Illuminated Manuscripts

"Illuminated manuscripts are perhaps the most beautiful treasures to survive from the middle ages. This authoritative volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the medieval world of books, their production and their consumption. The text divides this world into different groups of readers and writers: missionaries, emperors, monks, students, aristocrats, priests, collectors and the general public. De Hamel is both informative and immensely readable, and the sumptuous illustrations render this book too good to be missed."--From Amazon.com

What is a historiated initial? What are canon tables? What is a drollery? This revised edition of Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms offers definitions of the key elements of illuminated manuscripts, demystifying the techniques, processes, materials, nomenclature, and styles used in the making of these precious books. Updated to reflect current research and technologies, this beautifully illustrated guide includes images of important manuscript illuminations from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and beyond. Concise, readable explanations of the technical terms most frequently encountered in manuscript studies make this portable volume an essential resource for students, scholars, and readers who wish a deeper understanding and enjoyment of illuminated manuscripts and medieval book production.

Prior to the invention of the printing press, all books had to be written by hand. Manuscripts are the beautiful manifestation of this craft, and the most precious and expensive of such manuscripts were 'illuminated' through the use of brightly coloured pigments and gold embellishments. Beginning with a fresh and thoughtful introduction to illuminated manuscripts, Illuminated Manuscripts Masterpieces of Art goes on to showcase key works in this stunning artistic genre.

Over 100 illustrations. Illuminated manuscripts, particularly those produced in the convents, monasteries, and abbeys of medieval Europe, are among the most beautiful objects in the world. This book, with an authoritative text and over 100 breathtaking full-color illustrations, shows how the art developed, flourished, and gave expression to that great age of faith which was the Middle Ages. The art lover will find much to enjoy in these beautiful and inspiring illustrations. The craftsmanship, brilliant color, and minute attention to detail has never been equaled in Western art.

The results achieved by the research of the pioneering MINIARE research project based at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge led to the ground-breaking and acclaimed 2016 exhibition "COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts." This was followed by an international Conference, in which art historians, paper and book conservators, and cultural heritage scientists were brought together to share new recent research not only on manuscripts but also on painting in other media. The Conference proceedings were published in the first two volumes of the HMMIMA series (2017-2018). The present publication includes 6 Essays by way of introducing and explaining the major topics being investigated, including the range of inks, pigments and paint binders used by illuminators; parchment-making; pigment recipes; and model books. The many analytical instruments and techniques that are used to investigate manuscripts are also discussed. Then follow 58 Case Studies of manuscripts from as early as the year 700 up to c.1600. All these are fully illustrated in colour and in great detail, and should act as examples to inform scholars in libraries, museums and other cultural institutions of the benefits of adding scientific tools to the range of methods used to investigate manuscripts.

This book examines a cultural revolution that took place in the Scandinavian artistic landscape during the medieval period. Within just one generation (c. 1340?1400), the Augustinian monastery of Helgafell became the most important centre of illuminated manuscript production in western Iceland. By conducting interdisciplinary research that combines methodologies and sources from the fields of Art History, Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript studies, codicology, and Scandinavian history, this book explores both the illuminated manuscripts produced at Helgafell and the cultural and historical setting of the manuscript production.00Equally, the book explores the broader European contexts of manuscript production at Helgafell, comparing the similar domestic artistic monuments and relevant historical evidence of Norwich and surrounding East Anglia in England, northern France, and the region between Bergen and Trondheim in western Norway. The book proposes that most of these workshops are related to ecclesiastical networks, as well as secular trade in the North Sea, which became an important economic factor to western Icelandic society in the fourteenth century. The book thereby contributes to a new and multidisciplinary area of research that studies not only one but several European cultures in relation to similar domestic artistic monuments and relevant historical evidence. It offers a detailed account of this cultural site in relation to its scribal and artistic connections with other ecclesiastical and secular scriptoria in the broader North Atlantic region.

Lawrence Nees, Godescalc's Career and the Problems of 'Influence' - William Diebold, The Anxiety of Influence in Early Medieval Art - Helen C. Evans, Pseudo-Bonaventura on the Euphrates - Donal Cooper, Franciscan Art and Mendicant Manuscript Illumination in Italy: A Reconsideration of Iconographic Primacy - Robert Gibbs, 'Sober as a Judge': The Influence of Bolognese Law Manuscripts on Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Justice in the Good Commune - Lucy Freeman Sandler, Illuminated in the British Isles: French Influence and/or the Englishness of English Art, 1285-1385 - T. A. Heslop, Authority and Imagination in the Illustration of Terence's Comedies - Patricia Stirnemann Anne Ritz-Guilbert, Cultural Confrontations - Ursula Weekes, The Interplay between Prints and Illuminated Manuscripts in Brigittine Convents of the Low Countries during the 16th Century - Scot McKendrick, Between Flanders and Normandy: A Case of Influence within Collaboration between Flemish and Norman Miniaturists? - Rowan Watson, Fit for a King? The Alfonso of Aragon Hours and Baronial Patronage in Late 15th-century Naples - John Lowden, Under the Influence of the Bibles Moralisees - Cecily Hennessy, The Lincoln Typikon: The Influences of Church and Family - Justine Andrews, Crossing Boundaries: Byzantine and Western Influences in a 14th-century Illustrated Commentary on Job - Dei Jackson, A Work Like No Other: Alfonso X's Cantigas de Santa Maria - Kirstin Kennedy, Evidence for the Islamic Source behind the Miniatures in Alfonso X of Castile's 1283 Libro de Ajedrez, dados y tables - David Ganz, Problems of Influence in the Utrecht Psalter

Recapture the historic grandeur of medieval art with lovingly detailed reproductions ranging from the creation of Eve to the Hundred Years' War. Thirty images include Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and secular sources.