Renaissance Manuscripts: The Sixteenth Century

This publication is the second volume in a multi-part reference work which will survey, catalogue and illustrate French manuscript illumination from the 7th to the 16th century. The first volume, Romanesque Manuscripts: the Twelfth Century, by Walter Cahn, was published in 1997. The present volume covers the Renaissance period. The catalogue gives detailed information about format, style and iconography, contents, provenance and literature for each manuscript, and is particularly valuable for the identification of different artists' and scribes' hands. The corpus of illustrations complements the catalogue and provides a much needed visual conspectus of Renaissance book illumination. This volume will serve scholars and collectors as a definitive reference book for an understanding of the variety and artistic excellence of French Renaissance illumination.