I had the afternoon off work on Monday after visiting an author in London and before going to watch Penn and Teller Fool Us being filmed (it was amazing) so I popped to the V and A for a browse.
I especially liked the Medieval Europe section which had a massive light filled room filled with Italian and French religious sculptures, huge doors etc. but in a darker room I found these sexy little beasts. Sorry the quality isn’t great, I took them on my phone and obviously didn’t want to use my flash.
Some nice illumination in these medieval books
I wrote a post the other day about my first favourite book, and I was saying that part of what I liked was that the pictures allowed me to tell myself the stories even before I was able to read. It seems that medieval artists had a similar idea because these ivory carvings show stories from the Bible to help illiterate worshippers access the stories.
Scenes depicting bible stories
But being a bit of a magpie, what really caught my eye was….
The manuscript dates from 1025-1050 AD and was said to be a gift to Sion Cathedral from the Emperor Charlemagne, so they decided to honour it by blinging it up in this gold, enamel and jewel binding around 1180-1200. Amazing.
How much will one of those set me back?
God, they are BEAUTIFUL! Do you know if they’re permanent installations in the V&A? I’d love to have a little trip down to see them 🙂
They looked pretty permanent. I’d grab a travel card and head over to the British Museum while you’re at it. I bought four books in their bookshop today. They’re open until 8pm on a Friday which is great after work. Next London outing planned is the British Library. Bet they have some sexy books in there!
Oh, those are gorgeous. Looking at them helps me understand a little why my sister went all the way to Cambridge to study (fairly) ancient texts . . . !