This book investigates the owner portrait in the context of late medieval devotional books primarily from France and England. These mirror-like pictures of praying book owners respond to and help develop a growing concern with visibility and self-scrutiny that characterized the religious life of the laity after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The image of the praying book owner translated pre-existing representational strategies concerned with the authority and spiritual efficacy of pictures and books; such as the Holy Face and the donor image; into a more intimate and reflexive mode of address in Psalters and Books of Hours created for lay users. Alexa Sand demonstrates how this transformation had profound implications for devotional practices and for the performance of gender and class identity in the striving; aristocratic world of late medieval France and England.
#834182 in eBooks 2014-04-01 2014-04-01File Name: B00GWU4E4K
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Jolly Della; Showgirl and StarBy Carl J. NollenThe framed photo of Della dolled up and the rich red curtains on the cover invite the reader to open the book and read. A books cover sells a book and this cover certainly sells this book. I am a native of near Knoxville; Iowa; Dellas home town; and very interested in local history. Not every town can claim a showgirl who became successful and famous. Mr. Lauterbach is successful in resurrecting this forgotten heroine of the stage.Della always kept in touch with Knoxville and came back often. She also let the trade papers know where she was performing. This paper trail allows us to know much about Dellas life and times. Reeling through microfilm of some 300 newspapers must have seemed a formidable task for the author. The Knoxville newspapers; especially; carried many notices on Dellas whereabouts; and printed her letters to them. It is almost incomprehensible to me how Della endured the constant travel; shows in hundreds of venues; getting advance notices to her upcoming shows; meeting train schedules; dealing with the constant turnover with actors and artists; getting scenery; rehearsals; and all the many details in getting plays ready to entertain the local population. She sometimes had to do all this organization without the help of a husband or advance man.Undoubtedly her desire for beautiful gowns and dresses; and dressing up to wow her audiences; kept her looking forward.Although Della ended up virtually in the poorhouse; her outlook on life and cheerful personality kept her going. Lauterbachs book is a very worthwhile biography of a showgirl; a historical figure worthy of being remembered.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A splendid biographyBy David EwbankDr. Lauterbachs Jolly Della Pringle: Star of the Western Stage is a fascinating biography of a remarkable actress once well-known to thousands of enthusiastic admirers but now mostly forgotten. In 1881 at the age of eleven she was employed by a touring company as a child actress; an experience that set the course for her lifelong career as a trouper. She appeared in theaters; tents and makeshift venues from coast to coast; but the annual circuit she most often preferred was comprised of towns and villages in the American West. To call her an actress; however; is rather like saying that Leonardo sketched: she also managed her own touring companies; ran a farm in Iowa; owned a hat and costume shop; appeared in movies with the Keystone Kops; married five men; divorced five; owned and managed a rooming house and; in her old age; became a drama teacher. She was not by her own admission an award-winning actress; but had there been an award for versatility and drive; she would certainly have been a serious contender.Because of the nature of his subject Lauterbachs biography is not a typical show-biz book written by or about mega-watt luminaries. Della never made it big. She followed her calling with astonishing energy and persistence; made money and lost it; even rubbed shoulders with famous actors and movie stars; but she never achieved more than regional fame. It is precisely this that gives the book its special flavor and value. It is a vivid and revealing account of the quotidian challenges; obstacles and setbacks that must constitute the lives of the majority of working men and women who take up the actors trade. Irving Berlin tells us that show folk "smile when they are low" and despite all kinds of discouragement "go on with the show." Della was the archetypical embodiment of show-biz optimism and grit. Her very name proclaims that fact. Jolly is not strictly speaking a name but an adjective descriptive of her congenitally cheerful personality. It became part of her name even so. The marker on her grave in a Boise; Idaho; cemetery attests to this fact: Jolly Della Pringle; 1870-1952; A Good Trouper.Lauterbach took on a formidable task when he accepted the challenge of bringing Della to life in the vivid detail and illuminating anecdotes that animate his lively book. Much of what is known about his subjects life is to be found in newspapers. The books bibliography lists twenty-eight states in the various newspapers of which more than two-hundred and fifty articles are to be found. Lauterbach has garnered information and quotations from these and other sources and has assimilated it all in an eminently readable narrative. I cannot conceive of a book that more adequately and convincingly chronicles what life must have been like for a hard-working professional actress.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Della made a name for herself and enjoyed years of considerable wealthBy Gwyn HervochonWith his biography of Jolly Della; Professor Emeritus Charles Lauterbach puts a once show-stopping star back on center stage after nearly 100 years. Following his 2013 book "Pioneer Theatre in the Boise Basin: 1863-1899;" Lauterbach again contributes a valuable study to the history of American theatre and the entertainment business in the American West. Without formal training; Dellarsquo;s talent; charisma; and business savvy earned success as a producer; director; and performer in the ldquo;ten-twent-thirtrdquo; theatrical tradition popular in the late 19th and early 20th century United States. A reference to the 10; 20; and 30-cent admission prices typically charged; these traveling companies performed low-royalty dramas and farces among the smaller cities and towns often missed by larger companies featuring major stars. Knowing her niche well; Della made a name for herself and enjoyed years of considerable wealth. Lauterbach points out that his is the first ldquo;comprehensive workrdquo; to be devoted to Della; adding: ldquo;It is too good a story not to be told.rdquo; Hersquo;s right. And he tells it well. With Lauterbachrsquo;s passion for his subject itrsquo;s impossible not to be engaged in the fascinating story of Dellarsquo;s whirlwind life and career on the American stage.
