Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

Product Information

Very little has changed in religious practice in Ethiopia since about the date of the Gospels of Saint Augustine,” De Hamel notes. 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. Half of the works here were written between the sixth and 11th centuries, when Vikings ruled the waves and men had names like Ecgfrith and Ceolfrith.

De Hamel makes an informative, entertaining book (the most suitable medium, after all), and no one but he could have written it.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!

Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is like meeting a very famous person. Unfortunately we cannot offer a refund on custom prints unless they are faulty or we have made a mistake.The independent-minded quarterly magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Encountering an original medieval manuscript is in some ways like encountering a famous person, says De Hamel. With scholarly elegance, Christopher de Hamel opens the door and invites us to join him for the intellectual expedition of a lifetime…This is an endlessly fascinating and enjoyable book.

Part travel book, part detective story, 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 pieces together evidence to reach unexpected conclusions. 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. 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. His passion for his work really comes through and this is an insight into a different world - Medieval Europe or Anglo-Saxon England, so unknown to us and yet a lot is relevant to human nature. Might-have-been moments in the lives of manuscripts are familiar to De Hamel, who for 25 years worked for Sotheby’s.Perhaps most important in discussing this magnificent work is to assure you that the overarching erudition is rendered clearly and with great kindness to you, his companion.