Western European Illuminated Manuscripts

Anyone fortunate enough to have actually held a medieval manuscript in his hands must have felt excited at this immediate contact with the past. Both famous and unknown authors wrote philosophical, natural scientific and theological treatises, romances about knights and courtly love; humanists and theologists translated and commented upon the classical literature of antiquity; travellers wrote descriptions of their incredible journeys; and ascetic chroniclers recorded and kept alive the historic events of their times for future generations.