MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL

But who were the skilled craftsmen who made these exquisite books? What precisely is parchment? How were medieval manuscripts designed and executed? What were the inks and pigments, and how were they applied? This book looks at the work of scribes, illuminators and book binders.Based principally on examples in the Bodleian Library, this lavishly illustrated account tells the story of manuscript production from the early Middle Ages through to the high Renaissance. Many beautiful illuminated manuscripts survive from the Middle Ages and can be seen in libraries and museums throughout Europe. This is a survey of early Gothic manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles, setting them in a historical framework, describing the influences at work, defining the types of books and their decoration, and discussing evidence for dating and localization. The Introduction sets the manuscripts in a historical framework, describes the influences at work, defines the types of books and their decoration, and discusses evidence for dating and localization. Astrological, legal, medical, topographical and historical works are also included, and the volume ends with the remarkable Hereford Mad which summarizes many of the ideas of Earth and Heaven prevailing at the time. Many of the Bibles and - notably - the Amesbury, Oscott and Rutland Psalters are some of the greatest works of the period, and among surviving religious manuscripts the earliest examples of Books of Hours reveal the increasing range of devotional interests of lay people.

The magnificent examples catalogued here include the Lambeth, Metz, Douce and Trinity Apocalypses their relationships are examined and detailed iconography is described. As with cross-fertilization of ideas from Paris to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, so with the styles and techniques of illumination.

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL

Artists moved away from the monastic scriptorium to professional workshops in urban centres, and the rise of the Universities resulted in the production of new types of illustrated text.

In England the art of illumination flourished widely in the second half of the 13th century - a time in which the connections with the continent, particularly France, where strong. Part 2 contains the Catalogue of Manuscripts made in the East, South-East, South-West, West and Centre, followed by the Comparative Tables and Index of Manuscripts Cited. Part 1 comprises the Introduction, the Lists of the Producers (scribes, illuminators and decorators) and Patrons whose names are known, followed by a Catalogue of Manuscripts made in the North (Paris and the Province of Sens, Normandy, the Province of Reims). This book is organized according to production in regional centres based on stylistic analysis and by comparative tables of the illustration of liturgical and devotional books, and a selection of romances, legal and historical works. (…) These years witnessed an explosion in the range of texts that were deemed worthy of illustration, extending far beyond the usual liturgical and devotional material to include works of science, medicine, law, philosophy, history and literature in verse and prose, offering a wealth of material for comparative study which is only beginning to be exploited in modern scholarship. By the end of this period French art had assimilated a rich variety of regional works and styles.

1260-1320 marks the emergence and the flowering of what has come to be known as the 'courtly style' in French painting, whose dynamic vitality is manifest throughout the region we now call France.

Medieval manuscripts research