Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp

From the 16th to the 19th century, illuminated manuscripts were acquired by the great printer-publisher Christophe Plantin and his Moretus successors and descendants. Ranging in date from the 9th to the mid-16th centuries, the manuscripts come from all over Europe, chiefly from the Southern Netherlands and France with a significant representation of 15th-century illumination from the Northern Netherlands. More surprisingly, about a quarter of the collection comes from England: manuscripts of the 10th to 15th centuries that left the country with Catholic refugees. Alongside the acknowledged masterpieces and rarities are volumes that have remained virtually unknown, their aesthetic appeal and historical or textual interest often passing unnoticed in the absence of published reproductions. In this beautifully produced catalogue, each of the 102 volumes is illustrated in colour, with more extensive coverage of the 55 volumes with the most rewarding illumination. For the first time it is possible to gauge the extent and nature of this small but important collection. Initially obtained for their texts to inform the editions printed by the Plantin-Moretus press, the manuscripts came to be valued for their illumination and status as historical artefacts, the motivations behind a renewed phase of collecting in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Together they form a fascinating and under-explored collection, still housed in the building on the Vrijdagmarkt in Antwerp to which Plantin moved his famous sign of the Golden Compasses in 1576.To mark the publication of this catalogue the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, and Illuminare (KU Leuven)presented the exhibition Magnificent Middle Ages. The Museum Plantin-Moretus’ Finest Manuscripts, 2 February – 5 May 2013nrpages: 303status: publishe