BUDNY, Mildred

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, 46 Snowdon Ln., Princeton, NJ 08540-3916. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Medieval Institute Publications, College of Arts and Sciences, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5432; fax: 269-387-8750. E-mail—mildred.budny@netscape.net.

CAREER: Medieval historian, author, and educator. Affiliated with Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Princeton, NJ; member of administrative committee, CORPUS Project (international group that documents early A.D. manuscripts).

WRITINGS:

(Translator, with Kim Parfitt) Benjamin Tammuz, Minotaur (novel), New American Library (New York, NY), 1981.

(Translator, with Yehuda Safran) Benjamin Tammuz, Requiem for Na'aman (novel), New American Library (New York, NY), 1982.

Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts, Garland Publishing (New York, NY), 1986.

(Photographer) R. I. Page, Matthew Parker and HisBooks: Sandars Lectures in Bibliography Delivered on 14, 16, and 18 May 1990 at the University of Cambridge, Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), 1993.

(And photographer) Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and EarlyAnglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue, 2 vols., Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), 1997.

Contributor to volumes such as The Architecture of Adolf Loos: An Arts Council Exhibition (exhibition catalog), by Yehuda Safran and Wilfried Wang, The Council (London, England), 1985.

SIDELIGHTS: Author and historian Mildred Budny specializes in medieval illuminated manuscripts. As part of her research and conservation efforts, she concentrates on detailed visual records of the manuscripts she studies. In her two-volume work Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue she offers photographs of illustrations, decorations, and artists' sketches on fifty-six manuscripts from the British Isles prior to A.D. 1100. The book covers manuscripts held in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi, Cambridge. In addition to the nearly 800 photographic plates, the book also contains detailed text descriptions of the illustrations. The "lavish catalogue includes many reproductions of text pages, as well as the decorated initials, painted illustrations and drawings" that form the book's primary focus, noted Rosamond McKitterick in Times Literary Supplement. McKitterick concluded that the book is "an invaluable resource" for researchers and scholars.

Many of the photographs in Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge originated as part of Budny's involvement in a research project called "The Archaeology of the Book." The project resulted in numerous new findings on the origins, uses, and cultural meanings of books and manuscripts. In describing the project in the book's preface, Budny notes that "an integrated approach to the manuscripts enabled fresh assessments of their multiple aspects: as carriers of texts, as archaeological artefacts, as works of art, as layers of history, and as monuments of culture. The investigations frequently produced new evidence for assessing their character, date, place of origin, provenance, history, and patterns of use." These conclusions have taken a prominent position in Budny's own research and writings.

Budny furthers her scholarly interest in the preservation and restoration of medieval manuscripts through her membership in the CORPUS Project, an international group that exists to document illustrations and decorations found on manuscripts owned or produced throughout the British Isles between A.D. 675 and A.D. 1100.

Budny has also served as translator for works by Israeli author Benjamin Tammuz. Minotaur "is a strange quiet novel about love and espionage, about the expectations and compromises that humans create for themselves, about the way those expectations and compromises take position within the labyrinthine convolutions of destiny," commented David Quammen in New York Times Book Review. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described Tammuz's Requiem for Na'aman as "a history, a prophecy and a warning; it is a parable of the death of idealism in Israel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Budny, Mildred, Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and EarlyAnglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue, Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), 1997.

PERIODICALS

New York Times Book Review, August 9, 1981, David Quammen, review of Minotaur, pp. 12, 26; December 5, 1982, review of Requiem for Na'aman, p. 46.

Publishers Weekly, May 7, 1982, review of Requiem for Na'aman, p. 73.

Times Literary Supplement, January 22, 1999, Rosamond McKitterick, review of Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue, p. 32.*