Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1272 by Laura Cleaver (review)

History, documents, texts, images. This book offers a historical meta-discursive exploration, based on the study of Anglo-Norman manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which themselves include texts on England's historical past, from the Norman conquest to the death of Henry III. In addition, there is an active dialogue between the texts and the extensive array of images that these codices contain in their pages, from main miniatures, marginal representations, historiated initials, and even genealogical tables and various diagrams. In this regard, Cleaver's main objective is to examine different readings and discourses established by medieval history writers on events in England's past and their dynamic interaction with the visual repertoires displayed in these manuscripts.

The book is structured in four central chapters, preceded by a detailed introduction to the topic presenting the issues to be addressed and followed by a conclusion. The book contains sixty reproductions of black-and- white images interspersed in the body of the text. It also includes brief sections on historical-geographical maps and genealogical tables of English political figures of the period studied, as well as an appendix with a transcription of the entries of the particular version of De diuersis auctoribus quo tempore scripserint by Ralph Diceto corresponding to the manuscript Cotton MS Claudius E III, from the collections of the British Library. These elements are absolutely useful and relevant, not only because they incorporate the essential visual material discussed in the text, but also because the sections are appropriate analysis tools that enable a more detailed and deeper understanding of the contents. Even though indexes of the illustrations and manuscripts used are included, it would have been convenient and valuable for the reader to have available a final bibliographic list.

In addition to presenting the central purposes of the work and a summary of each chapter, the introduction establishes certain fundamental theoretical-methodological aspects to be addressed in connection with the historical texts and images. Here Cleaver clearly states her position with regard to the everchanging historical evolution of the codices, as they are movable and manipulable objects, as well as their material dimension, for these history books are devices with complex forms of reproduction and otherness in their textual content and in their page layout in relation to the graphics. The medieval conceptualization of history is also explored, from Isidore of Seville to historians analyzed in subsequent chapters, such as Orderic Vitalis, Ralph Diceto, Robert of Torigni, and Matthew Paris. At the same time, it develops an interesting synthesis of the spatial-temporal background and the historical characters addressed in the selected manuscripts, from William the Conqueror and the kings who succeeded him to Henry III, with a focus on the topic of Thomas Becket's assassination and the political action of the Plantagenets.

Chapter 1 explores the different processes and characters involved in the production, material preparation, and use of the manuscripts, such as historians, scribes, painters, patrons, and the audience. The frequent intervention of various writers in the preparation of entries in volumes with historical material is highlighted, as well as the well-known work phases of amanuenses and miniaturists in relation to the process of copying and illustrating the codices. The representation of these characters, their tools, and technical procedures in initial letters are analyzed. It might have been interesting to study in greater depth the subject of the itinerancy of painters and scribes between English and Norman scriptoria, since, as it is explained, the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel was an important production center. The framework of action of ecclesiastical and lay patterns is also analyzed on the basis of the material decisions applied in history books through the correction of the text, the inclusion of richly elaborated and gilded initials, among some of the most outstanding aspects.

Chapter 2 deals with the different scopes of the texts and the imagery in manuscripts that reproduce historical works, including the Worcester...