RBS 2003 Course Evaluation: Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts

1: Very useful. 2: Pre-course readings were extremely helpful and relevant. 3: The readings were on the whole good, especially the two books on hours (Roger Wieck, Time Sanctified and Painted Prayers) and Christopher de Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts. 4: The pre-course readings were very useful. Particularly enjoyable were those of Christopher de Hamel and our instructor. R. N. Swanson, Religion and Devotion in Europe, was also engaging and interesting. Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars, was long and tough to get through, though it did offer -- the pain having subsided -- a residue of interesting arcane facts. 6: I already had enough general knowledge of the things they covered. Time Sanctified was the most useful, especially the appendices. 7: The pre-course readings gave you the background information that was needed to build on to understand the lectures in depth. 8: Very useful. 9: Very useful, gave background for the class. We didn’t have to waste time on it at RBS. 10: Very useful. 11: Good for providing context and some directly relevant to the topic. 12: An essential foundation for the course.

2) Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)?

1: Very useful, and I expect to add books when I return home. 2: Extremely useful; in fact, indispensable and very well prepared. 3: Yes!!! 4: Oh absolutely. RW’s class booklet, in conjunction with his other recommended text tools are, and will be, invaluable. 5: Yes! The course was well thought-out, and the syllabus and reading lists are evidence of this. In addition to a thorough and interesting pre-course book list, I am taking away lists of books for further reading. Some of the “cheat-sheets” for working with Books of Hours will no doubt be worth their weight in gold. 6: Yes, the manual has good stuff in it. 7: The syllabus was and will be extremely useful. 8: Yes, and will be a useful reference tool in the future. 9: Yes for the future as well. 10-11: Yes. 12: Very useful.

1: Absolutely! 2: Yes, absolutely appropriate. 3: Yes! RW did not talk down to us, or over my head. 4: “Appropriate” is too dull a word to apply to such a stimulating, enlightening, delightful experience. 5: Yes -- I left every day tired out from thinking and learning, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. 6-10: Yes. 11: Yes, perfect. 12: Yes.

1: Yes, indeed! 2: Yes -- very well spent. 3: Yes! Especially going to the Walters, which had beautiful manuscripts that we could see up close. 4: Absolutely. The long trip to Baltimore to visit the Walters Art Museum was a somewhat scary prospect, but not only were the treasures there shown essential to our truer understanding, but the trip and dinner proved to be a wonderful way for the class to get to know each other better socially. 5: The trip to the Walters Art Museum was a rare and wonderful opportunity, well worth the long drive. Special Collections was an added bonus. 6: The day spent at the Walters was wonderful and well worth the time. There’s nothing that compares to seeing the real stuff. 7: Long trip, but the opportunity to see the manuscripts up so close was not to be missed. 8: Yes, seeing the Walters manuscripts was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most of us, but I would have almost preferred limiting the show-and-tell to Alderman’s Special Collections so we could have had more classroom time and practical exercises. 9: Yes. 10: Absolutely, the visit at the Walters was a wonderful experience. Where else would we have the opportunity to see that many original manuscripts! 11: Yes, although the trip to Baltimore is rather long. 12: Very much so. Our field trip to the Walters and visit to Special Collections gave us the opportunity to see many illuminated manuscripts as primary sources.

1: I was always weak in the liturgy, and RW was superb in this aspect. And of course the art as well. 2: Our teacher, RW, is a superb and generous teacher as well as an engaging one. He works hard to bring students the best that he can, and his patience and humor beguiled us all. I feel enormously enriched by the encounter. 3: RW’s approach, using the religious and liturgical significance. And the slides, which were very good. 4: RW: so charming, so intelligent, so witty, friendly, and despite those gifts, so unpretentious; an American prince. 5: I most enjoyed getting a chance to apply my newly acquired knowledge in working with and identifying manuscripts, texts, and calendars. 6: Looking at beautiful pictures -- and learning about their meaning and purpose. The instructor obviously has a tremendous depth of knowledge about the subject and shared his knowledge, his questions, and his enthusiasm in a very unpedantic way. His collection of slides is wonderful. 7: Everything! 8: RW’s careful structuring of each session, and the practical exercises with the calendars, printed leaves, and facsimile Books of Hours. 9: Being able to see the manuscripts in person AND having such a knowledgeable instructor. 10: RW’s teaching, ability, and his passion for the subject. 11: RW’s incredible knowledge of the material. The exercises with describing the books and working with the calendar. 12: Our visit to Special Collections to see UVa’s own collection of illuminated manuscripts.

1: I marveled at the breadth and scope of his teaching and the books he recommended. 2: No way. 3: Get a better slide projector (the one we had kept losing focus). Also, I think it would be useful to indicate, in the readings list, the most essential, can’t understand without, readings (in this case, the liturgical ones). 4: A slide projector that stayed in focus. 5: It is hard to imagine an improvement. A smaller class would increase the students’ ability to see the manuscripts while at the Walters or Special Collections, but it would be a shame to decrease the number of people who could enjoy this class. 6: I would have liked a little time spent on materials and technologies, perhaps as part of the Walters visit. 7: The course fit my interest perfectly and I would not want anything changed. 8: More practice with the facsimiles, to apply what we have learned as we are learning it. 9: Better classroom. (We were in 108 in the architecture building.) 11: More time to describe the Horae. 12: The course was wonderful -- no improvement needed!

7) We are always concerned about the physical well-being both of the RBS teaching collections and of materials owned by UVa’s Special Collections. If relevant, what suggestions do you have for the improved classroom handling of such materials used in your course this week?

1: None. 2: I would have loved more opportunity for actual hands-on experience with the material: to have turned a page myself, at my leisure (as carefully as is required), to feel even more the reality of the material. 4: None. The materials were handled appropriately. 5: A couple of times a member of the class touched a Walters manuscript -- perhaps we could all use stronger reminders about the delicacy and value of the objects. 7: I thought everything was handled fine. 8: Materials were well handled. 11: None. 12: The handling of all items was always very appropriate.

8) If you attended the Sunday and/or Monday night lectures, were they worth attending?

1: Yes. 2: Absolutely, yes. 3: Yes. Especially the Monday night about David and the Psalms in the Psalters. 4: I attended Monday’s lecture (air travel delays prevented me from attending Sunday’s) and yes, it was absolutely worth attending. 5: The Monday night lecture was a wonderful supplement to the information I learned in class. 6-9: Yes. 10: Yes. Especially since the lecture this year focused on liturgical manuscripts. 11-12: Yes.

1: I came because I have such a high regard for RW. I only hope he will continue -- perhaps add secular manuscripts in the future. 2: Yes, I got my money’s worth -- and more. Many thanks. I thoroughly recommend the course -- it was a joyous week. 3: Yes! I would underline the importance of doing the readings (and starting early). I loved the course and RW as teacher. 4: Absolutely yes. Take this course! Do not miss out on the chance to study under RW. The best class yet of the wonderful RBS classes I’ve taken. A class shaped (in time) like a work of art. 5: Yes! Anyone at all interested in manuscripts or medieval history or religious studies should try to take this class. 6: Absolutely! (Even though it wasn’t my money.) As always, the whole experience of RBS -- the course itself, interesting and varied fellow students, excellent teacher, the UVa campus -- was a great delight. My advice for anyone considering taking any course is: Do it. 7: Yes!! Even if you are “not in the business” and have only a personal interest in Books of Hours, you should come. I have learned so so much in a very congenial, stimulating environment. 8: Yes. RBS has its own supply of missals, so you don’t need to bring one. RW is an excellent instructor, and the class is well worth it. 9: I got more than my money’s worth. The whole UVa, RBS, RW experience was great. I didn’t want to leave. RW’s teaching methods made what was to me a difficult subject, into focus and was easily handled. 10: Yes. Definitely take this course if you work with manuscripts. 11: Yes. The better you understand the contents of the Book of Hours the more you will get out of the class. 12: RBS is always money well spent.

Leave	Tuition	Housing	Travel
Institution gave me leave	Institution paid tuition	Institution paid housing	Institution paid travel
59%	59%	59%	59%
I took vaca- tion time	I paid tui- tion myself	I paid for my own housing	I paid my own travel
0%	41%	33%	33%
N/A: self-employed, retired, or had summers off	N/A: self-employed, retired, or exchange	N/A: stayed with friends or lived at home	N/A: lived nearby
41%	0%	8%	8%

There were three rare book librarians (24%), two archivists or manuscript librarians (18%), one teacher or professor (8%), one full-time student (8%), one conservator, binder, or preservation librarian (8%), one retiree (8%), two book-collectors (18%), and one digital librarian (8%).