These paradigms of miniature painting from the fourth century to 1600 are worth millions, typically tucked away in private collections or closely guarded archives--until now. Discover some of the most beautiful and important manuscripts from the Middle Ages in this collection of brilliant large-format reproductions, complete with a 36-page appendix.

The twenty-eight essays in this collection showcase cutting-edge research in manuscript studies, encompassing material from late antiquity to the Renaissance. The volume celebrates the exceptional contribution of John Lowden to the study of medieval books. The authors explore some of the themes and questions raised in John’s work, tackling issues of meaning, making, patronage, the book as an object, relationships between text and image, and the transmission of ideas. They combine John’s commitment to the close scrutiny of manuscripts with an interrogation of what the books meant in their own time and what they mean to us now.

Famous Manuscripts - The fascinating world of medieval miniature painting and illumination

Alastair Fowler presents a fascinating study of title pages printed in England from the early modern era to the nineteenth century, exploring their place in the history of the book for the first time. He illuminates key features of title page design and presents 16 illustrations of significant title-pages with commentaries, from Chaucer to Dickens.

A companion to the Getty’s prize-winning exhibition catalogue Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, this volume contains thirteen selected papers presented at two conferences held in conjunction with that exhibition. The first was organized by the Getty Museum, and the second was held at the Courtauld Institute of Art under the sponsorship of the Courtauld Institute and the Royal Academy of Arts. Added here is an essay by Margaret Scott on the role of dress during the reign of Charles the Bold. Texts include Lorne Campbell’s research into Rogier van der Weyden’s work as an illuminator, Nancy Turner’s investigation of materials and methods of painting in Flemish manuscripts, and trenchant commentary by Jonathan Alexander and James Marrow on the state of current research on Flemish illumination. A recurring theme is the structure of collaboration in manuscript production. The essays also reveal an important new patron of manuscript illumination and address the role of illuminated manuscripts at the Burgundian court. A series of biographies of Burgundian scribes is featured.

Each book in this series features a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, a timeline of the most important events, and a selection of the most important works of the epoch. This volume looks at Roman art.

The sacred and the secular in medieval literature have too often been perceived as opposites, or else relegated to separate but unequal spheres. In Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred, Barbara Newman offers a new approach to the many ways that sacred and secular interact in medieval literature, arguing that (in contrast to our own cultural situation) the sacred was the normative, unmarked default category against which the secular always had to define itself and establish its niche. Newman refers to this dialectical relationship as "crossover"—which is not a genre in itself, but a mode of interaction, an openness to the meeting or even merger of sacred and secular in a wide variety of forms. Newman sketches a few of the principles that shape their interaction: the hermeneutics of "both/and," the principle of double judgment, the confluence of pagan material and Christian meaning in Arthurian romance, the rule of convergent idealism in hagiographic romance, and the double-edged sword in parody. Medieval Crossover explores a wealth of case studies in French, English, and Latin texts that concentrate on instances of paradox, collision, and convergence. Newman convincingly and with great clarity demonstrates the widespread applicability of the crossover concept as an analytical tool, examining some very disparate works. These include French and English romances about Lancelot and the Grail; the mystical writing of Marguerite Porete (placed in the context of lay spirituality, lyric traditions, and the Romance of the Rose); multiple examples of parody (sexually obscene, shockingly anti-Semitic, or cleverly litigious); and René of Anjou's two allegorical dream visions. Some of these texts are scarcely known to medievalists; others are rarely studied together. Newman's originality in her choice of these primary works will inspire new questions and set in motion new fields of exploration for medievalists working in a large variety of disciplines, including literature, religious studies, history, and cultural studies.

A Frenchman in Tahiti After starting a career as a bank broker, Paul Gauguin (born 1848) turned to painting only at age twenty-five. After initial successes within the Impressionist circle, he broke with Vincent van Gogh and subsequently, when private difficulties caused him to become restless, embarked on a peripatetic life, wandering first through Europe and finally, in the search for pristine originality and unadulterated nature, to Tahiti. The paintings created from this time to his death in 1903 brought him posthumous fame. In pictures devoid of any attempt at romantically disguising the life style of the primitive island peoples, Gauguin was able to convey the magical effect that both the landscapes and life of the natives--their body language, charm and beauty--had on him. Wearying of his reputation as a South Sea painter, Gauguin finally determined to return to France, but died of syphilis on the Marquis Islands before his departure. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions