Manuscript: Did you mean...?

God surrounded by seraphim, illustration from the illuminated manuscript Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, 14th-century. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

This is the first folio of the manuscripts of the Excerpta de Virtutibus et Vitiis, stored in Tours, France. It is part of the Constantinian Excerpts, a Byzantine encyclopedia compiled in the 10th...

A medieval manuscript illustration showing the deathbed of Joan I of Navarre (1273-1305) who served as queen of Navarre and countess of Champagne and Brie between 1274 and 1305. (British Library)

Iceland's National Treasure: The Flateyjarbók A presentation of the extraordinary manuscript of Flatey, the largest Icelandic medieval manuscript, made up of no fewer than 225 vellum leaves! How it came...

Illuminated manuscripts are handwritten books that are highly decorated in precious materials like gold or silver. The use of metallic materials like gold and silver is what gives these texts their...

Marco Polo (1254-1324 CE) was a Venetian merchant and explorer who travelled to China and served the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan (l. 1214-1294 CE) between c. 1275 and 1292 CE. Polo's adventures are recounted in his own writings, The...

Lao-Tzu (l. c. 500 BCE, also known as Laozi or Lao-Tze) was a Chinese philosopher credited with founding the philosophical system of Taoism. He is best known as the author of the Laozi (later retitled the Tao-Te-Ching translated as “The...

Johannes Gutenberg (l. c. 1398-1468) was the inventor of the printing press (c. 1450) who seems to have developed the device from wine and oil presses of the time. Gutenberg’s printing press not only revolutionized book making...

Petrarch (1304-1374 CE), full name Francesco Petrarca, was an Italian scholar and poet who is credited as one of the founders of the Renaissance movement in art, thought, and literature. Petrarch actively searched for 'lost' ancient...

Byzantine art (4th - 15th century CE) is generally characterised by a move away from the naturalism of the Classical tradition towards the more abstract and universal, there is a definite preference for two-dimensional representations...