What inspired you to write Dark Mirror?
The idea came to me nine years ago, when I was on academic leave in Tel Aviv. I took my leave in Israel largely for family reasons, not for research purposes. I had recently finished a book about a set of anti-Jewish manuscripts, and was starting a project that had nothing to do with Jewish history, examining what medieval Christian preachers said about art and physical vision. Frankly, I was a bit tired of dealing with dark subjects, and thought it would be soothing to read Latin sermons. But Israel is not a very good place to go to get away from Jewish topics! I was asked to give several talks during the year, and of course the people who invited me were more interested in Jewish history than in Latin sermons. As I tried to come up with something new to say about Jews in art, I realized that the sermons I had been reading explained a great deal. Five hundred years of dizzyingly dense imagery suddenly began to make sense. I shared my ideas with a very good friend – the friend to whom I dedicated Dark Mirror – and he encouraged me to write the book.
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