The Posthumous Papers Of The Manuscripts Club

By (author) Hamel Christopher de
Description

The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history

The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. But we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence.

This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years. A monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe, a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America - all of them were participants in what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscripts Club.

This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel''s unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion which crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been.

In 1850 (or thereabouts) John Ruskin bought his first manuscript ''at a bookseller''s in a back alley''. This was his reaction: ''The new worlds which every leaf of this book opened to me, and the joy I had in counting their letters and unravelling their arabesques as if they had all been of beaten gold - as many of them were - cannot be told.'' The members of de Hamel''s club share many such wonders, which he brings to us with scholarship, style, and a lifetime''s experience.

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Reading the Posthumous Papers is like taking a walk in excellent company ... an exceptional book, and itself an object worth cherishing.
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This book can be enjoyed on so many levels. The illustrations are exquisite and the writing ... is intelligent, illuminating, voluptuous and mischievous. The members of the club are brought to life with sensitivity; we can''t help but find their nerdiness endearing. ... The most delightful feature of this book is, however, the author. I''ve never encountered one so willing to bare his soul, without ever explicitly setting out to do so. He throws open the doors to his world, exposing its beguiling nature. Sit at my table, he says, feast on what I adore. "The Club is still open for membership . . . All applicants are warmly admitted."''
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In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eight centuries - de Hamel imagines meeting them, sharing precious discoveries, trading gossip. The illustrations emit a light of their own, but what shines even brighter is the author''s boyish enthusiasm for his subject.
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a beautifully produced and magnificently surprising journey through the history of how and why people have wanted to collect manuscripts. An impossibly recondite subject, you might think; but it turns out to have a lot to do with all sorts of things about how we make sense of our histories and cultures - and it introduces us to a gallery of unforgettable characters.
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Christopher de Hamel ... has the rare capacity to turn a scholarly specialism into a humane and humorous adventure. ... De Hamel retains an almost lyr