Customer Reviews

Master of Mary of Burgundy: A Book of Hours for Englebert of Nassau

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This is a lovely facimile of a book hours in the bodleian library in oxford. This book of hours was made by "the master of Mary of Burgundy" in the early 16th century. In additon to the 'carpet pages' of this manuscript, various text pages are also reproduced. Many of the illustrated pages have gold leaf on them and an gold ink is used to reproduce this effect. My only complaint with this book is that this ink has in some places obscured details of the manuscript and made pages look heavier than I think they probably do in the orginal work.

If you have read any books on illuminated manuscripts in the past, you might be suprised by the number of pages you will recognise in this book. In size the book is quite small. Quite litrely the size of your palm, and this is a reflection on the actual size of the manuscript in Oxford. The publishers have tried to reproduce the facilmile as close as possible to the orginal where they could.

If you are interested in illumanated manuscipts this book is worth having.

This title is a reproduction of a late medieval/Northern Renaissance Book of Hours or prayer book. There is just enough explaination of the artistic conventions, the revisions made as one nobleman's coat of arms replaced another, artistic conventions and medieval/early modern symbolism to let the modern reader understand the book, without going into abtruse art history discourse.

The physical book is suprisingly small--palm sized. I can look at this volume for hours to marvel not only at the calligraphy but also the details of paintings of the borders.

I am no art historian, just a book lover, and I love this little book.