Book Description
The magnificent pages of medieval missals, books of hours, brevaries, 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.

About the Author
Rowan Watson is Head of Collections Development in the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Illuminated manuscripts are widely recognized as among the most beautiful objects produced in the medieval west. This book looks at the skills and people involved in making them, and features pages from some of the most notable examples held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a book about the making of books, and about the many talents involved in producing the missals, books of hours, breviaries and bibles that astonish us still with their richness and beauty. Illuminated mansucripts were collaborative productions, with different specialists contributing script, initials, borders, illustration, and binding to any work. Rowan Watson's study is both scholarly and rich in anecdote; he brings individual scribes and book dealers vividly to life and throws light on the commercial and religious environments in which they worked, as well as on the cooperative working practices devised for their production. Having looked at the individual elements of the illuminated page, the author then turns his attention to a sequence of splendid leaves from some of the great illuminated masterpieces in the V&A's collection. He also discusses how early books were marketed and sold, and ends with a look at the survival of illumination after the advent of the printing press, and its revival in the nineteenth century at the hands of pioneering designers such as Owen Jones and William Morris. The wealth of illustrations are drawn from the exceptional collections of the V&A, and the text offers us an entirely new look at the subject, treating illumination as a key to the history of the period as much as an expression of medieval and Renaissance (and neo-Gothic) styles and sensibility.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal