January 30, 2003
Codices Illustres
One of the two art-books I ordered back at the top of the month arrived yesterday: Codices Illustres, an illustrated survey of...
...the world's most famous manuscripts... From The Book of Kells to Boccaccio's Decameron and from the Vienna Genesis to Dante's Divine Comedy, this lavishly produced book introduces the reader to the fascinating world of mediaeval miniature painting and illumination.
It is indeed a large and handsome volume, well designed and beautifully-illustrated.
I ordered it from Strand Books of New York via the abebooks service. I was amused to read Strand's tag-line 8 miles of books!, which their website backs up with an offer to sell books by the foot. It still worked out cheaper to buy what I assume was a remaindered copy from the US, rather than to order one new from the UK. Now I'm wondering whether I can find a similarly advantageous deal on Alberto Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, also published by Taschen.
I've accumulated a few Taschen publications now. I bought their book on M.C. Escher years ago, and, more recently, their collection of the graphic works of Piranesi. For Christmas, my wife bought me their Masterpieces of Western Art volume as a stocking-filler, and, in the meantime, she picked up All-American Ads: '50s, which, although I was uncertain if it would be my cup of tea, I nevertheless found very absorbing.
Between two of the pages in Codices Illustres was a loose fold-out card advertising the products of a different kind of publisher... Faksimile Verlag of Lucerne, who specialise in de-luxe reproductions of the very illuminated manuscripts described in the pages of the book I was reading. A glance at their website confirmed my suspicion that they were catering for a different stratum of clientele, what with its ominous mention of payment in comfortable instalments. Their edition of the Book of Kells for example, retails at over 14,000 US dollars!
