LoveReading Says
Winner of the Wolfson History Prize 2017.
Christopher de Hamel is a man happy in his work – his enthusiasm and love for his subject lights up this account of medieval manuscripts and their history. With first-rate illustrations, we too can feel that we are examining these early books, sharing their beauty, learning of their importance and their long and complex histories.
Above all I loved this book as a celebration of scholarship refuting the ridiculous comments regarding experts we have heard recently. Experts this painstaking, knowledgeable and inquisitive are to be welcomed – especially when they communicate with such wit and enjoyment. ~ Sue Baker
Like for Like Reading
Books of Hours, Phaidon Editors
Bestiary, Richard Barber
Wolfson History Prize Judges: “Imaginatively conceived, beautifully written and illustrated… de Hamel offers serious new insights in every chapter.”
Reviewed by Sue BakerSue Baker has for many years been a regular non-fiction reviewer to the book trade and is one of Lovereading's founder book experts.
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Christopher de Hamel Press Reviews
'Christopher de Hamel's exploration of medieval manuscripts - a dozen peaks from St Augustine to Chaucer and beyond, gorgeously and copiously illustrated - is itself an extraordinary book, a work of scholarship and history salted with the author's excitement as he conducts us among the great libraries of Western civilization. It is full of delights' -- Tom Stoppard
'A book of marvels' -- John Banville, Financial Times
'Great manuscripts are the reclusive stars of European cultural history; to be close to one is to enter a secret garden to which few have ever been granted access. With scholarly elegance, Christopher de Hamel opens the door and invites us to join him for the intellectual expedition of a lifetime. As he introduces us to twelve star manuscripts in their sanctuary homes, these complex creations emerge as major players in the great game of ideas and power. They are agents as well as creatures, with histories that embrace and explain our own. This is an endlessly fascinating and enjoyable book.' -- Neil MacGregor, Spectacular
'... If I could walk you to your nearest bookshop, take GBP30 from your wallet, and place this wonderful book in your hands, I would' -- Peter Thonemann, Sunday Times
'Truth, as this entrancing book proves, is wonderfully stranger than fiction. Christopher de Hamel's learned adventures amid some of the West's greatest manuscript treasures effortlessly outclass Eco's The Name of the Rose in elegance and excitement. They are also much funnier.' -- Diarmaid MacCulloch
About Christopher de Hamel
In the course of a long career at Sotheby's Christopher de Hamel has probably handled and catalogued more illuminated manuscripts and over a wider range than any person alive. Since 2000, he has been Fellow and Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The Parker Library, in his care, includes many of the earliest manuscripts in English language and history. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society.
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