navahx's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Definitely going to listen again, pre-ordering his next book (or requesting from the library)
laughterbynight's review against another edition
2.0
De hamel is a piece of work and being dragged off on tangents while attempting to learn more about the manuscripts he’s supposed to be focused on in this book was a chore. It does not help that his ego and classism are inescapable at every turn, though he seems almost wholly unaware of it, somehow.
I can’t recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn specifically about illuminated manuscripts. It’s just not really about that. They’re there, but they feel like background for everything else the author talks about, which is both a shame and waste of a reader’s time in my opinion.
This book feels like it’s for the Christian scholar who is looking to learn more about the author and the historical background of some key characters in history who might have owned or commissioned these manuscripts. Expect untranslated Latin, references to passages in the Bible you’re expected to know, and lots of snarky classist quips about anybody and everybody. Park the ego with your non existent car, dude. It’s a lot.
I can’t recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn specifically about illuminated manuscripts. It’s just not really about that. They’re there, but they feel like background for everything else the author talks about, which is both a shame and waste of a reader’s time in my opinion.
This book feels like it’s for the Christian scholar who is looking to learn more about the author and the historical background of some key characters in history who might have owned or commissioned these manuscripts. Expect untranslated Latin, references to passages in the Bible you’re expected to know, and lots of snarky classist quips about anybody and everybody. Park the ego with your non existent car, dude. It’s a lot.
bub_9's review against another edition
4.0
This is just delightful and a really fun way of introducing an unbelievably esoteric world of medieval texts to the average reader (with much thanks to the beautiful illustrations). The author does a brilliant job of exploring the intricacies and historical exigencies of each work and its context of production which, one feels, is a process which might someday be performed upon the works we produce and consume in our present moment.
Here are the 12 subjects of the fascinating "meetings" the author has:
1. Gospels of Saint Augustine
2. The Codex Amiatinus
3. The Book of Kells
4. The Leiden Aratea
5. The Morgan Beatus
6. Hugo Pictor
7. The Copenhagen Psalter
8. The Carmina Burana
9. The Hours of Jeanne de Navarre
10. The Hengwrt Chaucer
11. The Visconti Semideus
12. The Spinola Hours
Here are the 12 subjects of the fascinating "meetings" the author has:
1. Gospels of Saint Augustine
2. The Codex Amiatinus
3. The Book of Kells
4. The Leiden Aratea
5. The Morgan Beatus
6. Hugo Pictor
7. The Copenhagen Psalter
8. The Carmina Burana
9. The Hours of Jeanne de Navarre
10. The Hengwrt Chaucer
11. The Visconti Semideus
12. The Spinola Hours
author_d_r_oestreicher's review against another edition
4.0
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel is a massive tome of over 600 pages, 200 color illustrations, and weighing more than two pounds (1 kg). It is part memoir, travelogue, history, and mystery. It chronicles European illuminated manuscripts from the earliest (6th century) to end (16th century) caused by Gutenberg’s invention in the mid-15th century.
While not a history of everyday life, this European medieval history, pays minimal attention to wars or politics. If you are interested in Medieval history or art, this is a unique opportunity to visit the period from a different point of view.
For my lengthy book club report: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/03/meetings-with-remarkable-manuscripts-by.html
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.
While not a history of everyday life, this European medieval history, pays minimal attention to wars or politics. If you are interested in Medieval history or art, this is a unique opportunity to visit the period from a different point of view.
For my lengthy book club report: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/03/meetings-with-remarkable-manuscripts-by.html
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.
nicktomjoe's review against another edition
5.0
"I hope that these encounters had conveyed some sense of the thrill of the pursuit and the simple pleasure of meeting an original manuscript, and asking it questions and listening to its replies." De Hamel has pitched it exactly. I love this book, wholeheartedly, a scholar writing with insight and passion - and wit and lively description.
mollye1836's review against another edition
5.0
This book would be a delight even if you only considered the multiple, full-page, high-resolution, splendidly colored images of the manuscripts discussed. And there are so many!!!!! It is really a feast for the eyes.
I know that I enjoyed this book so much partly because I am working in special collections. It feels like sharing a great inside joke with someone you admire (which is how I feel about most of the people in this field, the special collections field).
It’s also very human. I was pleased as punch to find my eye landing on a bright green parrot on a Netherlandish page, only to find on the following page that the author has something to say about it, that that same detail jumped out at him. My eyes were drawn to medieval children playing in the margins and I wonder what became of them.
This field is as much about studying rare books as it is about studying the people who handled and commissioned them. It is a highly emotionally charged history—one of the items discussed was plucked by Göring during the Second World War. There are also just ordinary people who handled them—clergy, civil servants, municipal librarians, noblewomen. These precious objects touch each of us differently and I was so happy to see someone, a leader in this field no less, discuss that secret history—the passage of these objects through time, how they came to be and why they matter now.
Medieval art is often depicted to laypeople as crude, naïve, and primitive. The beautiful pictures with de Hamel’s commentary are so full of life, I found myself smiling and laughing more frequently than you might think for someone reading historical non-fiction.
The only drawback is that sometimes there is too much information to absorb. That isn’t a criticism of de Hamel because more information is always better, in my opinion, but it does make it difficult to retain information (at least for me, I’ve had some memory issues since my seizure). But that just means I will read it again soon!
I know that I enjoyed this book so much partly because I am working in special collections. It feels like sharing a great inside joke with someone you admire (which is how I feel about most of the people in this field, the special collections field).
It’s also very human. I was pleased as punch to find my eye landing on a bright green parrot on a Netherlandish page, only to find on the following page that the author has something to say about it, that that same detail jumped out at him. My eyes were drawn to medieval children playing in the margins and I wonder what became of them.
This field is as much about studying rare books as it is about studying the people who handled and commissioned them. It is a highly emotionally charged history—one of the items discussed was plucked by Göring during the Second World War. There are also just ordinary people who handled them—clergy, civil servants, municipal librarians, noblewomen. These precious objects touch each of us differently and I was so happy to see someone, a leader in this field no less, discuss that secret history—the passage of these objects through time, how they came to be and why they matter now.
Medieval art is often depicted to laypeople as crude, naïve, and primitive. The beautiful pictures with de Hamel’s commentary are so full of life, I found myself smiling and laughing more frequently than you might think for someone reading historical non-fiction.
The only drawback is that sometimes there is too much information to absorb. That isn’t a criticism of de Hamel because more information is always better, in my opinion, but it does make it difficult to retain information (at least for me, I’ve had some memory issues since my seizure). But that just means I will read it again soon!