College of Design, Art & Performance

Congratulations to Professor of Art History Helena Szépe on The Art of the Renaissance Book: Tributes in Honor of Lilian Armstrong

Congratulations to Dr. Helena Szépe, Professor of Art History and co-editor of the new book, The Art of the Renaissance Book: Tributes to Lilian Armstrong, eds. Ilaria Andreoli and Helena Szépe.

This book presents new research by eminent and emerging scholars in honor of Lilian Armstrong, whose extraordinary research has elucidated a vast corpus of imagery previously hidden inside manuscripts and books produced in late medieval and Renaissance Venice and the Veneto. Armstrong was one of the pioneers focusing upon the unique nature of each copy of early printed editions, an approach which has transformed the field of book history. Her studies of antiquarian imagery in books and manuscripts revealed the inventiveness and originality of these works, and that many important classical motifs initially emerged in such marginal spaces before they were canonized in sculpture and oil painting. The contributions by art historians, manuscript scholars, and book historians collected here on the book arts across Europe are testimonies to the fact that Lilian Armstrong's research has been highly influential across disciplines and geographical areas of study.

Szépe recently served as the keynote speaker at the second launch of the book at in New York City where she shared just some of the many contributions Lilian Armstrong made during her remarkable career that have transformed understanding of renaissance books and of the visual and intellectual culture of Venice and Northern Italy. Szépe’s full presentation has been made available for viewing by .


About the Publisher:
Brepols Publishers is an international academic publisher of works in the humanities with a focus on source-works from Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. They publish works with an outstanding academic reputation in the field of Europe’s cultural roots and sphere of influence.

Additional information:
To learn more about Lilian Armstrong, visit to read a short tribute by Professor Szépe published in the News from the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University, Manuscripts on My Mind, No. 35 January 2022, “In Memory of Lilian Armstrong.”