A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles. Volume Four: Early Gothic Manuscripts [I] 1190-1250 [with] [II] 1250-1285. [ 2 vols, complete ]

Harvey Miller Publishers, London, first edition, 1982-1988. Cloth, folio, 34 cm,. 276 pp, 330 ills, 98 pp of plates (some colour) + 374 pp, ills (some colour). From the blurb to Part One: "This volume, Part One of Early Gothic Manuscripts, covers the period from 1190 to 1250, up to the middle years of Henry III's reign - that is from the Great Canterbury Psalter to the famous Chronicles of Matthew Paris. The 94 manuscripts catalogued here show the range and variety of English miniature painting in the full flowering of the early 13th century. Such famous works as the Westminster, Munich and Imola Psalters, the Lothian Bible and the Bible of Robert de Bello, the Guthlac Roll, the Psalter in New College, Oxford illustrated by William de Brailes (the first named English artist to establish a secular workshop), as well as Bestiaries, Herbals and Lives of Saints, are included. They illustrate the transition from a predominantly monastic patronage to one involving a wider secular interest in illuminated books. In sifting and selecting from the wealth of surviving material Nigel Morgan has been able to view the period as a whole, in considering the developments which came about as a result of changes in patronage and places of production, as well as in the relationship between provincial and metropolitan artists. He proposes new dating and provenance for many of these manuscripts in the light of the latest scholarship and his own researches. The subject matter illustrated in each work - Old and New Testament cycles, Bestiaries, Lives of Saints, Chronicles and Medical Texts - is fully described in the catalogue; a special feature of this volume is the detailed iconographical index which will help scholars in many fields to select areas of particular interest from this abundant material. The Introduction discusses the historical and artistic aspects of the period; patronage and book production, stylistic developments and techniques, decoration and colour in relation to the types of book, as well as assessing evidence for dating and localisation. Each catalogue entry includes detailed bibliographical references and provenance. The illustrations show several examples of the illumination of each manuscript and the volume is completed by a Glossary, Lists of Manuscripts, Location and Types of Book and a General Index. Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrappers.