Manuscript Painting Research Articles

Up is down: some hypotheses on how to interpret perspective in MS I.33’s illustrations

The oldest known European fight book, Royal Armouries MS I.33 has puzzled scholars and sword fighting enthusiasts alike with its occasionally strange looking illustrations. This paper argues that some of them contain multiple view planes or perspectives ‘folded’ into one, as it also occurs elsewhere in contemporary Gothic manuscript painting. To the modern observer who has no first-hand experience of the type of sword fighting depicted, these specialised drawing conventions are difficult to identify and, consequently, to decode. By comparing ostensibly similar situations as they are illustrated in later fight books that employ different artistic means, this paper suggests a new way of looking at I.33’s illustrations that could be relevant beyond the examples discussed here.

Development of Early Jain Manuscript Paintings: A Journey through Kalpasutra Paintings

Jain manuscripts have a rich history of artistic embellishment. Interestingly, some of the earliest instances of Indian miniature paintings can be traced back to illustrated Jain manuscripts. We explore the stylistic roots of Jain manuscript paintings along with the role of patronage in the production of these manuscripts. In this scholarly exploration, we delve into the stylistic journey of these paintings, focusing specifically on the widely illustrated Kalpasutra until the 16th century. The earliest Jain manuscripts were meticulously crafted on palm leaves and encased within painted wooden covers. These early works featured sparse illustrations, often centered around decorative borders and single figures. However, with the adoption of paper, the painting style underwent significant transformation. It became more detailed and ornate, while still adhering to hieratic conventions. Noteworthy features of this style include the use of bright primary colors, precise lines, formal composition, and stylized figures with sharply defined gestures and prominent eyes. As we approach the late 15th to early 16th centuries, Jain manuscript paintings began to draw inspiration from external artistic traditions. Influences from Mamluk Egypt and Timurid Persia shaped the visual language of these illustrations. During this period, the palette shifted, with hues of blue and gold dominating the compositions, signaling a move toward a more opulent aesthetic. Production centers such as Patan, Mandu, and Jaunpur contributed distinct regional stylistic idioms to the world of Jain manuscript art. In fine, it can be said that these manuscripts serve as a testament to the intersection of spirituality, creativity, and patronage within the vibrant realm of Jain culture and art.

AESTHETICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DECORATED WOODEN COVERS OF THE MANUSCRIPTS UNDER JAIN SCHOOL OF PAINTING IN THE MEDIVAL PERIOD

Jain school of paintings has a special feature in the wider perspective of Indian painting. The rich form of Jain art started in the form of sculptures and cave wall paintings. Later on, a new original form of Jain art started in the form of manuscript painting, which is based on various motifs of miniature style, such as - illustrated palm leaves, illustrated cloth paintings and illustrated paper books etc. Illustrated examples of Jain painting have been found in the handwritten texts made in all these motifs, along with these, the wooden covers which were kept above and below the manuscripts for the protection of these texts, have also been collected from private Collection and museums. These wooden covers were made to keep the palm leaves safe. Along with manuscript paintings, painters used to decorate these panels with beautiful figures and stories. The free expression of the painter can be seen in the depiction of these wooden covers. Like manuscripts, these plates also hold a special place in art history.There is a wonderful depiction of Indian animals and birds, geometrical shapes, design of bellflowers, columbines and religious symbols on these illustrated wooden covers of manuscripts. In addition to decorations, these panels also depict various contemporary events and cultural themes. Due to the uniqueness of designs and the amazing depiction of these wooden book covers it can be inferred that the painters who created them must have been highly skilled. These wonderful examples of paintings from Jain school of paintings have special importance in art history and Jain culture. The objective of the research is to do artistic analysis of these wooden manuscripts covers. Although analyzing all the collected data from the museums and manuscript centers was a challenging task for the researcher but eventually efforts were made to publicize the facts in detail.

Green with Envy: Celadons, Circulation, and Emulation in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean Worlds

Much scholarship concerning the maritime ceramic-exchange networks between China and the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean worlds has concentrated on the importation of Chinese blue-and-white porcelains and local responses to these wares. Celadon ceramics, however, were among the earliest Chinese wares to be traded—and emulated—within these exchange systems. Foregrounding examples from the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, this article will consider textual evidence, manuscript paintings, archaeological finds, and extant objects, in order to explore the reception and emulation of Chinese celadon ceramics within these regions, with a focus on West Asia. Cutting across previously published, somewhat siloed studies, the discussion will place these celadon-exchange histories into a broader framework, tracing varying responses toward these materials in the context of transregional geographies.

From The Editors

From The Editors

Love is Blind! in Byzantium The Blind Cupid Figure in Byzantine Art Through The Middle Ages

Antik dönem sanatında çok sevilen Eros, yetişkin rollerini oynayan tombul oğlanlar veya kanatlı/kanatsız putti imgeler şeklinde, circus konulu tasvirlerde, dövüş, her türden av ve kovalamaca sahnelerinde, sarkofaj konteksinde cenaze sanatında, sıkıcı tarımsal faaliyetleri neşeli ve heyecan uyandıran aktivitelere dönüştüren yaramaz çocuklar olarak tasvir edilmişlerdir. Bu uygulamaların Bizans sanatında devam ettiği görülür. Kimi zaman bağ bozumu sahnelerinde, euchariste (ökariste) bağlamında ya da öteki dünya ile ilişkilendirilerek cennete giden yolda görev alarak kristolojik sembolizm dâhilinde kullanılmışlardır. Erken Hristiyanlık dönemi katakomp resimlerinden Ortaçağın sonuna kadarki çeşitli Bizans eserlerinde yer alan Cupid figürünün ikonografisi iki kavramı barındırır: Tanrı aşkı ve dünyevi aşk. Etimolojisi ile bir Hıristiyan adaptasyonu olarak karşımıza çıkar zira sevgi/aşk anlamına gelen eros kelimesinin -dini ya da profan kavramsal bir yer edinmesi küçük aşk tanrısını ikiye bölmemiş zaten geçmişte de aşkın her türlü yüzünü temsil etmesi ile kişilere yabancı bir figür değildir. Hıristiyan metinlere nüfuz eden Θείος Έρως (İlahi Eros) kavramını Tanrı ile insan arasındaki sevgiyi anlatmanın bir yöntemi olarak kullanır; öte yandan manastır pratikleri figüre simgesel yaklaşım göstermiş, zengin dini metin ve figüratif içeriği ile dini sanatta sıradışı uygulamalar ortaya koymuştur; seküler edebiyatta ise başlıca konusu aşk olan destan ve romanslar incelendiğinde ulaşılan belirgin özelliklere sahip bir eros tarifine rastlanmış, bu tarifin ortaya konan sanatsal üretimler ile örtüştüğü görülür. Bizans sanatının farklı dönemlerine tarihlenen metal, fildişi, mozaik, dokuma, elyazma resmi ya da fresko gibi farklı ürün gruplarına ait örneklere yansıyan tasvirler figürün kavramsal boyutlarını yansıtır. Ancak Aşk Tanrısı Cupid -ya da diğer isimleriyle Eros veya Amor- Helenistik ve Roma sanatında hiç kör temsil edilmemesine karşın, Bizans Sanatında sıra dışı bir körlük örneği gösterir. Bu araştırma yazısı, çok-tanrılı geçmişin hatırasını taşıyan bir figürün ağır başlı Bizans kültür ortamında, dinin tüm ağırlığına rağmen anlamını devam ettirmesi sürecinde üstlendiği kavramlar uyarınca ortaya konan sanatsal temsillerinin ikonografisi üzerine bir çalışmadır.

The Physical Canon

The physical Bible as we know it is a library of books gathered together within a single cover binding. The creation of the single-volume Bible, utilizing the codex book form, dates from the first half of the fourth century, and at its inception was a powerful technological innovation. Committing a fixed form within a binding, the single-volume Bible uniquely declared the unity of the Scriptures and the books authorized for inclusion. However, enormous production costs meant that single-volume Bibles were rare. Considering this rarity, Bibles must have come together in other recognized physical forms. Given the dearth of direct physical evidence, we infer their existence by looking at Greco-Roman book containers and furnishings, descriptive and metaphorical allusions in theological writings, the parallel development of the Torah Ark/Shrine in Jewish synagogues, and pictorial depictions in church mosaics and Bible manuscript paintings.

Patrons, Painters, Women In Distress: The Changing Fortunes of Nevʿizade Atayi and Üskübi Mehmed Efendi in Early Eighteenth-Century Istanbul

Abstract Images of Ottoman women in verse and manuscript painting that have long been interpreted as realistic representations of their everyday life stand in stark contrast with how women are represented, addressed, and pigeonholed in religious books of conduct. While no distinction is made between the elite and commoners in these depictions of pleasurable outdoor activities, the regular, routine roles that the women played in the family and society disappear from sight. In light of a rare but well-known court scene showing women in public space and at a real trial of 1582, appended in all illustrated copies of Nevʿizade Atayi’s Ḫamse, I discuss the specifics of the legal opinion with which Pir Mehmed Efendi was associated, and how the trial was recollected in Istanbul’s literate circles after more than a century. Whether the production of the five illustrated Ḫamses in the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a concerted effort on the part of a specific group of artists, both Istanbulites and Inner Asians, is discussed in the second part of the article.

Revisiting Buddhism in Ilkhanid Iran: Archaeology, Toponymy and Visual Culture

It is generally agreed that Buddhism, which already came to be known in West Asia during the Sasanian period through commercial exchanges with India, revived in Iran under the Ilkhanids. A pioneering study of Buddhist-Islamic interactions by Elverskog (Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road, 2010) amply demonstrates the importance of the Mongol period for the understanding of the religious contacts between Buddhists and Muslims, with particular reference to the role of Tibet in this unique socio-cultural as well as scientific encounter (the latter subject is explored by several studies, notably Islam and Tibet – Interactions along the Musk Routes, 2016). On the other hand, it remains a challenging task as to how the impact of Buddhism on the visual and material culture of Ilkhanid Iran should be reassessed, apart from attributions of unusual architectural remains to former Buddhist sites or interpretations of Buddhis iconographical elements found in manuscript paintings and decorative objects.

Descendants of Aztec Pictography: The Cultural Encyclopedias of Sixteenth-Century Mexico

In 2000, Elizabeth Hill Boone published Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of Aztecs and Mixtecs. This earlier work organized, categorized, and explained a subset of pictorial documents—specifically, histories—produced by the Nahuas and Mixtecs of pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerica. In 2007, her Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate did the same for pictorial divinatory texts. And now Descendants of Aztec Pictography does a similar service for a third pictorial genre, what Boone has called “cultural encyclopedias.” Together, Boone's three works constitute their own kind of encyclopedia of Mexican manuscript painting by one of the field's foremost scholars.For Boone, the painted manuscripts examined here form their own special category. These documents are in many ways similar to those examined in her previous two volumes—and, indeed, some of these cultural encyclopedias received attention in her earlier work—but their content and function make them different enough to warrant their own stand-alone volume. The defining feature of these manuscripts is that they all organize information about the pre-Hispanic past into cultural categories and present it in such a way as to explain it to an outsider. The audience for all these documents was a non-Indigenous, culturally European one: either an audience in Europe or creoles in Mexico.The nine pictorial manuscripts that constitute this corpus of cultural encyclopedias range in date of composition from the early to the late sixteenth century. By the seventeenth century, Indigenous painting had been substantially transformed, and pictorial elements were increasingly secondary to and dependent on alphabetic elements within many documents. Some of the manuscripts examined here—particularly the work overseen by friars Bernardino de Sahagún and Diego Durán—reflect these late sixteenth-century changes. But the majority of the book is focused on early and mid-sixteenth-century manuscripts in which the paintings dominate the discourse and the alphabetic elements are dependent on and supplementary to the images.The initial chapters of this volume describe the sixteenth-century Mexican environment in which these encyclopedias were produced. They include discussions of the various graphic systems in use in Mexico in this period, the encyclopedic tradition from Europe, and the evangelization project of the mendicant orders as well as its interest in understanding pre-Hispanic Indigenous cultures. The remaining chapters examine the corpus of pictorial encyclopedias, moving chronologically. Many of these documents, particularly the late sixteenth-century work of Sahagún and Durán, will be broadly familiar to historians, though the pictorial elements of these works may not be. Others of the corpus—the Codex Borbonicus, the Codex Ríos, or the Codex Tudela, for instance—are perhaps familiar but not as consistently addressed in the secondary literature. Part of the problem for historians is that these manuscripts often describe unfamiliar pre-Hispanic cultural phenomena. Another issue faced by historians is reading the often-stylized pictorial system employed to deliver the content and narrative. Boone solves both of these problems for those of us interested in the pre-Hispanic and colonial Nahuas but uncomfortable with the nonalphabetic portions of these manuscripts.This work is, as Boone describes it, a “synthetic analysis” of cultural encyclopedias, and much of the work is therefore dedicated to providing a reading of these manuscripts based on the latest research by a host of scholars (p. xiv). Boone's capacious knowledge of the texts themselves and the secondary literature on those texts is on full display here and allows her to craft a sort of guidebook to the pictorial encyclopedia genre. Her contribution with this book, then, is not a novel reading of a particular manuscript—though she does offer her own arguments and critiques of others' interpretations in many places—but rather the work that she has done to categorize, systematize, and organize these documents. Indeed, her typology of Mexican manuscript painting, of which this volume is but the latest installment, is what makes her work so foundational to the study of Nahua culture and history. The University of Texas Press is to be commended for its decision to print every page on coated paper, which allows all of Boone's many wonderful images of the cultural encyclopedias to be rendered in full color.This work, taken with her two previously published books, is an invitation to ethnohistorians to incorporate the amazing corpus of pictorial manuscripts more fully into historical and anthropological scholarship on the pre-Hispanic and colonial Nahuas. It is also an opportunity to do it in a sophisticated way that acknowledges the goals and biases of the author-painters and that allows for a nuanced reading of their work. But Boone's text is also accessible to the nonspecialist, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students will enjoy her introductions to these often-difficult sources as well.

INDIAN ART IN CONTEXT: MANUSCRIPT PAINTINGS OF BAL-GOPAL-STUTI

This article seeks to re-discover the glorious manuscript of Bal-Gopal-Stuti which depicts the tales of Krishna based on the hymns attributed to Bilvamangala. Illustrating of the manuscript of Bal-Gopal-Stuti probably began in the early fifteenth century. Bal-Gopal-Stuti is an esteemed literary masterpiece written in Sanskrit devoted to the Hindu God Krishna. Since its composition around thirteenth- fourteenth century. Bilvamangala’s poems have continued to be popular among the devotees of Krishna. Indian art is the outcome of a fusion of several traditions and is still evolving. Indian paintings can be divided into two categories: murals and miniatures. Apparently, miniature paintings, which drew inspiration and source material from the rich legacy of mural and fresco painting, have been known since the seventh or eighth century. Because of their short width and length, the new painting materials limited the scale of the works to miniatures.

SUBIKA ART: AN EARLY VISUAL ART FORM OF MANIPUR

There are six surviving manuscripts under the category of Subika namely Subika, Subika Achouba, Subika Laishaba, Subika Choudit, Subika Cheithil, and Thengrakhel Subika. For this paper the manuscript “Subika Laishaba'' has been discussed. Illustration of Subika Laishaba is the manuscript painting among the earliest surviving visual arts forms of Manipur. Though the advent of Subika Laishaba paintings has lately acquired from various individual collections, the painting possesses an interesting area of studying its visual elements and cultural values of Meitei community. The painting of Subika Laisaba is a composition of cultural motifs made by pre-existing features and other influences stimulated from their cultural worldviews. Such cultural ethics of scriber makes them to create a unique style seen as indication of establishing a thought of school in which cultural and regional features are highlighted. Subika Laishaba manuscripts represent the direct and authentic continuation of the tradition of Meitei cultural life projected through visual images. Though there is no particular founder mentioned in the royal chronicle/history known as Cheitharol Kumbaba, there may be a possibility that the art form may have existed when the writing tradition was introduced in the state. This paper is an attempt to study its purposes and visual language portrayed in the Subika Laishaba manuscripts to understand its school in the realm of visual art. This study of visual language may be able to work without judgment and self-criticism.

LOCATING THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL ASSAM THROUGH THE PRISM OF PERFORMATIVE AND VISUAL ARTS

In this essay we will make an attempt to see what role performative and visual arts i.e., Vaishnava drama and illustrated manuscript paintings respectively and the biographies of the Vaishnava saints played in reconstructing the gender imagery. We will see how the gender biased representations in both performative and visual arts influenced the role of women in the domestic establishments and the notion of chastity attached to them. At the same time, we will also have a glance at prevalence of polygamy during medieval Assam and how the performative and visual representations justified its prevalence and led to its acceptance.

Review: Descendants of Aztec Pictography: The Cultural Encyclopedias of Sixteenth-Century Mexico, by Elizabeth Hill Boone

Review: <i>Descendants of Aztec Pictography: The Cultural Encyclopedias of Sixteenth-Century Mexico</i>, by Elizabeth Hill Boone

The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings ed. by Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo

Reviewed by: The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings ed. by Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo Andrew H. Chen Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, eds. The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings. London: Ad Ilissum, 2021. 472 pages, 300 color illustrations. £80. ISBN: 978-1-912168-20-0. The volume under review is a catalogue of forty-three objects from the collection of T. Robert Burke and Katherine States Burke. It opens with a foreword by the Burkes briefly explaining the story of the collection, followed by some remarks by editors Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo and a characteristically thoughtful essay by Christopher de Hamel. The authors of individual entries are the world experts on their respective topics, and one will find the same names in other catalogues of a similar caliber, such as that of the Fondazione Cini, as well as in the indispensable Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani of 2005. The catalogue proceeds by region, beginning with Umbria and Tuscany. As signaled in the foreword, the Burke collection is especially strong in its Tuscan holdings. One finds Florentine miniatures by the usual suspects: Pacino di Bonaguida, the Master of the Dominican Effigies, the Santa Maria degli Angeli school, and Francesco di Antonio del Chierico. Siena is represented by Lippo Vanni, Andrea di Bartolo, Giovanni di Paolo, Sano di Pietro, and Pellegrino di Mariano Rossini. We then pass to Lombardy via Emilia-Romagna, and from there to the Veneto, from which come paintings by Cristoforo Cortese and the Master of the Murano Gradual. The catalogue concludes with a painting from mid-fifteenth-century Rome, catalogued by Francesca Manzari, and a Michelangelesque early seventeenth-century miniature whose style would seem to connect it, according to Elena Calvillo, to Giovanni Battista Castello (1547–1639). The attribution has been rejected by Castello specialist Elena De Laurentiis, however, and so the work is listed in the Burke catalogue as Anonymous. Anyone who has worked on manuscript illumination will recognize that the Burke collection is an important one. For the most part the artworks [End Page 225] are extremely fine, with a few exceptions (the cutting by the Master of the Dominican Effigies [entry 9], for example, is hardly his best work). The quality of the catalogue is generally very high. Where enough is known about the person in question, entries are preceded by a biography “situating them in a history of Italian manuscript painting” (13). In this respect the volume follows the model of Carl Strehlke’s monumental Italian Paintings in the John G. Johnson Collection of 2004. Many of the entries have lists of related leaves and volumes, synthesizing decades of research, and these will be vital for future scholarship on any of these artists. As the editors emphasize in their preface, authors were encouraged to include as many images as reasonable of comparative material, encompassing altar-pieces and wall paintings as well as other miniatures. Paul Holberton Publishing deserves to be complimented for having delivered a handsome book with (for the most part) splendid illustrations of such parallels and marvelous details of the Burke miniatures themselves. The division of works by region and, within the Tuscany section, between the Sienese and Florentine cultural milieus is convenient, but of course does not reflect the complexity of real situations. Don Simone was born in Siena but is known for his work in Florence, and Don Silvestro was a Florentine whose work was heavily influenced by Sienese painting. Andrea di Bartolo spent significant time working in the Veneto, and his work there was certainly known to Cortese. Of the works in the Burke collection, the one that I found the most intriguing, because stylistically the most unfamiliar, was the beautiful, if slightly disconcerting, miniature of John the Baptist and the Messiah, catalogued as Umbrian (entry 3). No doubt Tiziana Franco is right about the style of the subsidiary decoration, but the figure style is unmistakably northern Italian. As observed in Franco’s entry, Pia Palladino already suggested as much back in 2000 but was wrong in suggesting an affinity between the Burke painting, which is clearly from the first half of the fifteenth century, and the Verona choir books of the 1360s–70s...

The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings. Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, eds. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2021. 472 pp. £80.

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Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, eds., The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings

Review of The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings, edited by Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, introduction by Christopher de Hamel, London: Ad Illissum 2021, 472 pp., 300 colour illustrations, ISBN 9781912168200 .

Ships of the western Indian Ocean in Persian manuscript paintings

The preliminary review of 150 images of watercraft in Persian manuscript paintings from the 14th to the 19th centuries reveals the contextual environment of these much-maligned images of seafaring. Nautical researchers rarely cite Persian paintings, but availability of digital facsimiles of Persian manuscripts online has improved access to a large corpus of images allowing close exami­nation and comparisons. This study demonstrates the potential of the corpus of watercraft images in Persian manuscripts and shows how these paintings may be interpreted more as illustrations of seafaring culture rather than detailed depictions of nautical technology.

The Emergence of Alphabetic Writing:Tlahcuiloh and Escribano in Sixteenth-Century Mexico

ABSTRACTOver the course of the sixteenth century in Mexico (New Spain), alphabetic writing replaced pictography as the chosen form of written expression in indigenous communities. A new social role, that of the native languageescribano(notary), emerged, eventually to become a principal cultural broker in the colonial period. Despite the indigenous escribano's importance, his origins and the source of his authority within the native sphere are poorly understood. This article offers a close reading of a corpus of hybrid pictographic-alphabetic documents, written in Nahuatl and created between 1553 and 1572 in the indigenouscabildo(town council) of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Within this important body, escribanos appear early in the documentary record; it was within the established indigenous ecosystem of governance that escribanos first found a niche.Here, pictography flourished, as did performances unique to the indigenous sphere. The corpus reveals how escribanos worked side by side with indigenoustlahcuilohqueh, or painters, who drew on a long-established tradition of manuscript painting and cartography to create property maps. These maps adhered to established codes, both social and visual. Initially preeminent in itself, the work of thetlahcuilohquehcame to supply meaning and public authority to the work of the escribano in this crucial formative period.

The McCarthy Collection, Volume I: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures by Gaudenz Freuler

Reviewed by: The McCarthy Collection, Volume I: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures by Gaudenz Freuler Bryan C. Keene Keywords Manuscript Studies, illuminations, Italy, Byzantine Empire, manuscript leaves and cuttings; private collection; Italian Renaissance art Gaudenz Freuler. The McCarthy Collection, Volume I: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures. London: Ad Ilissum, 2018. 304 pp. (hardcover) + 250 color illustrations. £90. ISBN: 978-1-912168-07-1. The McCarthy collection of manuscripts has long been known to specialists, dealers, and other manuscript collectors. In recent years, select works have been exhibited around the world: European medieval and Renaissance leaves and cuttings have been featured in exhibitions at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, European miniatures and Armenian manuscripts and leaves have been shown at the Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery (Florian Knothe, Illustrious Illuminations I: Christian Manuscripts from the High Gothic to the High Renaissance [1250–1540] [End Page 218] and Illustrious Illuminations II: Armenian Christian Manuscripts from the Eleventh to the Eighteenth Century [Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, 2015–17]), and Ethiopian manuscripts have been displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and analyzed by the Institute for Curatorial Practice and Hampshire College Art Gallery. The present volume—the first of three—features eighty detailed entries on Italian manuscripts (135 leaves, cuttings, and bifolia) by Gaudenz Freuler, one of the foremost scholars of Italian manuscript illumination, with eight entries on Byzantine manuscripts (eighteen leaves total) by Georgi Parpulov, a specialist in Byzantine and East Christian art. Richly illustrated in full color with consistent codicological and provenance information, this book can serve as a primer on the history of Italian manuscript painting, including major and lesser known centers of illumination (the word "miniature" in each of the volume titles is somewhat misleading). The second volume (The McCarthy Collection, Vol. 2: Spanish, English, Flemish and Central European Miniatures [London: Ad Ilissum, 2019]) by manuscript specialist Peter Kidd will feature entries on sixty-three items: eight Spanish, eleven English, ten Flemish, and thirty-four central European illuminations. Readers should also consult Peter Kidd's weekly blog for information about several of the artists represented in the Italian volume of the McCarthy collection (see https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/). The third volume (forthcoming), also by Peter Kidd, will include approximately ninety-five entries on French manuscript paintings. This trio of publications will significantly advance the field of manuscript studies and will no doubt lead to numerous opportunities for future research. The first volume begins with an introduction by Gaudenz Freuler that provides an overview of the afterlives of illuminated manuscripts, with a focus on the history of the dismembering of Italian codices and the collecting and commerce of Italian miniatures beginning with the Napoleonic invasion of Italy. One encounters a litany of the names of key individuals in this history, including Abbé Celotti, William Young Ottley, James Dennistoun, Ulrico Hoepli, Leo S. Olschki, Charles Fairfax Murray, and others. As Freuler notes, the McCarthy collection has more in common with the Marmottan (Paris) or Lewis (Philadelphia) manuscript collections, in terms of the breadth of geographic styles represented, than to the near-exclusive [End Page 219] Italian focus of the Lehman (previously New York and now dispersed), Cini (Venice), and Milanese private collections. This last collection has been fully catalogued in two volumes (Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries [Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2013]) by Freuler, who has also published important studies related to the Lehman and Cini collections, and these texts are useful references when reading the McCarthy volume. An important feature in the present publication—by contrast to the tomes on the Milanese collection—is a complete concordance of manuscript numbers and several helpful indices (of collections and holdings, of subjects, of artists, of places, and of people). In the introduction, several of the references to entry numbers are incorrect, possibly the result of a reordering of the volume, but the reader can discern the corresponding object from context in most instances. The Italian portion of the catalog is organized chronologically and by region, beginning with cuttings from the ninth century and ending with a page from a mid-fifteenth century manuscript. The collection features...