Like all this series, this book is a real gem. Clearly written, interesting, informative, with a fine selection of pictures (most in colour), it's truly amazing how much it covers in a small book. Particularly useful are the contemporary illustrations of scribes and painters at work, showing such details as a scribe's sloping desk with holes to hold his quills and inkhorn (cover illustration). The whole construction of a medieval book is explained, from makig the parchment to the final cover. Examples of unfinished manuscripts, not shown in facimile books, provide fascinating insight into the whole production process. The inclusion of charming pictures such as the self-portrait of a scribe and his apprentice, cursing a mouse running off with the the cheese from their lunch table, brings the lives of these workers into immediate and human detail.

If you are only going to get one book about medieval scribes and illuminators, this is the one to buy.

The contemporary books we buy today fill many categories, and while they may be special for a variety of reasons, their mass production that condemns them to a comparatively brief life, also is the cause of how visually dismal they are.

There are some small private presses that still produce books as artisans, some even completely by hand, but the product is often well beyond the budgets of all but affluent collectors. Reading a work by Dickens is undeniably a thrill, but even Dickens believed his books were enhanced with imagery, so artists were part of his books, fellow craftsmen he chose to compliment his tales.

This book by Michael Olmert is for people who love books for not just what they contain, but the manner in which they were presented. Mr. Olmert also provides a very readable history of books from long before Guttenberg printed his Bible, from a time when a book was done by hand, every letter, every stitch.

This book presents some of the greatest rarities that have been preserved, so while you may covet a Book Of Hours, A Book Of Kells, or an illuminated page that rivals the art placed on canvas, your savings are safe. This is "The Smithsonian Book Of Books" so nobody can take any of these treasures home.

Mr. Olmert states, "The book is perhaps humankind's most powerful intellectual creation". A rather daring claim, but this book backs it well.

Chris DeHamel works researching books for Sotheby's. That is all he does, and his numerous books on the subject show his mastery and command of the subject. Everyday he goes to work, he is getting time to research, free of teaching committments that fetter the ability of other scholars to pursue their writing. His research and ability shows in this beatiful and well-written book, which is an excellent introduction to the history of the book and to the processes and culture surrounding the book as an object. His book progresses, chapter-by-chapter, through the different groups that books were designed for, describing where and why they were made, and the special challenges of each. Chock-full of photographs of lavish manuscript writing and art, this volume is not only an extremely suitable textbook for art history and history classes dealing with the book or commodity-culture, but also is a great personal or coffeetable volume, and supremely reasonable at the price it is provided at, considering the cost of so many art texts.

This is the first illumination book I encourage my students to purchase (with Drogin's history of calligraphy). This is an entirely reasonable price with abundant color and b&w pictures.

Unlike many tretises on the topic, this doesn't limit you to post-1200 Anglo-French. This gives you a true oversight of western european illumination of the entire span of the middle ages (spanish, moorish, greek, latin, etc...)

Added to the benefit of examples, de Hamel doesn't subject you to the same pictures you've seen in every other 2-bit book (yes, Victoria, other books existed before 1200 besides the Book of Kells).

The text is thoughtful without being dry and boring. This is written for an audience which is expected to appreciate the subject, without assuming you've devoted your life to it already.

Walk, do not run, to get this. A must for anyone who is learning how to illuminate.

A beautiful book, lavishly illustrated to explain and enhance the text. Many of the images are from private collections thanks to the author's work at Sotheby's.

The text is very accessible for the non-expert. The reader's understanding and appreciation of the art and craftsmanship which went into illuminated manuscripts will be greatly increased.

Worth every penny.

Seeking a book on inspired guidance in the Judeo-Christian tradition? Look elsewhere. This is a voluminous history of the Bible. But it doesn't read like history. The life of "The Book" is too grand a story to be told without verve and passion.

Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, and four thousand after the birth of Abraham, is there anything that hasn't been written about the Bible? As it turns out, quite a lot. Christopher De Hamel, formerly the manuscripts curator for Sotheby's and currently on the faculty at Cambridge, has given us in "The Book: A History of the Bible" what we didn't have before: a book about the Bible as a book. His narrative begins with St. Jerome's translation of the Bible into Latin, and proceeds through the centuries to describe how it has been copied, illustratied, translated, and printed, in both its Jewish and Christian forms. De Hamel's prose style is lively and engaging, and the illustrations are copious and beautiful high-resolution photographs of stunning examples of the Bible-maker's art. The book is filled with small gems. Did you know, for example, that more Bibles survive from the thirteenth century than any other artifact, save possibly buildings? This book should reach a wide and diverse audience, from those who revere the Bible as the Word of God to those who want to gain a better understanding of its historical and literary importance.

This short work depicts in color the surviving leaves of the medieval Becket booklet. Additional reproductions bearing on the dating, style and authorship are conveniently provided. The (English) text briefly summarized the Becket story, directed toward the illustrations. However, the French of the leaves is not translated, though this short additional information would have made the work complete.

This modestly-sized book is primarily concerned with listing the location of all medieval manuscripts and manuscript fragments in New Zealand. Now, that seems pretty obvious, based on the title, but you have no idea how literal the title is until you peruse this book.

Some of the better items are pictured in the section of the book devoted to plates. There are a fair number of both black and white and color reproductions. Otherwise, the book is mostly one huge list of title and provenance for New Zealand manuscripts. While the provenance items often contain some interesting tidbits about manuscript history, there is not really enough to make the book truly informative and useful for someone not living in New Zealand and looking for a list of manuscripts to request access for study.

I thought, based on the title, that this would be an exhibition catalogue of some sort, but it is not, not really. It's just not in the same league as Weick's Painted Prayers and other works of that ilk. Nor is the text informative enough to put this book at the same level as, say, de Hamel's A History of Illuminated Manuscripts.

That said, the book does have some good qualities. Again, there are a number of interesting tidbits contained in the various lists, and a number of the plates are artistically interesting. I would not suggest that someone looking for a coffee table book select this volume, but it is an acceptable addition to the collection if you collect books about illuminated manuscripts.