The Art of the Bible : Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World

New York and London : Thames & Hudson in association with the British Library, 2016 (2023 compact edition). Quarto, illustrated papered boards, pp. 336, illustrated. New copy.

Illuminated manuscripts of the Bible are some of the finest, most beautiful but least-known works of art to survive from the Middle Ages. This exquisitely illustrated book presents 45 expertly selected treasures that transport us across 1,000 years of history, passing chronologically through some of the major centres of the Christian world. Every manuscript included in this major new study is a glorious masterpiece, and is reproduced on a scale that enables us to marvel at the illuminator’s art.

This extensively illustrated new book, compiled and written by two internationally renowned experts, transports readers, by way of forty-five featured manuscripts, across the globe and through 1,000 years of history. Passing chronologically through many of the major centers of the Christian world, from Constantinople and imperial Aachen to Canterbury, Mozarabic Spain, Crusader Jerusalem, northern Iraq, Paris, London, Bologna, and Rome, Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle shed light on some of the finest but least-known paintings from the Middle Ages, and on the development of art, literature, and civilization as we know it.