Foreign illuminators and illuminated manuscripts

Abstract

No account of the history of the manuscript book in Britain in the fifteenth century would be complete without a discussion of the extent to which foreigners were involved in the native book trade, and of the several manuscripts written and illuminated abroad which were imported at this time. This chapter distinguishes five classes of production and/or importation of books. First, foreign illuminators may have themselves migrated to work in England. Secondly, manuscripts may have been made abroad and then imported and sold in England speculatively to buyers who had not specifically commissioned them. Thirdly, owners may have acquired manuscripts abroad and brought them back to England. Fourthly, manuscripts may have been sent from abroad as gifts. Fifthly, manuscripts may have been specially commissioned abroad by owners who remained in or returned to England. In the later Middle Ages, certain major patrons attached illuminators to themselves as household servants, the Duke de Berry being a well-known example.

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