Meeting with Remarkable Manuscripts (HAMEL, Christopher de)

‘Christopher de Hamel’s exploration of medieval manuscripts - a dozen peaks from St Augustine to Chaucer and beyond, gorgeously and copiously illustrated - is itself an extraordinary book, a work of scholarship and history salted with the author’s excitement as he conducts us among the great libraries of Western civilization. It is full of delights, as well as surprising reminders of the shifting ground of knowledge.’ - TOM STOPPARD

‘Great manuscripts are the reclusive stars of European cultural history; to be close to one is to enter a secret garden to which few have ever been granted access. With scholarly elegance, Christopher de Hamel opens the door and invites us to join him for the intellectual expedition of a lifetime. As he introduces us to twelve star manuscripts in their sanctuary homes, these complex creations emerge as major players in the great game of ideas and power. They are agents as well as creatures, with histories that embrace and explain our own. This is an endlessly fascinating and enjoyable book.’ - NEIL MacGREGOR

‘Truth, as this entrancing book proves, is wonderfully stranger than fiction. 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. They are also much funnier.’ - DIARMAID MacCULLOCH

‘Reading is my life, but only about once a decade do I find a book that seems to tilt the world, so afterwards it appears different.’ - FIAMMETTA ROCCO, THE ECONOMIST '1843'