Clara Marie Kahn

Clara Marie Kahn is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, affiliated with the International Max Planck Research School – "Knowledge and its Resources" (IMPRS-KIR).

Her educational background includes:

• BA in Art History and Theater Studies from Freie Universität Berlin
• MA in Art History from Freie Universität Berlin

Clara Marie's research focuses on the materiality and practices of illuminated manuscripts in the late Middle Ages. Her current project, "Beyond Leaves: Cultivating Knowledge in Books of Hours (1470-1520)", examines plant images in books of hours to explore how they shaped and conveyed knowledge about nature in late medieval and early modern Europe. Her work bridges art history, history of science, and material culture studies, investigating how visual representations of plants in prayer books engaged with horticulture, botany, and political networks.

Her research reveals the entanglement of artistic practices with early modern natural science, showing how illuminated manuscripts served as sites of knowledge production beyond their religious context. She examines how these texts fostered multiple forms of knowledge through observation, abstraction, and the use of natural resources.

Clara Marie has published research on illuminated books of hours, with her most recent work appearing in 2025.