Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (review)

From its brilliantly designed cover to its splendidly reproduced images, this richly illustrated book is itself a visual feast. It does indeed display the “genius” of the artists whose works it brings to the public eye. The catalogue features 154 entries preceded by introductory essays. Each catalogue entry consists primarily of a full-page color image from the relevant manuscript together with a facing page description (although sometimes there are also facing page illustrations or enlarged details). The introductory essays include another forty-eight color images of various sizes. The lavishness of the book also reflects the subject: these are manuscripts affiliated with English royalty and thus are “fit for a king.”

The majority of the manuscripts featured, 111 of them, are part of the Old Royal Library gifted to the nation in 1757 by George II and form part of the Royal collection in the British Library (indicated by the shelf mark of the same name), while 37 are from other collections in the same library (with different shelf marks). The remaining six belong to other English institutions. Since these manuscripts are associated with English kings and queens, they offer the viewer the highest level of the art of illumination up to the sixteenth century.

The first essay, “The Royal Manuscript as Idea and Object,” is by John Lowden. He explores the various ways in which books came to have royal connections. Beginning with early codices, he traces the history of early Roman Christian Bibles that found their way into England centuries later: the Codex Alexandrinus was given by the Patriarch of Constantinople to Charles I in 1627, and the Cotton Genesis eventually made its way via Venice to be presented to Henry VIII. Lowden goes on to point out various books associated with royal sponsorship, including Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon works such as Bibles, Gospels, and charters that include images of kings (and sometimes accompanying queens). In these, royal personages sanction and are sanctioned by the Christian Church, mutually reinforcing each other’s authority. In the following centuries religious books such as illustrated Psalters and Books of Hours came increasingly to play an important role in serving instructional purposes, helping royal kings and queens and their offspring to learn to read. Such books were sometimes inherited or given as wedding gifts, taking on a “dynastic significance.” One of the most important concepts that Lowden highlights is the transition from a “royal collection” to the idea of a royal library around the fourteenth century. There had, of course, been monastic libraries, but Lowden credits the growing use of the vernacular and the actions of monarchs who, following the model of Solomon, “cultivated a name for wisdom,” with inspiring the creation of new royal libraries.

The second essay, by Scot McKendrick, is “A European Heritage: Books of Continental Origin collected by the English Royal Family from Edward III to Henry VII.” McKendrick points out that, while the Old Royal Library witnesses the development of English culture and identity, most of the actual manuscripts are of Continental origin. One reason is that many French manuscripts were acquired by John Duke of Berry when he was Regent of France, but even before this, as McKendrick reminds us, the Norman Conquest made England was only part of a larger political and cultural domain that extended across the Channel. French illuminated manuscripts were given as gifts, became symbols of military and political ascendency, were associated with the French brides of English kings, testified to trade in luxury goods, and evidenced English royal ambition and taste. French books were often given to obtain personal favor and advancement, whether from English or French subjects. Even after the introduction of printing in the late fifteenth century, English kings showed a taste for French luxury books. Much the same holds true for Netherlandish manuscripts and printed books. Edward IV, for example, acquired deluxe manuscripts produced in the southern Netherlands. These testify to the close dynastic, political...