Foreign illuminators and illuminated manuscripts

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521573467.004

2 - Foreign illuminators and illuminated manuscripts

from TECHNIQUE AND TRADE

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

J. J. G. Alexander

Edited by

Lotte Hellinga and

J. B. Trapp

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Summary

No account of the history of the manuscript book in Britain in the fifteenth century would be complete without a discussion of the extent to which foreigners were involved in the native book trade, and, even more striking, of the very considerable numbers of manuscripts written and illuminated abroad which were imported at this time. This chapter confines itself to illuminators and deals only incidentally with scribes and binders. Even with this restriction, it can only be a brief and selective summary of a large and complex topic on which there is still much research to be done.

For the purposes of my discussion I want to distinguish five classes of production and/or importation. First, foreign illuminators may have themselves migrated to work in England. Secondly, manuscripts may have been made abroad and then imported and sold in England speculatively to buyers who had not specifically commissioned them. Thirdly, owners may have acquired manuscripts abroad and brought them back to England. Fourthly, manuscripts may have been sent from abroad as gifts. Fifthly, manuscripts may have been specially commissioned abroad by owners who remained in or returned to England.

Keywords

illuminated manuscripts imported books foreign manuscripts foreign illuminators commissioned manuscripts manuscript gifts

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain , pp. 45 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521573467.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1999

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