Penned & Painted: The Art & Meaning of Books in Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

The idea of the book was central throughout the western European and the eastern Mediterranean world in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

From the beginning, the word for ’book’--sefer in Hebrew, biblia in Greek, and liber in Latin--was identified with sacred writings--the Holy Scriptures of Jews and Christians, who were known as ’people of the book’. The centrality of the book to medieval thought is reflected materially in the countless images of books that appear in the manuscripts of the era, be they in the most treasured, highly decorated, sacred texts or in devotional and secular works as well.

In Penned & Painted, Lucy Freeman Sandler, one of one of the world’s most respected authorities on medieval art, takes us on a personal but highly insightful exploration of some of the British Library’s most precious manuscript holdings and describes the many uses and meanings of these ’books in books’.

Through the fascinating face-to-face discovery of 60 manuscripts, she investigates the various types and forms of books as depicted in the era. Penned & Painted is presented in full-color throughout and includes a high number of images specially photographed for this volume.

Lucy Freeman Sandler is the Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of Art History, emerita, at New York University. Lucy is the author of seven additional monographs and numerous articles on manuscript illumination in medieval Europe. Lucy is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Royal Historical Society.