Customer Reviews

Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work

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whether you are interested in the typical lives, education, training, as well as social status of the people whose work became immortal or in the techniques and tools used to create the magnificent pages.. this is a well written and interesting read. beautiful photographs of works in various levels of completion, numerous countries, schools and eras combined with well researched documentation and critiques makes this book an excellent resource. focusing mainly on the creation of illumination and explaining the lives of those creating the page, covering multiple aspects of training, techniques and changing social status throughout the decades leads to an overall thorough understanding. you will walk away not only being able to understand the illuminated page, its signifigance and constructuion but also those who toiled to creatre it. whether an art history lover, in love with the illuminated page or interested in the lives of people who lived centuries ago this book is a wonderful addition to you personal library. i wish my art history books were this well written.

This book introduces the reader to the people and processes involved in the production of manuscripts, and is interesting as a resource for methods of book production as much as it is for the insight it gives into the lives of the very real people whose efforts and whose lives went into the production of books by hand. With more than enough information to interest the scholar, this book is at the same time extremely accesible to the average reader interested in the subject. I would reccomend this as a textbook and as a good read, but would suggest that a reader have a good guide, such as Michelle Brown's Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts on hand, in order to best understand every facet of the material being presented. The book is clear and well-written, but a deeper understanding of the finished product adds greatly to the value of reading about their creators. This is a book I am proud to have on my bookshelf, for its readability, its attractiveness, and its value as a source for interesting historical information.

Medieval Illuminators has been invaluable to my own studies and construction of illuminated manuscripts. The author presents a timeline of the history of illuminated manuscripts, their layout, methods of construction and their purpose, couched within a socio-cultural context of the eras in which the manuscripts were constructed. I found the large reproductions of key manuscripts extremely helpful in identifying the minute brush strokes of the white work, which is often difficult to discern in smaller reproductions. The enlargements also provided lovely details of designs and images that are not easily observed in non-enlarged reproductions. Lastly, I appreciated the author's discussion of the monastic book lending tradition for the purposes of copying manuscripts to expand a library's holdings on a particular subject and the inclusion of illustrations to demonstrate this practice. This is a must have for anyone pursuing the study of this literary and artistic tradition.

I admit I bought this for wsomeone else as a gift, and he loved it. He said it was very beautiful and of value to medieval historians. Book describes the types of illuminations and has a lot of history.