The History of Alexander the Great reproduces in color all fourteen images from a fifteenth-century manuscript, now part of the J. Paul Getty Museum collection. One of the finest illuminated secular manuscripts produced in the Netherlands during the fifteenth century, the manuscript features miniatures that illustrate important episodes from the short life of the legendary conqueror of the ancient world, Alexander the Great. Titled Les fais d'Alexandre le grant, the manuscript is itself a translation of a text attributed to first-century Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, whose Latin text is one of the principal literary sources for our knowledge of Alexander.
Scot McKendrick's authoritative text places the Getty's manuscript within its context as an account of Alexander's life and as a striking example of the illuminator's art. McKendrick explains how the text and illuminations have much to tell us about the politics and aesthetics of the Burgundian Netherlands and the development of secular culture in Western Europe.
Scot McKendrick is curator of manuscripts at the British Library and is a teacher in the history of books at London University. He is joint editor of the Summary Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts in the British Library, and assistant editor of the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts (New series) 1976-1980. He has lectured and published extensively on late medieval illuminated manuscripts and tapestries.
This title is out of print. Please look for it at your local libraries and/or used bookstores.
Series: Monographs on Illuminated Manuscripts
|
