Medieval manuscript

Just as they are today, university students were big consumers of books in the Middle Ages. Learn about illuminated textbooks in law, medicine, and more.

We might think we have a general grasp of the period in European history immortalized in theme restaurant form as 'Medieval Times.' After all, writes Amy White at Medievalists.net, “from tattoos to video games to Game of Thrones, medieval iconography has long inspired fascination, imitation and veneration.” The market for swordplay, armor, quests, and sorcery has never been so crowded.

Book of Hours, France, Saint-Omer, between 1320 and 1329

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It takes no small amount of inquiry, from no few angles, to truly understand a form of art. This goes even more so for forms of art with which most of us in the 21st century have little direct experience.

Many of our readers will already be familiar with our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, a resource which enables you to search by shelfmark, keyword, or date, as well as by more advanced fields such as language and provenance. We thought it was about time to give a reminder that all...

Why were the artists of that era so obsessed with depicting murderous rabbits? See the examples and read the explanation in this eye-opening post!

View high resolution digitized images of Bodleian Library MS. Douce 112 Book of Hours, Use of Rome