Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

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Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is one of the least likely and most wonderful books I have ever read.

The St Augustine Gospels, “the oldest non-archaeological artefact of any kind to have survived in England”, are housed there. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors. Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual. As De Hamel points out, the reformed Church of England was not as rigorously anti-Catholic as its continental equivalents. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

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.

Two of the manuscripts visited are now in libraries of North America, the Morgan Library in New York and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Oh and this should also be made into an audiobook narrated by Mr Hamel himself (especially as the size makes it near impossible for a commute read for those who like to do that, unless you get the paperback version which is not recommended for the reasons above! Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts allows us to experience some of the greatest works of art in our culture to give us a different perspective on history and on how we come by knowledge.It's a beautiful book (I'm referring to the hardcover, as another reviewer mentions don't bother with the paperback, completely different level of quality, size is small so you can't appreciate the photos of manuscripts as well as other illustrations and most annoyingly, all photos/illustrations are in black and white and the paper quality is noticeably lower! With scholarly elegance, Christopher de Hamel opens the door and invites us to join him for the intellectual expedition of a lifetime. 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. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World is a 2017 book by historian Christopher de Hamel that explores the European medieval world through an in-depth study of 12 illuminated manuscripts. In a marvellous chapter, De Hamel communicates his excitement at holding the famous Chaucer manuscript at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

Christopher de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, collectors and the international community of manuscript scholars, showing us how he and his fellows piece together evidence to reach unexpected conclusions. Deeply imaginative, beautifully written, and unfailingly humane, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts distils a lifelong love of these astonishing historical treasures, which the author brings so vividly to life. Christopher de Hamel has turned a lifelong obsession with ancient literature into a book that critics are comparing to A History of the World in 100 Objects and the wonderful The Hare with Amber Eyes . I am a happier and fuller person because this fine man took me on his Grand Tour and told me so many marvelous things. When not awed by the sheer scope of his expertise or absorbed by his concerted efforts to decipher script or dissect scripture, we are diverted by his light flourishes and witty evaluations.Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the reader into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history – and about the modern world, too. Christopher de Hamel is one of the world’s leading palaeographers … In this splendid new book he has numerous fascinating, scandalous, funny and gloriously entertaining tales. A delight to read and contemplate the deep erudition of the author and his experience with these fantastic manuscripts.