If you have only the slightest of interest in the decoration of Medieval Manuscripts you should be planning a visit to Cambridge before the end of the year; actually before December 11th, for that is when this most fantastic of exhibitions closes. Prompted perhaps by the recent acquisition of the newly discovered Macclesfield Psalter, the University has assembled the best of its manuscripts and those of its colleges in a double exhibition, partly in the Fitzwilliam Museum and partly in the University Library. There, in suitably subdued lighting, the Illuminations of the Middle Ages shine brightly forth - the skilful handiwork of master craftsmen-artists spanning a thousand years. The manuscripts range from the Gospels that Augustine brought with him to Canterbury at the end of the sixth century to the letters patent, writs and charters issued to the University and its Colleges by the later Medieval and Tudor monarchs. It is a breathtaking collection. The manuscripts and the catalogue are cleverly arranged thematically according to their contents and function: The Coming of Christianity, The Bible and its Study, Liturgy and the Offices, Private Devotion, Humanistic manuscripts, and so on, and chronologically within each section. What do I mention next? Will my favourites be yours? The vivid coloured drawings in the Eadwine Psalter, the intense blues and greens of the Bury Bible, countless lively and intricate miniatures in Books of Hours and Psalters, many with floriated backgrounds to inspire William Morris, or Athelstan presenting a book to Saint Cuthbert; and there are musical and scientific and zoological illuminations; and a fine picture of Tully; and, of course, the Macclesfield Psalter itself. The Macclesfield Psalter is Cambridge's latest spectacular acquisition; and it has a room to itself. Described as "the most important medieval illuminated manuscript found in Britain in living memory" it was written and illuminated in East Anglia about 1330. Its illumination is a combination of refined beauty and ribald humour, all depicted in glowing gold and rare pigments. The Psalter has been taken apart which allows the leaves to be displayed separately, and a large number of illuminations to be viewed in the exhibition hence the gallery to itself. It is a once-in-lifetime opportunity to see so much of this spectacular manuscript at one time. This catalogue is filled with authoritative descriptions by Paul Binski, Rosamund McKitterick, Teresa Webber, Nigel Morgan, Jonathan Alexander, Christopher de Hamel, Nicolas Rogers and Stella Panayotova.

The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West (Studies in Medieval And Early Renaissance Art History)

Arts & Photography

PAUL BINSKI

S Panayotova

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Harvey Miller

Contents: George Henderson, 'Introduction'; Andrea Worm, 'The Gospel Book in the Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 21: Some New Aspects of the Artistic Relationship between the Meuse Valley, the Rhineland and Lower-Saxony'; Catherine Karkov, 'Evangelist Portraits and Book Production in Anglo-Saxon England'; Stella Panayotova, 'Tutorials with Slides for Thomas Becket'; Robert Scheller, 'Wreath and Crown in Apocalypse Illustrations'; Martine Meuwese, 'The Exploits of Alexander the Great in Trinity College'; Mary Rouse, 'Keeping Up Appearances: CUL Gg.4.6, Roman de la rose'; Richard Rouse, 'The Illuminator of Marie de St. Pol's Breviary'; Spike Bucklow, 'A Tale of Two Blues'; Kathleen Scott, 'Manuscripts for Henry VII in Cambridge'; T.A. Heslop, 'Manuscript Illumination at Worcester in 1055-1075'; William Schipper, 'Sacred Cross Word Puzzles: Trinity College, Cambridge, MS B.16.3'; Lawrence Nees, 'Between Carolingian and Romanesque in France: Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 19 and its Relatives'; Gennaro Toscano, 'Cristoforo Majorana e la miniature all'antica: a proposito di qualche codice conservato a Cambridge'; Jessica Berenbeim, 'English Fourteenth-Century Pastoral Manuscripts'; Judith Oliver, 'Te matrem laudamus: The Many Roles of Mary in Liege Psalter Hours in Cambridge'; Lilian Armstrong, 'Venetian Incunables in Cambridge Collections: Modes of Hand-Illumination'; Anne-Marie Legare, 'New Elements on the Oettingen Library: Fitzwilliam MS 22'; Michael Michael, 'Seeing in the Macclesfield Psalter and the Trinity Bede'; Margaret Manion, 'Blending Private and Liturgical Prayer: MS 3-1954 at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Valois Patronage'; Nicholas Rogers, 'From Eleanor of Castile to John Scott the Younger: Evidence for Illumination in Cambridge'; Patrick Zutshi, 'The Provenance of the so-called Hours of Isabella of Aragon'; Roger Wieck, 'The Primer of Claude de France and the Education of the Renaissance Child'; Lucy Sandler, 'The Macclesfield Psalter'; William Noel, 'W. de Brailes and the Illustration of the Psalter in Thirteenth-Century England'; Peter Jones, 'Cambridge University Library MS Gg.1.1: Fancy Horse or Pack-mule?'; Eberhard Konig, 'Angers Illumination in Cambridge (FM MSS 62, 39-1950)'; Alison Stones, 'Some Secular Manuscripts in Cambridge Collections'.

Cambridge Illuminations: Conference Proceedings (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History)

History & Criticism

This volume contains an impressive range of texts, from Horace (Cat. 17) and Ovid (Cat. 61) to the earliest known copy of the Collectio Lanfranci (Cat. 5) and Gerard of Cremona's translations of Rasis' works (Cat. 93). The bulk, however, consists of Bibles of two kinds: imposing glossed books, produced in great numbers in the twelfth-century, and their thirteenth-century successors, the compact pandects. Both categories include some of the most richly illuminated French manuscripts of the period. Among the former are two deluxe sets made for Thomas Becket, the first completed while he was in exile in Pontigny and Sens from 1164 until 1170 (Cat. 27-31), the second edited after his martyrdom by his secretary Herbert of Bosham (Cat. 32-34). The majority of the thirteenth-century Bibles are so-called 'Paris' or 'pocket' Bibles produced from the 1220s onwards, mostly in Paris, and containing the biblical books in a standard order. They are illuminated in a variety of figure and ornamental styles, some comparable to the Bibles moralisées of c.1220-1240 (e.g. Cat. 72), others bearing no resemblance to them (e.g. Cat. 73). There are also notable exceptions of complete Bibles made not in Paris, but in North-Eastern France or Champagne (e.g. Cat. 70), and displaying iconography, figure styles and order of books different from those found in their better-known Parisian contemporaries. We hope that the inclusion of numerous images in full colour representing Bibles illuminated in all of these different styles will inspire and support further research, especially on the ornamental initials which deserve more attention. While this volume contains outstanding examples of illumination, notably the work of the itinerant Simon Master (Cat. 46), it also includes books that are modest in artistic terms, but valuable in other ways. Among them is a glossed Ezekiel which boasts one of the finest Romanesque bindings to survive in Cambridge collections, made almost certainly in Paris c.1160-1170 (Cat. 41). Other aesthetically unassuming volumes form important groups of material, for instance, the books assembled by Master Robert Amiclas during his forty years in France and given or sold by him to the Cistercian Abbey of Buildwas in Shropshire (Cat. 20-26, 37).

A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges: France C. 1000-c. 1250 (Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge) (Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge, 1)

N. Morgan

Harvey Miller Pub

Colour: The Art & Science of Illuminated Manuscripts

Of all the early medieval and Renaissance arts--from sculptures, ivories, frescoes, stained glass to easel and wall paintings--it is manuscript illumination, protected between its pages, that has been able to preserve the best evidence for experiencing the dazzling effects that the gold, silver and original glowing colours these objects would have had on earlier spectators. The focus therefore of this exciting and innovative exhibition is on COLOUR: it demonstrates and explains the acquisition and chemistry of pigments, the basic materials and constitution of the artist's colour palette, the technique and art of their application by the illuminator, and finally the understanding and aesthetic impact on the viewer.

Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts