Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts English Manuscript Studies 1100‐1700

Eight leading scholars present their research on the decorative aspects of a variety of late medieval manuscripts in this volume. The functional role of ornamentation as a navigational aid is taken for granted by the authors; their focus is rather to interpret and decipher the meanings behind programmes of decoration, speculating how these influenced the way the texts were originally read and used. They consider the books as wholes rather than concentrating on specific aspects of illumination and highlight the fact that medieval readers approached their books differently from us, being alert to word play, puns and metaphors expressed visually as well as verbally. In this profoundly different and allusive world, the smallest marginal detail could be significant.

The intimate relationship between the text and image is therefore one theme to emerge. William Marx, for example, investigates iconography and meaning in the Sherbrooke Missal, demonstrating that a thorough knowledge of both contents of the Sarum Missal and Glossa Ordinaria commentary is required before the visual metaphors of its illustration can be understood. The involvement of early owners in the design of elaborate decorative schemes is another concern. In a fascinating piece of detective work, Alixe Bovey argues that an early owner of the Smithfield Decretals was John Batayle, Canon of St Bartholomew's, interpreting one narrative sequence of illustration as the story of how Batayle might have acquired the manuscript. Narrative image sequences that are – on the surface – nothing to do with the manuscript text, are also at the heart of Jessica Brantley's article on the Taymouth Hours. Why is there a set of images relating a story from the romance of Bevis of Hampton in a devotional Book of Hours? Brantley argues that the heroine is depicted praying in parallel to the devotional activity of the owner of the book, thereby stressing the importance of feminine prayer. Lucy Freeman Sandler's article also examines the relationship between the owner and illustration, demonstrating that the illustrations in a set of manuscripts owned by Humphrey de Bohun communicate the socio‐political views of his family. Several articles consider groups of manuscripts and examine their illustrations to establish relationships between them. Kathleen Scott discusses a set of late medieval English copies of the Speculum humanae salvationis, and Peter Murray Jones compares copies of the medical treatises of John of Arderne. While Arderne's authorial role in devising a programme of illustration is explicitly emphasised in the text of his work, Michelle Brown is on slightly shakier ground in arguing that Gerald of Wales might have been responsible for planning the marginal illustrations in some of his works, the choice of episodes illustrated reflecting his (often political) authorial agenda.

The volume is very well illustrated (one folio from the Taymouth Hours, in fact, appears twice), but is a pity that the plates are only reproduced in black and white, especially since so much emphasis is placed upon the importance of colour. But above all, the point that these manuscripts should not be admired simply for their glittering illuminations and creative – if sometimes obscure – images is underlined. In fact, they require an altogether different, interrogative kind of reading if their secrets are to be unlocked and their role in medieval society is truly understood. As such, this is not a book that will necessarily appeal to the general reader, and most of the articles assume a prior knowledge of medieval literacy and manuscript production and transmission. For specialists in this area, however, this is a valuable and stimulating set of articles that will be read with interest and enjoyment, even if some of the arguments are necessarily based upon conjecture and inference rather than fact.