• '

  Illumino takes twelve manuscripts dated from roughly 700 to 1500 and uses their histories to explore the society and culture that gave birth to them . . . Each chapter ranges quite widely across the writings of the period, and the book as a whole looks to be a rich and absorbing survey of manuscript traditions and practice and a window into a world of exhilarating intellectual and material accomplishment.

  '

  The Broken Compass

• '

  A masterful exploration of medieval Britain through twelve extraordinary illuminated manuscripts, each a window into the intellectual, artistic and spiritual landscapes of its time. Few scholars know these books as intimately as Michelle P. Brown, who draws on her expertise as a trailblazing curator and leading researcher to enrich this book with insight into their materiality, craftsmanship and historical resonance. With characteristic erudition and clarity, Brown brings to life the people who commissioned, created and used these manuscripts, not only as textual artefacts but as objects of devotion, labour and cultural exchange. By weaving palaeography, codicology and historical narrative into a compelling whole, Illumino sheds light not only on these marvellous books, but on how these books have shaped the modern world.

  '

  Andrew Dunning, R. W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

• '

  To read this book is to be apprenticed to a master of her craft, to imbibe a lifetime’s learning, and to learn the history of illumination (and of Britain) from its pages and its pictures. Art, history, philosophy, theology, philosophy, psychology and culture shine through the paintings and are unpacked in Michelle P. Brown’s prose. Through this marvellous work, the rich adornment of the page becomes the rich adornment of our minds and imaginations.

  '

  Michael Lloyd, Principal of Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford

Preface

1 The Eighth Century: Bishop Eadfrith’s Desert of the Book
The Lindisfarne Gospels (British Library, Cotton ms Nero d iv)

2 The Ninth Century: Bishop Aethelwald’s Prayerbook
The Book of Cerne (Cambridge University Library, ms ll.1.10)

3 The Tenth Century: King Athelstan’s Offering to a Shrine
Bede’s Lives of St Cuthbert (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, ms 183)

4 The Eleventh Century: Queen Emma’s ‘Apologia’
Encomium Emmae Reginae (British Library, Add. ms 33241)

5 The Twelfth Century i: Christina of Markyate’s Gift
The St Albans Psalter (Hildesheim Dombibliothek)

6 The Twelfth Century ii: Gerald of Wales and the Topography of Ireland
Topographia Hibernica (British Library, Royal ms. 13 b viii)

7 The Thirteenth Century: Matthew Paris’s Chronicle
Chronica Majora (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, mss 16 and 26 and British Library, Royal ms 14 c vii ff. 157–218)

8 The Fourteenth Century i: John Fifhide’s ‘Poor Man’s Bible’ Picture Book
The Holkham Bible (British Library, Add. ms 47682)

9 The Fourteenth Century ii: Sir Geoffrey Luttrell’s Pyramid
The Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add. ms 42130)

10 The Fifteenth Century i: Abbot Bruyning’s Mega-Missal
The Sherborne Missal (British Library, Add. ms 74236)

11 The Fifteenth Century ii: Anthony Woodville’s Present for Doomed Royals
The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers (Lambeth Palace Library, ms 265)

12 The Sixteenth Century: Musician, Monarch, Womanizer
The Psalter of King Henry viii (British Library, Royal ms 2 a xvi)

Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Michelle P. Brown is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and was formerly Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library. Her books include Bede and the Theory of Everything (Reaktion, 2023).