A History of Illuminated Manuscripts [Paperback]

Christopher De Hamel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1997

Medieval manuscripts, with their cold and painted decoration and miniatures, are counted among the great glories of Western civilization. Images from them can be seen everywhere, from greeting cards and wrapping paper to facsimiles. This text offers an introduction to the whole subject of making books, from the Dark Ages to the invention of printing and beyond. The author describes the differing circumstances in which manuscripts were created, from the earliest monastic Gospel Books to university textbooks, secular romances, Books of Hours and classical texts for humanist bibliophiles. The variety of manuscrips and their illumination is revealed, and many fundamental questions discussed - who wrote the books, what texts they contained, who read them, how they were made and what purposes they served.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This 1986 title throws light on the world of illuminated manuscripts, which function as works of both art and literature. De Hamel provides a full history of the illuminated manuscript through text and dozens of glorious color illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; 2 edition (September 26, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714834521
• ISBN-13: 978-0714834528
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular teaching tool, December 29, 2000

By 

E. Tobias "Safety_Queen" (Minneaoplis, Minn., USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Illuminated Manuscripts (Paperback)

This is the first illumination book I encourage my students to purchase (with Drogin's history of calligraphy). This is an entirely reasonable price with abundant color and b&w pictures.

Unlike many tretises on the topic, this doesn't limit you to post-1200 Anglo-French. This gives you a true oversight of western european illumination of the entire span of the middle ages (spanish, moorish, greek, latin, etc...)

Added to the benefit of examples, de Hamel doesn't subject you to the same pictures you've seen in every other 2-bit book (yes, Victoria, other books existed before 1200 besides the Book of Kells).

The text is thoughtful without being dry and boring. This is written for an audience which is expected to appreciate the subject, without assuming you've devoted your life to it already.

Walk, do not run, to get this. A must for anyone who is learning how to illuminate.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frrom someone who should know..., March 14, 2001

By 

"larkvi" (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Illuminated Manuscripts (Paperback)

Chris DeHamel works researching books for Sotheby's. That is all he does, and his numerous books on the subject show his mastery and command of the subject. Everyday he goes to work, he is getting time to research, free of teaching committments that fetter the ability of other scholars to pursue their writing. His research and ability shows in this beatiful and well-written book, which is an excellent introduction to the history of the book and to the processes and culture surrounding the book as an object. His book progresses, chapter-by-chapter, through the different groups that books were designed for, describing where and why they were made, and the special challenges of each. Chock-full of photographs of lavish manuscript writing and art, this volume is not only an extremely suitable textbook for art history and history classes dealing with the book or commodity-culture, but also is a great personal or coffeetable volume, and supremely reasonable at the price it is provided at, considering the cost of so many art texts.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ultimate overview of earlier MSS available in color, May 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of Illuminated Manuscripts (Paperback)

This provides a lush, seemingly endless procession of early illumination. I rated it a 10 before I got to the text. An absolute must for anyone studying the art of illumination, especially if it is a hands-on study. This provides the best overview of pre-1000 MSS production. Normally I see a handfull of dry pages of text accompanied by just a "oh, here's two b&w pictures of the same stuff you've seen in every other book" - not here!!. I recommend it highly to my students.