WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE AND THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 'Endlessly fascinating and enjoyable' Neil MacGregor 'A marvellous book' David Attenborough 'Full of delights' Tom Stoppard An extraordinary exploration of the medieval world - the most beguiling history book of the year This is a book about why medieval manuscripts matter. Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is like meeting a very famous person. We may all pretend that a well-known celebrity is no different from anyone else, and yet there is an undeniable thrill in actually meeting and talking to a person of world stature. The idea for the book, which is entirely new, is to invite the reader into intimate conversations with twelve of the most famous manuscripts in existence and to explore with the author what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and sometimes about the modern world too. Christopher de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, collectors and the international community of manuscript scholars, showing us how he and his fellows piece together evidence to reach unexpected conclusions. He traces the elaborate journeys which these exceptionally precious artefacts have made through time and space, shows us how they have been copied, who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell), how they have been embroiled in politics and scholarly disputes, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and luxury and as symbols of national identity. The book touches on religion, art, literature, music, science and the history of taste. Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts conveys the fascination and excitement of encountering some of the greatest works of art in our culture which, in the originals, are to most people completely inaccessible. At the end, we have a slightly different perspective on history and how we come by knowledge. It is a most unusual book.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

Arts & Photography

De Hamel, Christopher

History & Criticism

Penguin Press

An extraordinary and beautifully illustrated exploration of the medieval world through twelve manuscripts, from one of the world's leading experts. Winner of The Wolfson History Prize and The Duff Cooper Prize. A San Francisco Chronicle Holiday Book Gift Guide Pick! Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a captivating examination of twelve illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the reader into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and about the modern world, too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors. He traces the elaborate journeys that these exceptionally precious artifacts have made through time and shows us how they have been copied, how they have been embroiled in politics, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and as symbols of national identity, and who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell). From the earliest book in medieval England to the incomparable Book of Kells to the oldest manuscript of the Canterbury Tales, these encounters tell a narrative of intellectual culture and art over the course of a millennium. Two of the manuscripts visited are now in libraries of North America, the Morgan Library in New York and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts allows us to experience some of the greatest works of art in our culture to give us a different perspective on history and on how we come by knowledge.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World

Religion & Spirituality

Penguin??Books

Presents an illustrated survey of illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections

Manion, Margaret M.

Vines, Vera F.

Other Media

Thames&Hudson

The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years: a monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe, a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America--all of them members of what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscripts Club. This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel's unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion that crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been. In 1850 (or thereabouts) John Ruskin bought his first manuscript "at a bookseller's in a back alley." This was his reaction: "The new worlds which every leaf of this book opened to me, and the joy I had in counting their letters and unravelling their arabesques as if they had all been of beaten gold--as many of them were--cannot be told." The members of de Hamel's club share many such wonders, which he brings to us with scholarship, style and a lifetime's experience.

The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts

The Becket Leaves (Manuscripts in Colour Series)

Literature & Fiction

BACKHOUSE, Janet

British Library Board

Medieval manuscript expert Christopher de Hamel selects and discusses a range of illuminated manuscripts from the British Library's unparalleled collection, some of them unfinished and so revealing the processes involved in an illuminator's work. He also explores the role of illuminators in the medieval book trade - how books were commissioned, the patron's expectations, how illuminators worked with scribes, the materials and techniques they used, and the time and expertise involved in creating some outstanding masterpieces of medieval art.With over 70 colour and black-and-white illustrations, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination is an authoritative and engaging guide to one of the central aspects of medieval bookmaking for anyone interested in medieval art, social history, calligraphy, or illumination. One of a series of accessible and lively introductions to the history of books and how they are made.

British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination

British Library

The family art collections of the Rothschilds were legendary for their extravagance and refinement. This is the first history of the Rothschilds as bibliophiles and especially as collectors of medieval illuminated manuscripts. It follows the extraordinary and sometimes mysterious collections of Barons Adolphe de Rothschild (1823-1900), of Naples, Ferdinand (1839-1898) of Vienna and Waddesdon, Edmond (1845-1934) of Paris, and others, following the restless movement of these supremely important works of art across the private libraries of Europe. 
In 1940, the Rothschild collections in Paris were looted by the Nazis, and the tale pursues the fate of the stolen manuscripts, some of them still missing. Almost no Rothschild manuscript ever includes a bookplate or ownership mark. The inquiry traces literally hundreds of illuminated manuscripts, including some of the world's most famous books, made for the Duc de Berry, Catherine of Cleves, Isabella the Catholic, and many others, and finds them to have one thing in common: they were all, at one time, Rothschild possessions.

The Rothschilds and their Collections of Illuminated Manuscripts

The British Library

The Macclesfield Alphabet Book is an exquisitely beautiful 15th-century English 'pattern' book, probably used by artists for the transmission of ideas to assistants, or as a sample book to show potential customers. Only a handful of such books survive. The manuscript contains 14 different types of decorative alphabets. These include an alphabet of decorative initials with faces; foliate alphabets; a zoomorphic alphabet of initials, and alphabets in Gothic script. In addition there are large colored anthropomorphic initials modeled after 15th-century woodcuts or engravings, as well as two sets of different types of borders, some of which are fully illuminated in colors and gold. The manuscript was acquired by the British Library in 2009. It had been in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield since about 1750, and until recently its existence was completely unknown.

The Macclesfield Alphabet Book: A Facsimile

Lovett,Patricia

First edition. Excellently written history of the illuminated manuscripts accompanied by 250 illustrations, 80 of which are in color. 256 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 4to..

A history of illuminated manuscripts

Phaidon Press Ltd.

Explains how medieval and Renaissance manuscripts were created, tells how they survived, and surveys a variety of manuscript types

A History of Illuminated Manuscripts

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Phaidon Inc Ltd

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