The Art of the Book

Bernard Muir is Reader in Medieval Language and Literature in the English Department, University of Melbourne. His publications include The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry (Exeter) and A Pre-Conquest English Prayerbook (Boydell).Margaret Manion is Professor Emeritus, Department of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne. Her publications include a facsimile edition of The Wharncliffe Hours (Thames & Hudson); Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in Australian Collections (with Vera F. Vines) (Thames & Hudson).

The authors have been well served by the publishers, who have produced an attractively presented text with a generous selection of illustrations. The Library, 2I.3 Of serious value to all concerned with the arts as inspiration and servant of religion, especially in the late Middle Ages. Theology, March/April The oldest manuscripts dealt with are of the early fourteenth century, the latest of the early sixteenth, and the geographical spread is from Italy to the Netherlands. But all are interesting, and the book, edited by Margaret M. Manion and Bernard J. Muir, is well presented and handsomely illustrated. TLS A well-produced book. Not the least of its delights are the excellent eight colour and ninety-eight black-and-white plates, which put the poorly-printed and over-priced offerings of older university presses to shame. The Ricardian, Vol. 12, No. 153 This handsomely produced and illustrated book consists of ten essays on aspects of the various types of medieval prayer books used in both public and private Christian worship from the eighth through the fifteenth century ... One of the beauties of the book is that it encompasses a variety of approaches to the subject, each illuminated by means of specific examples ... the reader will derive an understanding of the diversity underlying all aspects of the production of these objects ... It expands rather than limits our view of the place of the book in the cultural life of this period and provides a splendid introduction to this richly complex subject. Furthermore, the complementarity of pictorial image and text emerges as a major theme throughout. Although nearly all of the essays are by art historians, this book will appeal to a much wider audience. Anyone who is concerned with the life of the educated classes, both secular and religious, of the late Middle Ages will want this anthology. Church History, Vol 69, No. 4

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSABBREVIATIONSLIST OF PLATES AND FIGURESIntroductionMargaret M. Manion1 The Early Insular Prayer Book Tradition and the Development of the Book of Hours, Bernard J. Muir2 Women, Art and Devotion: Three French Fourteenth-Century Royal Prayer Books, Margaret M. Manion3 Books for a Dominican Nuns' Choir: Illustrated Liturgical Manuscripts at Saint-Louis de Poissy, c.1330-1350, Joan Naughton4 The Illustrated Office of the Passion in Italian Books of Hours, Bronwyn C. Stocks5 An Unusual Image of the Assumption in a Fourteenth-Century Dominican Choir-Book, Margaret M. Manion6 The Dominican Liturgy of the Assumption: Texts and Music for the Divine Office, John Stinson7 A Centre for Devotional and Liturgical Manuscript Illumination in Fifteenth-Century Besancon, Vera F. Vines8 The Master of Jacques de Besancon and a Fifteenth-Century Parisian Missal, Hilary Maddocks9 Marginalized Jewels: The Depiction of Jewellery in the Borders of Flemish Devotional Manuscripts, Kate Challis10 Devotional Objects in Book Format: Diptychs in the Collection of Margaret of Austria and her Family, Dagmar EichbergerLIST OF CONTRIBUTORSINDEX