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New research into medieval English literature, with a particular
focus on manuscripts and writing. This acclaimed study of English
medieval manuscripts and early printed books - many items from
Professor Takamiya's own collection - quickly sold out in
hardcover. The subjects range from Saint Jerome to Tolkien, with
particular concentrations on Chaucer, Gower, Malory and religious
and historical writings of the late middle ages. There are essays
examining the work of early printers such as Caxton and de Worde,
and of bibliophiles and antiquarians in modern times. Befitting a
tribute to a bibliophile, this volume has been handsomely designed
by Lida Kindersley of the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge,
and is extensively illustrated. The volume as a whole constitutes a
substantial body of research on medieval English literature, and
early books and manuscripts. Contributors: Richard Barber, Nicolas
Barker, Richard Beadle, N.F. Blake, Julia Boffey, Piero Boitani,
Derek Brewer, Helen Cooper, A.I. Doyle, Martha W. Driver, A.S.G.
Edwards, P.J.C. Field, Christopher de Hamel, Ralph Hanna, Lotte
Hellinga, Kristian Jensen, Edward Donald Kennedy, Richard A.
Linenthal, Jill Mann, Takami Matsuda, David McKitterick, Rosamond
McKitterick, Linne R. Mooney, Ruth Morse, Daniel W. Mosser,
Tsuyoshi Mukai, Paul Needham, M.B. Parkes, Derek Pearsall, Oliver
Pickering, P.R. Robinson, Michael G. Sargent, John Scahill,
Kathleen L. Scott, Jeremy J. Smith, Isamu Takahashi, John J.
Thompson, Linda Ehrsam Voigts, Yoko Wada, Bonnie Wheeler, Patrick
Zutshi.
Many beautiful illuminated manuscripts survive from the Middle Ages
and can be seen in libraries and museums throughout Europe. 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. Each stage of production is described in detail,
from the preparation of the parchment, pens, paints and inks to the
writing of the scripts and the final decoration and illumination of
the manuscript. This book also explains the role of the stationer
or bookshop, often to be found near cathedral and market squares,
in the commissioning of manuscripts, and it cites examples of
specific scribes and illuminators who can be identified through
their work as professional lay artisans. Christopher de Hamel's
engaging text is accompanied by a glossary of key technical terms
relating to manuscripts and illumination, providing an invaluable
introduction for anyone interested in studying medieval manuscripts
today.
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.
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.
Most people today think of the Middle Ages as a time when
cloistered monks wrote and read only in now-obscure languages. Of
course, Latin was the language of those who aspired to literacy,
and it was the language of the Church. But what many do not realize
is that by the thirteenth and fourteenth century (and certainly
well before Columbus discovered America in 1492), numerous books
became available in the everyday languages spoken "at the court, on
the street, and in the bedroom." This catalogue focuses on just
such manuscripts, written for people at diverse levels of society,
not only the privileged aristocracy, but doctors, artisans,
townspeople, women, the clergy, and the lay devout. The Middle
Classes imitated the nobility in commissioning vernacular
manuscripts. Texts of patriotic history and good manners and
courtly romance entered manorial households. Literacy moved away
from the Latin-based monopoly of the Church. It may be that the
owners were actually reading texts themselves, whereas a great
prince or king of an earlier generation would often have heard a
story read aloud. By the fourteenth century the mercantile classes
needed to read in order to conduct commerce, and it was usually in
their own languages. At the end of the Middle Ages probably most
people in towns had some experience of literacy. Conventional Latin
texts give a picture of a quite narrow intellectual elite, but the
vernacular encompassed everyone. For example, giving advice to
widows, a translator puts Saint Jerome's famous letters into French
in a unique copy probably for a high-born woman. She is pictured in
the book. Toiling in the Italian metal industry in towns,
metalworkers can follow instructions on minting gold and silver
coins in their own language. The manuscript is on paper in simple,
yet readable script. Fancifully dressed carnival revelers cavort
through the streets of medieval Nuremberg throwing fi reworks
amidst fl oats and even an occasional elephant; the German text
celebrates the sponsoring families of the event. The Founder and
President of Les Enluminures (and medievalist), Sandra Hindman
reminisces "I have worked on vernacular manuscripts all my life and
they are closest to my heart. Like the experience of reading a good
book today, vernacular manuscripts off er an adventure into an
unknown world that brings to life people, places, and events of
long ago."
This fascinating book tells the story of the building of William M.
Voelkle’s collection of fakes and forgeries of manuscript
illumination. With thorough essays and beautiful illustrations,
Voekle tells the story of nearly seventy fakes and forgeries. The
book takes the reader on a journey that sheds light on the nature
and detection of forgery of manuscript illumination. An engaging
introduction by Christopher de Hamel raises tantalizing questions
that touch on the very meaning of authenticity and our continuing
fascination with forgery. Scientific analysis of pigments, the
identification of sources, and the scrutiny of the materials all
come into play in the unfolding story of the collection. An
illustrated catalogue presents the group of nearly seventy fakes
and forgeries that display astonishing breadth. They include not
only the Spanish Forger and other Western European miniatures by
Ernesto Sprega, Caleb William Wing, and Germano Prosdocimi, and
others, but fascinating examples from the Christian East, from
Ethiopia, from Mexico, and from Persia and India. Published here in
its entirety for the first time, the Voelkle Collection is the only
comprehensive one of fakes and forgeries of manuscript painting in
private hands. Voelkle’s fifty-year career at the Morgan
Library& Museum was inextricably interwoven with the
construction of the collection, which is detailed in the foreword.
The personal narrative reveals the author as a collector and a
scholar. As an enthusiastic collector, he pursues examples of
forgery, marveling at the range of skills of deception. As a
scholar, he disentangles the sources that served forgers and the
chains of provenance that sometimes led to their exposure. Included
also in the book is a comprehensive list of William M. Voelkle’s
publications.
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. But
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 were participants in 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 which
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 Bible is the most successful book ever written. For well over
1,000 years it has been the most widely circulated of all written
works, and it has affected the culture of more people than any
other book has done. It has influenced (and helped to create)
language, it is central to the history of literacy and literature,
and it has had more importance for the history of Western art than
any other text. The Book. A History of the Bible tells the story of
this extraordinary success, tracing the Bible's publication in
endless forms and numerous languages. chapters of this book deal
with manuscript Bibles, which include some of the most magnificent
books ever produced. The first chapter deals with the achievement
of Saint Jerome, whose Latin translation - the Vulgate - first gave
the Bible the definitive form it has retained ever since. Chapter 2
then looks back to the separate history of the Bible in its
original languages of Hebrew and Greek, after which the narrative
returns to document the gradual triumph of the Latin Vulgate, the
magnificent giant Bibles of the early Middle Ages, the Bible with
its monastic commentaries, the crucial development of the portable
Bible in the thirteenth century, and the vogue for splendid Bible
picture books. Chapter 7 tell the story of the famous Wycliffite
English Bibles, once condemned as heretical and now highly prized.
to Gutenberg and the first printed book - the celebrated 42-line
Bible. The narrative then leads on the humanist scholars, Martin
Luther and the Reformation, the Lutheran Bible and the
Protestant-led wave of translations of the Bible into other modern
languages, the development of a book publishing industry, and the
extraordinary efforts of missionary societies to translate the
Bible into every known language in the World. The last chapter
takes the story right back to the beginning, and chronicles the
discoveries by modern scholars and archaeologists - principally
papyrus fragments from the Egyptian desert and the Dead Sea Scrolls
- that have dramatically increased our knowledge of the origins of
both Old and New Testaments. He is also a scrupulous scholar.
Without being either evangelical or polemical, his precise, lucid
and highly informative narrative is solidly based on documentary
evidence. The result is a fascinating and deeply absorbing
narrative that will also have a lasting value as a work of
scholarship. Original, authoritative and highly readable, this book
is a genuine publishing first on a subject of the utmost
importance.
From the bestselling author of Meetings With Remarkable
Manuscripts, a captivating account of the last surviving relic of
Thomas Becket The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury
Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in
European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval
Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket. In a
brilliant piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel
here identifies the only surviving relic from Becket's shrine: the
Anglo-Saxon Psalter which he cherished throughout his time as
Archbishop of Canterbury, and which he may even have been holding
when he was murdered. Beautifully illustrated and published to
coincide with the 850th anniversary of the death of Thomas Becket,
this is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative
artefacts of medieval England.
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