder
and President of Les Enluminures states "I have bought these pieces one
by one over a period of fifteen years (and put them aside with this
project in mind), and to my knowledge no such collection has been
assembled, studied, and exhibited in modern times. She goes on to say,
"Not at all unlike the medieval manuscripts I also present, they are
some of the most intimate of art objects from the Middle Ages."
