Description

This book is the second in a continuing series of publications listing and identifying all illustrations contained in English manuscripts from the time of Chaucer to Henry VIII. This was a prolific period in the history of English book production, and the range of subject-matter illustrated is of significance of all historians, whether of art, religion, costume, natural science, and above all social custom. The manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, are the first to be catalogued. These are listed here in alphabetical order of the Library's collections, and the present volume deals with all the imagery in collections Dodsworth to Marshall. A third volume will complete all material found in the Bodleian Library. The catalogue is introduced by a helpful User's Guide which explains the basis for research and the categories of subject-matter adopted by the editors. Entries are numbered consecutively for ease of reference, and every illustration is noted, from full-page narrative miniatures and historiated initials to king's heads, marginalia and nota bene signs.