Of all the illuminated and decorated manuscripts in the UL-Utrecht, all miniatures with identifiable subjects are illustrated and indexed, along with a choice of the minor decorations. Over 65 manuscripts are illuminated in Utrecht, the most important centre of book production in the Netherlands during the late Middle Ages.

The later Middle Ages was a time of profound connection between the spheres of bureaucracy and art. By discussing the two together, this book argues that art-historical methods offer an important contribution to diplomatics, and that works of art are important sources for the cultural reception of documentary practices. Documents are also an important model for representation, and an understanding of the paradigmatic role of the document suggests alternative dimensions to the interpretation of late-medieval art. Ultimately, the ways documents appeared, functioned, and were perceived have implications for objects of all kinds. The discourses of documentation suggested an essential and consequential connection between objects and events: documents offered a powerful and widely disseminated model for how ephemeral actions and relationships could find enduring material form. With the broad diffusion of administrative records, this idea came to manifest itself in other forms of visual culture. Medieval monks inventoried documents alongside the contents of their treasuries, set them on the altar, and wrote about fantastical charters of gold. Documents can still be a person's - or a nation's - most treasured possessions. As powerful objects of veneration and instruments of control, they connect medieval society and our own, testing modern perceptions of the Middle Ages as an entirely lost world.

The magnificent pages of medieval missals, books of hours, breviaries, and bibles sparkle with detail illuminating the world in which they were created. This splendid volume, featuring some of the finest illuminated masterpieces from the exceptional collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, details the remarkable collaboration and craftsmanship that went into the creation of these delicate treasures. Close-up details show the intricacies of the various techniques used to create these fragile and rarely seen works. By helping the reader to appreciate the individual elements of illumination--the initials, borders, illustrations, script, and binding--Rowan Watson brings the world of the scribes, illuminators, and book dealers to life, and sheds light on the cooperative religious communities in which many of them worked. Watson also looks at the survival of illumination after the printing press and its revival in the 19th century in the hands of such pioneering designers as Owen Jones and William Morris.

Cambridge University Library's collection of illuminated manuscripts is of international significance. It originates in the medieval university and stands alongside the holdings of the colleges and the Fitzwilliam Museum. The University Library contains major European examples of medieval illumination from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, with acknowledged masterpieces of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance book art, as well as illuminated literary texts, including the first complete Chaucer manuscript. This catalogue provides scholars and researchers easy access to the University Library's illuminated manuscripts, evaluating the importance of many of them for the very first time. It contains descriptions of famous manuscripts, for example the Life of Edward the Confessor attributed to Matthew Paris, as well as hundreds of lesser-known items. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the catalogue contains descriptions of individual manuscripts with up-to-date assessments of their style, origins and importance, together with bibliographical references.

"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