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BOOK REVIEWS 553 traduction provides an overview of the beguine movement, an account of the reasons that led to Porete's execution as a heretic, and reflections on this beguine 's understanding of the nature of the soul, its spiritual progress, and its transformation and union with God. The translator's endnotes regularly elucidate obscure parts of the text, while the extensive bibliography will be appreciated by readers who wish to delve more deeply into some of the issues raised by Porete's text. James A.Wiseman, O.S.B. The Catholic University ofAmerica TheArt ofDevotion in the Late MiddleAges in Europe, I3OO to 1500. By Henk van Os, with Hans Nieuwdorp, Bernhard Ridderbos, Eugène Honée. Translated from the Dutch by Michael Doyle. (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1994. Pp. 192; 85 color illustrations; 110 black and white illustrations . $49.50.) This is not an easy study to define. It is at once a catalogue accompanying an exhibition of the same title and a lavishly illustrated book intended to last beyond the exhibition of the featured objects. While exhibition catalogues by nature often play a dual role, this one reveals a greater than usual intimacy between the works chosen for exhibition and the ideas governing the historical interpretation. The author describes in an unusual foreword the exhibition parameters , emphasizing a wide geographical spread of the "best objects from Dutch collections" made for a "private room."Van Os explains that the Director of Exhibitions "did not want the show to be accompanied by a hefty tome containing profound scholarly analyses of each work . . ." but rather to use the objects as a "framework for a straightforward narrative aimed at the general public." I am not sure precisely what sort of"general public" would understand certain aspects of this text (the "Hague scene" is hardly a common way to refer to an image), though it is an engaging source for undergraduate students of the late Middle Ages. If not a general public, then who is the reader of this book? Although not meant to be a scholarly "tome," the book is for scholars nonetheless. First of all, the illustrations are magnificent. For those scholars who could not view the exhibition, the plates in the book, along with the author 's precise and evocative descriptions, convey something of the physical presence of works that late medieval viewers themselves found so compelling. Since no specialist would deny the exhibition its scholarly contribution, the claim should be extended to the book for sustaining the visual considerations long after the exhibition closed its doors. The text reminds specialists that devotion had an earthy side: that people then as now kneel, say prayers out loud, fondle religious items, and like to keep in touch with God while "on the road." There is a range of details for scholars to reconsider. How many ofus know that Joseph's stockings were venerated as relics in Cologne Cathedral, or have actu- 554 BOOK REVIEWS ally stopped to think that "the art of portraiture evolved exclusively within the culture of prayer" (p. 78). The author puts a plethora of details (any one of which would occupy an individual's entire scholarly career these days) into the living setting ofhuman beings; and what is more, he does so without theorizing or using the terminology that so many art historians currently do when treating "context." Finally, this book is written by a specialist whose experience with the visual and historical material is immense; and that experience as well as the author's background is as present as the subject of his inquiry is. How gratifying to see the Dutch vernacular beside the English text, to consult a Netherlandish bibliography , and to observe the author's facility with objects from diverse geographic settings, while keeping sight on the precocious contribution of the Low Countries. This is not to claim that van Os's information is flawless. There are some factual errors, errors of omissions (one wonders why Jeffrey Hamburger 's work is not cited in the bibliography), slippage into exhibition discourse , and phrases that jar most scholars, such as "tasteless self-flagellation," "sugary"private worship,"hideous" nineteenth-century surfaces.Yet these problems seem minor...

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