A cosmos between two book covers
Books not only contain stories – they tell them, too. This becomes clear when you listen to Prof. Katrin Kogman-Appel, a Judaic scholar and art historian, who has devoted herself to Jewish book culture. Her interest in history was sparked in her childhood, when her father took her to a Roman excavation. It was while she was a Jewish studies undergraduate at the University of Vienna that the focus of her work emerged – which she has remained faithful to ever since. “There was a professor working on this topic and he knew how to pass on his enthusiasm to students,” says Kogman-Appel, who is today one of the world’s leading experts on the history of Jewish art in the Middle Ages.
What fascinates her most of all is the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. “There is this notion that the invention of printing in the mid-15th century suddenly changed everything,” she says. “But it was more of a gradual change, with the transition lasting around a hundred years.” And how is this apparent? “A new medium initially orients itself towards its predecessor until it finds its own form,” she explains. “The first printed books had formats similar to manuscripts, even down to similar typographies.” The manuscript culture continued even after the invention of the printing press. Books with a particularly artistic design became valuable status symbols for collectors, which increased their worth, although – and even because – the new printing technology was establishing itself at the same time. For a long time, art historians focused on the illustrations in books. What Katrin Kogman-Appel also does is look into questions of a book’s physical features and the material used. She is also interested in the ways books were handled on a practical level: “Who actually had books at that time? Who bought them? At first, the big change consisted less in the books’ design than in their distribution.” It is questions such as these that get Kogman-Appel delving into the cultural history of past times.
Linking up two approaches – to social history and to religious history – is what characterises Kogman-Appel’s work. She has done pioneering research into the Leipzig Machzor illuminated manuscript, an early 14th century prayer book for Jewish holy days. Her interdisciplinary approach has also been recognised by the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste. After numerous awards – such as, in 2013, the Bezalel, Mordechai, and Nessia Narkiss Prize for outstanding research into Jewish art and the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2015 – she was elected to the community of scholars in May 2024. “This recognition of my work is an honour for me,” she says. Since 1970 the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste has been providing a forum for interdisciplinary exchanges between outstanding researchers and renowned artists. At the academy, Kogman-Appel appreciates most of all the interdisciplinary inspiration in the humanities class. “I’m especially interested in overarching questions regarding cultural exchange processes between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The discussions I have are an inspiration for my further research.”
She has been undertaking research since 2015 as Professor of Jewish studies at the “Religion and Politics” Cluster of Excellence. After reading Jewish studies, art history and history, she was initially engaged in teaching and research in Vienna and Jerusalem, where she completed her doctorate in Jewish art history in 1993. Her work took her to the USA and then to Israel for 20 years, which she spent at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva. From 2014 to 2015 she was a Fellow of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Nowadays she commutes between Münster and Jerusalem. Her husband and two of her three grown-up children live in Israel, where she spends the semester vacations. In the little free time she has, she likes visiting museums. Appropriately enough, she contributed several exhibits to the “Body. Cult. Religion.” exhibition organised by the “Religion and Politics” Cluster of Excellence. On the flight back from Israel, she actually transported photographs by Lea Golda Holtermann in her hand luggage because there was a public holiday, which meant there were not enough staff to organise professional transport. “It was a curious situation, but the exhibits arrived safely,” she emphasises.
Anke Poppen
This article is from the brochure "Twelve months, twelve people", published in February 2025.
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