Artist: Mariano del Buono (Italian, 1433–1504). Date: second half 15th century. Geography: Made in Florence, Italy. Culture: Italian. Medium: Tempera, ink...

They may look like props from a Harry Potter film, but the manuscripts in this sumptuous show are expressionist art, as full of emotion as a Van Gogh painting

A book of hours was a prayer book containing prayers for specific hours of the day, days of the week, etc. Books of hours were usually beautifully illuminated.

#OpChangeTheWorld2 🌎 This book without author, written in an unknown language and adorned with strange… by anarcho-pirate

How do you spice up the dull task of copying line after line of a medieval manuscript? Some monks added lighthearted touches to the marginalia of their manuscripts by doodling murderous beasts, penis monsters, and lots and lots of butts. Some images below are NSFW.

Doctor Gerard Cheshire, from Bristol University, claims he cracked one of the world's most mysterious texts, the Voynich manuscript, a medieval text which has eluded scholars for years.

Yo, medieval scribes: no one's going to read the text you so painstakingly lettered if you continue to draw weird and dirty pictures in the margins. Well, I guess you're all dead, so we can't fix this now, can we?

The Golden Haggadah was created in Catalonia, Spain sometime around 1320. So named because all the illustrations are placed against a patterned gold-leaf background, it is a ritual object of incredible luxury and expense Pascal Croci's graphic novel, Auschwitz, begins with a question to a witness from Auschwitz-Birkenau; “How long have you been keeping all this to yourself?” The answer, “Fifty-two years,” is shocking. The novel that follows provides a glimpse into the reason why these experiences are almost impossible to speak about. And in doing so Croci uncovers more than a terrible history, he points to an intolerable present.

When the edges take center stage.

Musicians from a Beatus of Liébana ms. from the first half of the tenth century. Wikimedia Commons By Jessica Knauss The complexity of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages has led to many different terms to refer to the distinct sectors of its multireligious, multicultural society. “Mozarabic” originally referred to the Christians who were allowed to continue practicing their faith under Muslim government, and later expanded to include the Iberian Christians who lived outside those territories as well. The time frame remains strict: it describes Moorish political dominance, from the seventh through the eleventh centuries. Christ in Majesty from a Moralia in Job completed in Valeranica, 945. Wikimedia Commons This time frame sets the characters from my Seven Noble Knights, which takes place in 974 and 990, squarely within the Mozarabic culture. I’m fascinated with the distinctive art of this culture because it’s the aesthetic my characters would have been surrounded by. From a Beatus of Liébana completed in Osma. Wikimedia Commons In the most abundant type of art, manuscript illumination, bright colors, almond-shaped eyes, elongated hands, and disregard for realism are the characteristics that most stand out for me. Perhaps the colors, bright enough to burn modern eyes, are the result of dim lighting in buildings with small windows. The lack of realism may have come about in part because the most popular work of literature at the time was a commentary on the Apocalypse, with all its fantastic creatures and events, by a monk called Beatus of Liébana. The Monastery "de Suso" at San Millán de la Cogolla is a rare example of Mozarabic architecture. Jessica Knauss It’s assumed that the driving force of Mozarabic art is a blending of older, revered Visigothic styles with adaptations from Arabic sources. However, it’s hard to trace the continuance of Visigothic style due to a general lack of surviving Visigothic sources. Much important architecture constructed during the Visigothic and Mozarabic periods no longer exists because in later generations it was demolished to make way for new styles. Although the Arabic inspirations in Mozarabic art are more obvious, they’re not easy to interpret. Some see a criticism of these borrowings embedded in the borrowings themselves because of the frontier nature of this art and the antagonism between the religions. Others prefer to think Mozarabic artists admired Arabic styles for their elegance as much as they admired Visigothic styles for their heritage. The Ark of the Covenant in the San Isidoro Bible, 960. Wikimedia Commons In The Art of Medieval Spain, O. K. Werkmeister illustrates that the Mozarabic attitude toward Arabic art sources seems to reflect the current state of the prolonged conflict. These monks were often working on the front lines and witnessed skirmishes and battles firsthand. The San Isidoro Bible of 960 illustrates Philistines riding in a style probably copied from Islamic art. In this way, the Bible story of intense fighting against frightening enemies became an allegory for the conflict the monks and lay people saw all around them. From the Beatus of Liébana of Girona, 975. Wikimedia Commons Fifty years later, the attitude seems to have flipped. A decorative casket Caliph Hisham II gave to his Sword of the Realm as part of a reward for conquering León was looted in a raid and brought back to a Christian church to serve as a reliquary for the bones of two Mozarabic martyrs. This reappropriation is the ultimate form of adaptation from Arabic sources. The casket could only be accepted as Christian at this exact moment in history, when the Caliphate of Córdoba was in decay and the enemy forces didn’t seem as threatening as before. The Whore of Babylon in the Girona Beatus. Wikimedia Commons Unique among European manuscript illumination of this period, the frontier monks nearly always left detailed colophons signing their work and stating the reasons and patrons for which it was made. Such signatures likely imitated the way artists claimed their work in the Muslim-governed territories, where artists had considerable social standing. It seems reasonable that the Mozarabic monks had similar artistic and cultural aspirations. Historians thank them for leaving such accurately self-conscious records. From "Facundus" ms. of Fernando I and Sancha of Castile, mid-eleventh century. Wikimedia Commons The Mozarabic monastic tradition wouldn’t last long after the rise of the Romanesque artistic style. The only example of work attempting to bridge the styles or to absorb Mozarabic sensibilities into international Romanesque are the manuscripts patronized by Fernando I and Sancha of Castile in the mid-eleventh century. For me, these manuscripts happily combine the old surrealism with a new, more complex control of contours. But there were no monastic centers that could juggle the two styles for long. Noah's ark, painted in Urgell. Wikimedia Commons Nevertheless, Mozarabic art was no flash in the pan. Something essential about it, perhaps its severity or its emotional impact, has remained in Spanish art. Many commentators draw a straight line between the San Isidoro Bible of 960 and Picasso’s Guernica. Jessica Knauss earned her PhD in medieval Spanish with a dissertation on the portrayal of Alfonso X’s laws in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which has been published as the five-star-rated Law and Order in Medieval Spain. Look for her book of stories based on the Cantigas, coming 2021. A driven fiction writer, Jessica Knauss has edited many fine historical novels and is a bilingual freelance editor. Her historical epic, Seven NobleKnights, will be published in December 2020 by Encircle Publications. Her contemporary paranormal Awash in Talent is now available from Kindle Press. Find out more about her writing and bookish activities here. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter, too!

The English language has been subject to change for thousands of years. Major events such as the Battle of Hastings, the invention of the printing press, and the standardization of spelling have drastically changed the way we speak. Understanding these changes, English continues to grow and change, adapting to the needs of the modern world and the future.

Illuminated manuscript, handwritten book decorated with gold or silver, brilliant colors, or elaborate designs or miniature pictures. The term ‘illumination’ originally denoted the embellishment of the text with gold or silver, giving the impression that the page had been literally illuminated.

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There are manuscripts that defy our technological progress — books composed of undecipherable languages and unknown symbols. Some authors thwarted discovery, while other scribes and their books are simply artifacts from a forgotten culture. These…

What I find most remarkable about the bookish slice of medieval society that I study is not so much the differences between medieval manuscripts and our modern books, but their similarities.

When your love is clear it is part of the infinite beyond. When your love is clear you are not concerned with cultural perceptions of time. You are not concerned with ‘and what happened afterwards’. Clear love is always beautiful as it bypasses worry and risk-taking. Clear love is beyond questions and answers, cultural and physical laws.

Did you know that thousands of images from the British Library's collections are available on our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts? Detail of a kneeling figure in a calendar for January (Germany, 13th century): London, British Library, MS Arundel 159, f. 1v Our catalogue enables you to search by keyword or...

This Homiliary was created in Gondar, Ethiopia during a period of artistic flowering in the late seventeenth century. The Imperial court and its accompanying aristocracy took up permanent residence in Gondar at this time, and the taste of these wealthy patrons for paintings and extensive image cycles is exemplified by this richly illuminated manuscript. The text, a Homiliary focused on the miracles of the Archangel Michael, combines liturgical readings with forty-nine brightly colored renderings of God, St. Michael, and the miracles related in the text. Sections of the manuscript would have been read aloud on monthly feast days of the Archangel, and the images would have punctuated the readings. The artists were likely trained as painters, rather than solely manuscript illuminators, and their art can therefore be linked stylistically to contemporary mural painting. The Archangel admonishing the man who swore in him lying. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

It is now less than one month until the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition opens at the British Library on 19 October. Today, we are delighted to announce that the Book of Durrow will be on display in the exhibition, on loan from the Library of Trinity College Dublin. This manuscript, dated...

Artist: Mariano del Buono (Italian, 1433–1504). Date: second half 15th century. Geography: Made in Florence, Italy. Culture: Italian. Medium: Tempera, ink...

Man wrestling a bear, from the 'Geese Book' Gradual, made in Germany, 1507-10 (via).

Selected pages from the Spätgotisches Musterbuch des Stephan Schriber, a manuscript which appears to be some kind of sketchbook, belonging to a fifteenth-century monk working in South-West Germany, where ideas and layouts for illuminated manuscripts were tried out and skills developed.

And you thought zombie comics were a recent idea? Over the centuries, medieval artists applied their talents to illustrate a mysterious tale of animated corpses who tormented the living.