"Blessed are the eyes which see divine spirit through the letter's veil" : the book as object and idea

This paper considers medieval and Late Antique representations of books depicted as they actually, physically, were as well as certain aspects of how they functioned in representations – i.e., as symbols of concealing and revealing and as liminal points of passage. On the one hand, there is considerable evidence that the details of shape, binding, fastening, and decoration depicted in book representations correspond to the makeup and appearance of actual books of their time; books in depictions were clearly intended to be understood as referencing actual books. On the other hand, however, it is also clear from the ways in which books are represented, and from the contexts in which they appear, that they served as focal signs – as providing access to the salvific words that lead to Paradise and everlasting life.