Incandescent with illustrations, a history of Britain as told through a remarkable collection of illuminated manuscripts—at once chronicles of their time and works of art.
 
Illumino explores the history of medieval Britain through the biographies of twelve remarkable illuminated manuscripts and their creators. Each manuscript serves as a gateway into the lives of its makers and commissioners, and as a springboard into the era of its creation. Illuminated manuscripts are among the most intricate and fascinating forms of medieval evidence, blending literature, art, science, faith, and human thought with the materiality of their production. By undertaking the detective work needed to determine the nature of each project and the underlying human-interest stories, this book reveals their social, economic, and cultural contexts and charts the exchange of ideas and materials across time and space. Featuring over a hundred beautiful illustrations, this is a unique and accessible introduction to Britain’s history as well as art and book history over a thousand years.

A critical biography of the mysterious but prolific medieval printer.
 
Johannes Gutenberg is famous as the inventor of Europe’s first typographic printing method, and his life and legacy have long fascinated a wide audience. Due to scant and vague fifteenth-century documentation, however, Gutenberg’s career has long been obscured by derivative storytelling, competing agendas, and scholarly guesswork. This new biography removes these barriers to retell his story directly, through his pioneering work on schoolbooks, pamphlets, indulgences, broadsides, and, notably, the first printed Bible. The book also describes Gutenberg’s posthumous fortunes and his eventual recognition as Man of the Millennium. This much-needed corrective to old legend and conjecture brings Gutenberg to life through the books that remain his lasting monument.

Illuminated with illustrations, an exploration of medieval manuscript production that offers insight into both the early history of the book and life in the Middle Ages.
 
This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator—including a parchment maker, scribe, and illuminator—introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question “What actually is a scriptorium?” and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press.
 
With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labor, planning, and networks needed to produce each manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, The Medieval Scriptorium helps us to experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.