Christopher de Hamel

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel is an unparalleled journey through the rich history hidden within some of the world's most extraordinary illuminated manuscripts. This highly acclaimed history book, now available in paperback, offers readers a rare opportunity to explore these remarkable texts in an intimate and engaging manner. Each manuscript unfolds not just as a historical document,...

The people who made, saved and sometimes destroyed medieval manuscripts, over a thousand years of history, from the acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognise their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally...

Based mainly on examples in the Bodleian Library, this lavishly illustrated account tells the story of manuscript production from the early Middle Ages to the high Renaissance. Each stage of production is described, from the preparation of the parchment, pens, paints, and inks to the writing of the scripts and the illumination of the manuscript. Many beautiful illuminated manuscripts survive...

The people who made, saved and sometimes destroyed medieval manuscripts, over a thousand years of history, from the acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognise their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. But we generally...

A brilliant memoir of adolescence in New Zealand and of the migration of European manuscripts to the far side of the world. Christopher de Hamel is one of the world's best-known scholars and writers on illuminated manuscripts. He was mostly brought up in the south of New Zealand, where his family moved when he was four. This book magically evokes...

The best-selling historian of medieval manuscripts discovers the most intimate surviving relic of Thomas Becket. The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder...