Providing a comprehensive and accessible orientation to the field of medieval manuscript studies, this lavishly illustrated book by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham is unique among handbooks on paleography, codicology, and manuscript illumination in its scope and level of detail. It will be of immeasurable help to students in history, art history, literature, and religious studies who are encountering medieval manuscripts for the first time, while also appealing to advanced scholars and general readers interested in the history of the book before the age of print.
Introduction to Manuscript Studies features three sections:
- Part 1, "Making the Medieval Manuscript," offers an in-depth examination of the process of manuscript production, from the preparation of the writing surface through the stages of copying the text, rubrication, decoration, glossing, and annotation to the binding and storage of the completed codex.
- Part 2, "Reading the Medieval Manuscript," focuses on the skills necessary for the successful study of manuscripts, with chapters on transcribing and editing; reading texts damaged by fire, water, insects, and other factors; assessing evidence for origin and provenance; and describing and cataloguing manuscripts. This part ends with a survey of sixteen medieval scripts dating from the eighth to the fifteenth century.
- Part 3, "Some Manuscript Genres," provides an analysis of several of the most frequently encountered types of medieval manuscripts, including Bibles and biblical concordances, liturgical service books, Books of Hours, charters and cartularies, maps, and rolls and scrolls. The book concludes with an extensive glossary, a guide to dictionaries of medieval Latin, and a bibliography subdivided and keyed to the subsections of the volume's chapters.
Every chapter in this magisterial guidebook features numerous color plates that exemplify each aspect described in the text and are drawn primarily from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
A tour of an ancient library transports us to Mesopotamia, introducing us to its people, their ideas, and their humanity. The library of Ashurbanipal, Assyria's last great king, held an astonishing collection at the forefront of knowledge in its day, from ancient traditions in religion and literature to the latest developments in magic and medicine. When the Assyrian empire fell, the library burned to the ground, and its contents, clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, lay buried for thousands of years until a team of Victorian archaeologists discovered the remnants in modern-day Iraq. The clay had baked and hardened; the very fire that consumed the library had helped its texts to survive for millennia. In The Library of Ancient Wisdom, scholar Selena Wisnom, one of only a few hundred experts able to read cuneiform script today, guides us inside this important collection and, through its contents, brings ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life. Introducing us to Ashurbanipal and his family, scribes, astrologers, physicians, and more, Wisnom explores the library's tablets and the details they divulge about how these ancient people thought about the world. Like us, they had concerns about job security, jealous rivalries, and profound friendships, and questions about the meaning of life. Wisnom ushers us into a world where magic was commonplace, where the gods spoke to you in dreams, and where the secrets of the universe were revealed through puns--taking us to the heart of what it means to be human. Offering a close look at a major historical landmark as well as a readable account of the world's earliest civilizations, The Library of Ancient Wisdom lays bare the ideas, hopes, fears, and desires that survive on humble clay.
The Lindisfarne Gospels is an extraordinary book and one of the British Library's greatest treasures. It was hand-written and decorated over 1,300 years ago by a single supremely gifted scribe-artist. It inspires awe both as a pinnacle of book design and for the fascinating story of how it came down to us in almost pristine condition. Every aspect of its design displays meticulous care, keen responsiveness to a wide range of cultural contacts, and the workings of an immense and brilliant imagination. This brand-new, accessible volume explores the latest research and thinking on the Lindisfarne Gospels and is published as the manuscript goes on loan to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle for an exhibition exploring its meaning in today's world. This magnificent guide presents a detailed introduction and commentary alongside the highest quality, detailed illustrations which celebrate the intricate, interlaced geometrical precision of one of the finest early medieval craftsmen.
"a wonderful testament to the power and endurance of the written word" - The Age
"Bibliophiles will be enthralled" - Publisher's Weekly
"a perfectly on-point present for any reader" - BookPage
Discover 50 of the world's most magnificent hidden libraries - each with a unique and uplifting story to tell - featuring a foreword by librarian, bestselling author, and literary critic Nancy Pearl.
Book swap your latest read in a cool 1950s style fridge in New Zealand or hike through the ethereal woodlands of Eas Mor in Scotland where a hidden library in a small log cabin awaits. Each entry shares the library's mission and impact on the local community and offers fascinating stories from its resident caretaker.
Inside Hidden Libraries:
From the rare to the romantic, this extraordinary guide to our planet's hidden libraries makes the ultimate gift for literature lovers, adventurers, and dreamers alike. Nothing brings people together quite like a good book.
A quirky, indispensable resource packed with tips and advice on how to properly care for your books at home.
Have you ever wondered whether the assortment of books you have at home is a "collection"? Do you want to reorganize it? Expand it? Repair some of your treasured volumes?
This quirky but practical guide covers questions book lovers might have about caring for their books at home. Written by an expert rare book librarian at the Bodleian Library and covering a range of subjects including collecting, arranging, and keeping books in good condition, Looking After Your Books offers friendly advice that will guide readers through all aspects of book ownership. Within these pages, readers will find useful tips on buying from book fairs, bookshops, and dealers, as well as how to identify first editions. Help is on hand with treating accidental mishaps and a range of common problems such as an attack of red rot or a broken spine. There are also chapters on shelving, how to keep track of your books, how to commission a special box for a special book, and how to pass books on usefully.
With historical anecdotes and curious examples at every turn, Looking After Your Books is an indispensable resource and delight for anyone with an interest in books and their history.
A fascinating and highly original history of medieval magic told through twenty key illuminated manuscripts Medieval Europe was preoccupied with magic. From the Carolingian Empire to Renaissance Italy and Tudor England, great rulers, religious figures, and scholars sought to harness supernatural power. They tried to summon spirits, predict the future, and even prolong life. Alongside science and religion, magic lay at the very heart of culture. In this beautifully illustrated account, Anne Lawrence-Mathers explores the medieval fascination with magic through twenty extraordinary illuminated manuscripts. These books were highly sought after, commissioned by kings and stored in great libraries. They include an astronomical compendium made for Charlemagne's son; The Sworn Book of Honorius, used by a secret society of trained magicians; and the highly influential Picatrix. This vivid new history shows how attitudes to magic and science changed over the medieval period--and produced great works of art as they did so.
100+ Bindings Structures and Forms! In the digital world, books may seem like an endangered species, but bookmaking is more popular than ever. Thanks to the 100 ideas in this volume, the craft is now available to everyone. In as little as an afternoon, beginners will be on their way to folding, gluing, and sewing handmade books in a variety of shapes and styles, from rolled scrolls to Jacobs ladders, folded flexagons to case bindings. Complete with photographs of the authors own master books and statements by more than 40 established book artists, this collection is sure to inspire. Culled from the authors best-selling books Creating Handmade Books, Unique Handmade Books, and Expressive Handmade Books, these projects will fuel bookbinding adventures for years to come.
* A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * 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.
Illuminated with illustrations, an exploration of medieval manuscript production that offers insight into both the early history of the book and life in the Middle Ages. This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator--including a parchment maker, scribe, and illuminator--introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question "What actually is a scriptorium?" and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press. With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labor, planning, and networks needed to produce each manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, The Medieval Scriptorium helps us to experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.