Illuminated books of the Middle Ages

Thames and Hudson, first UK edition, 1983. Cloth, 4to, 29 cm,. 341 pp, 158 ills, 27 in colour. From the blurb - "Decorated letters, penned calligraphic flourishes, subtle and elaborate borders, richly coloured miniatures - the brilliant visual elements of the illuminated manuscripts used by the Christian church in the Middle Ages have long fascinated both scholars and a much wider audience. Previous attempts to reproduce isolated pages or details from a large selection of such books, or even to popularize a single manuscript, have usually meant that the illuminations have been misleadingly presented as detached phenomena rather than functional objects whose decoration was directly related to their use. In this authoritative and innovative study, Professor Calkins has selected a variety of Bibles, liturgical books and devotional books for the laity to show the evolution of manuscript illumination throughout Europe. He ranges from the major monuments of Anglo-Irish or Insular illumination in the seventh to the ninth centuries to the Books of Hours which flourished until the end of the great age of illumination with the invention of printing in the fifteenth century. Showing how text and illumination worked together, he considers the aesthetic impact of a manuscript as a whole: he takes a close look at the visual effect of the two-page display of an open book, at the relationship of decorative accents to major divisions of the text, and at the sequence of illuminations which builds, as one turns the pages, into an appropriate decorative scheme for a particular kind of book. Superbly illustrated, his account is enriched with reproductions of all the illuminations from such masterpieces as the Book of Durrow (with its controversial origins in the seventh century), the Codex Aureus of St Emmeram (produced for the last great Carolingian Emperor) and the Windmill Psalter (from thirteenth-century Canterbury or East Anglia). Also included are a selection of two- page spreads, miniatures and decorative series from other manuscripts produced during the medieval period, including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. An appendix listing the complete contents of the manuscripts discussed and showing the relative placement of the accompanying illuminations completes this essential book for anyone interested in medieval or religious art or in the art of the book. Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper.