* A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice *

The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history

The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence.

This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years: a monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe, a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America -- all of them members of what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscripts Club.

This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel's unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion that crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been.

In 1850 (or thereabouts) John Ruskin bought his first manuscript "at a bookseller's in a back alley." This was his reaction: "The new worlds which every leaf of this book opened to me, and the joy I had in counting their letters and unravelling their arabesques as if they had all been of beaten gold -- as many of them were -- cannot be told." The members of de Hamel's club share many such wonders, which he brings to us with scholarship, style and a lifetime's experience.

• We started tracking this book on June 29, 2022.
• This book was $17.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 4 times in the past 1,231 days.
• The current price of this book is $14.99 last checked 3 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $1.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on November 10, 2024.
• This book has been $1.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $19.99 last reached on November 11, 2024.
• This book has been $19.99 2 times since we started tracking it.

• Arts & PhotographyGraphic DesignDesign
• HistoryEuropeMedieval

• Publication Date: November 14, 2023
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 624 Pages
• File Size: 2,626 KB