October 29, 2026–February 6, 2027
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 29, 6-8pm
205 Hudson Gallery (Hunter College Art Galleries)
205 Hudson Street at Canal Street
New York, NY 10013
The Hunter College Art Galleries are pleased to present Know-How for a New Era: City Living / City Learning, circa 1400-1550, an exhibition that showcases over fifty illustrated books, images, and objects that capture the dynamism of city living and intellectual life between roughly 1400 and 1550 in northern Europe.
The century-and-a-half covered in the show was an era of rapid change—social, technological, economic, intellectual, and artistic. In this period, lay people claimed the city as their own, often outright dismissing the authority of the Church. They amassed great wealth through entrepreneurship and global trade and orchestrated a dynamic intervention into governance.
The show focuses on illuminated manuscripts and printed books commissioned by the newly rich and is organized around five themes: City Living; Travel and Astronomy; Technology and Labor; Home Life and Leisure; and Health: Living and Dying Well. The volumes taught fundamentals for self-care, medicine, and natural history. They flaunted both knowledge of antiquity and excitement for navigation and technology. They celebrated relationships and home life with images and objects depicting games, music, and dance.
Public programming will feature academic lectures and workshops related to crafts—including perfume production, spinning, and manuscript making.
Lenders include: The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY; The New York Public Library, New York, NY; The New York Academy of Medicine Library, New York, NY; Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ; University of Pennsylvania Library, Kislak Special Collections, Philadelphia, PA; The Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA; Les Enluminures Gallery, Paris and Chicago; and Private Collections.
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the International Center of Medieval Art (www.medievalart.org), the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the New York Medieval Society. With special thanks to Urban Umbrella.
Curated by Cynthia Hahn (Distinguished Professor, Hunter College and the CUNY Grad Center) and Nina Rowe (John L. Marion Professor, Fordham University), with Harper Montgomery, Susan and David Bershad Professor of Art History & Director of the Hunter College Art Galleries, and MA, MFA, and PhD students at Hunter and CUNY Grad, including those enrolled in the Advanced Curatorial Certificate Seminar. Curatorial fellows: Cole Ashby, Emily Da Silva-Prado, Julia Smart, and Elizabeth Wickersham.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Astrology, Magic, and Technology in City Life, 1400-1550
with Anthony Grafton
November 3, 2026
6:30–7:30 PM
2nd Floor Flex Space, 205 Hudson Street
Anthony Grafton, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and author of several acclaimed books on Renaissance Europe, will speak on a variety of ways of negotiating city life in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including astrology and magic as well as what now look like more practical disciplines.
Roundtable: Merchants, Money, and Material Culture in Renaissance Europe
with Ittai Weinryb, Stefano Locatelli, and Areli Marina
November 17, 2026
4:00–6:00 PM
205 Hudson Gallery, HCAG
A roundtable discussion guided by Cynthia Hahn and Marlene V. Hennessy with Ittai Weinryb (Professor of Medieval Art History, Bard Graduate Center) who will speak on his upcoming book Art and Frontier: The Black Sea in the Global Middle Ages, Stefano Locatelli (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, University of Milan & Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies), who will speak on “Learning the Art of Trade: Merchants’ Notebooks between Knowledge and Uncertainty in Renaissance Florence,” and Areli Marina (Professor of Art History, University of Kansas), who will speak on “Paradise Before War: Pietro Azario’s Canavese Territory in an Uncourtly Register.”
Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art
with Elly Truitt & Leah DeVun
December 8, 2026
6:30–7:30 PM
2nd Floor Flex Space, 205 Hudson Street
A conversation between Elly Truitt (Professor, University of Pennsylvania), author of several influential books on medieval science and technology, and Leah DeVun (Distinguished Professor of History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Rutgers University), author of several award-winning books on gender, science, and religion in premodern Europe. Truitt will discuss her book Medieval Robots, on the history of automata and mechanical invention in medieval Europe.
PRESS INQUIRIES
E-mail hcag@hunter.cuny.edu.
ABOUT THE HUNTER COLLEGE ART GALLERIES
Part of the college’s Department of Art and Art History, the Hunter College Art Galleries have contributed to New York City’s vital cultural landscape since their inception over a quarter of a century ago. The galleries provide a space for critical engagement with art and pedagogy, bringing together historical scholarship, contemporary artistic practice, and experimental methodology. Located on Hunter’s main campus at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery presents research-driven historical exhibitions that provide new scholarship on important and often under-represented artists and art movements. The 205 Hudson Gallery on the department’s MFA Studio Art Campus in Tribeca is dedicated to presenting exhibitions and programming that engage issues critical to contemporary art and artists. In Spring semesters, the gallery also hosts a series of MFA thesis exhibitions. The Hunter East Harlem Gallery, located in the Silberman School of Social Work at 119th Street and 3rd Avenue, is dedicated to collaborative social practice and art and artists engaged with issues relevant to the East Harlem community and to the city more broadly.
