Materializing the word

Ottonian treasury bindings, once dismissed as primarily decorative, are revealed to have been sophisticated tools for communicating the Word of God through visual formulae that exploited innate and learned cognitive responses. This study demonstrates how these ornate gospel book covers, central to liturgical ceremonies in early eleventh-century Germany, captured viewer attention using reflective materials, centralized compositions, and human faces—findings supported by modern neuroscience and cognitive psychology. The research reconstructs original viewing contexts through liturgical analysis and examines the role of luxury bindings in elite collections, offering a new model for understanding the performative function and visual exegesis of these objects.

Fisher, S. D. (2012). Materializing the word. No Publisher Supplied. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3JD4VTT