Illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts are used to show how
people in the Middle Ages looked at the world. The most interesting
aspect of this work is the global character. Many studies of
illuminated manuscripts and other illustrated books focus on Europe.
This study looks at South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The
book covers map making as well as all types of books from scrolls to
folded books. It does an excellent job of discussing a variety of
cultures and how people viewed themselves.
The book is a series
of essays by a variety of experts. Being a scholarly book, the essays
are often dense with words not commonly used in everyday discourse.
However, I didn’t find the book hard to read, and the ideas made it
worth the effort.
The illustrations
are probably the best part of the book. They are not all full page
illustrations because many focus on a small part of the original
picture, often in the margins of the books. While not precisely a
coffee table book, it is one that you can enjoy just looking at the
illustrations and reading selections from the essays.
I received this book
from Net Galley for this review.
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