Clark Art Presents Lecture on Laurent D'arveiux and the King's Bible

07:54AM / Thursday, October 30, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program hosts a talk by Julie Harris (Independent Scholar / Clark Fellow) examining French consul Laurent d'Arvieux's 1683 discovery of a Hebrew Bible written and illuminated in medieval Iberia three hundred years earlier.

The talk takes places in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

According to a press release:

His purchase of the codex should not surprise us: d'Arvieux was one of a cadre of European diplomats and travelers in the middle east in search of so-called Oriental manuscripts, particularly early Bibles, to ship back to scholars and royal libraries in their home countries. What is surprising, however, is that in this case d'Arvieux was not content merely to acquire the Bible, which is now in the British Library in London, but also arranged for additions to be made to its decorative program. Three richly painted, full page illuminations comprising a Title Page (8r), a depiction of the Name of God (2r), and a list of the Ten Commandments (7v) are the most sensational of these additions. At first glance, these folios seem related to accepted decorative entities found in other illuminated Iberian Hebrew Bibles. In reality, they reveal an early modern Christian's notion of how a Hebrew Bible should be decorated.

Julie Harris is a specialist in the art of medieval Iberia. She has published on ivory carving, the fate of art and architecture during Reconquest warfare, illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, and the exhibition of pre-Expulsion Jewish ceremonial objects. Recent publications have appeared in Manuscript Studies, Ars Judaica, Gesta, the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, Medieval Encounters, and Abstraction in Medieval Art: Beyond the Ornament, edited by Elina Gertsman (2021). She holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2020 she was Center for Spain in America Fellow at the Clark Institute for her project on the decorative Carpet pages of Iberian Hebrew Bibles. Harris served as the Fishman Family Scholar in Jewish Studies at Vassar College in Spring 2024.

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event.

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Reverend: Christian Nationalists Make Jesus Victim of 'Identity Theft'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
08:08AM / Sunday, October 04, 2026

David Langston introduces the Rev. Darrell Goodwin on Wednesday morning.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Rev. Darrell Goodwin told attendees at Wednesday's "PrayAction Breakfast" that they need more action to make their prayer effective.

"Sometimes prayer causes us to be in deep reflection," Goodwin told the group gathered at the Williamstown Meetinghouse. "And years and years and years pass, and we've actually done nothing about it.

"Our physical belief system is somehow: Say the words to God, and it becomes God's responsibility, and we've done our part because we've told God exactly what to do."

Goodwin, the president of the United Church of Christ's Southern New England Conference, was invited to Williamstown by First Congregational Church to speak on "The Challenge of Christian Nationalism."

And Goodwin challenged his listeners to take meaningful action to confront and address the ideology in their daily lives.

Christian Nationalism, which Goodwin referred to as White Christian Nationalism, is a perversion of Christ's teachings, he said.

"What does it mean to be spiritually grounded but practically committed?" Goodwin asked rhetorically. "This morning I've been asked to come here to talk about Christian Nationalism, but I think it would be remiss if I didn't say White Christian Nationalism. I want to name all three of these words because each tells us something that we must do.

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