How the Bibliography is Organized

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The Annotated Bibliography grew out of my frustration with catalogues. Few booksellers are going to say anything detrimental about the books they carry in their catalogue; this lead me to purchase some books that I would never have bought had the "description" been more of a description and less of a sales pitch. In some cases, even just a description of the art-style of the book would have been wonderfully helpful.

Do remember that the following are the opinions of one woman. Your thoughts may vary on some of these references. I am always looking for the best reference for creating an item that looks very like those produced in the Middle Ages; hence, these reviews are slanted towards that end. At the end of each synopsis, you will find one of four phrases: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Somewhat Recommended, Not Recommended. I must again emphasize that these are all subjective, based on my interests. There are so many good books available on the subject that it would be hard not to find something that you like. And, no matter how good a book might be, if you are only interested in Celtic work, for instance, no book on Italian calligraphy of the fourteenth century will ever compare. I would also note that I have quite a lot of these books in my personal library, so even a Somewhat Recommended book is probably worth serious consideration when you are about to plunk your money down.

Like many people, I have chosen to connect my book list to Amazon.com; therefore, if you are interested in a particular book, you may click the link and, if it is available, purchase it from Amazon.com. For now, I have the Bibliography set up with a "Search Amazon.com" link. If a particular book interests you, cut the title and paste it into the search link at the bottom of the page. Eventually, I will also link up those books still available, but that is an involved process that I'm too busy to take care of right now. Amazon.com does have an out-of-print service, but it seemed to me cruel to link up books that you can't be certain of getting. A shock to me: many of the books I purchased within the last few years are already out of print or indefinitely out of stock (i.e., the warehouse is empty and there is no plan for another print run. Why this is different from out of print, I do not know.) If you really want a book, get it if you can.

There are currently about 200 annotated references in the bibliography, between the main bibliography and the suplimentary bibliographies, and at least another 100 lined up for review. That's a lot of text. As a nod to the more limited browsers, each page is fairly short, with few graphics.

The entries are structured so:

Author. Title. Publisher. Review.

Some entries contain small symbols within brackets; these are links to related websites. Please use your back key to return to the bibliography.

The bibliography is divided into several loose categories of books. When one book fit into more than one category, it was placed into the category seeming most appropriate at that particular moment (i.e., at whim).

1. Technique and Texts: includes instructional manuals, textbooks on the history of writing, et cetera.

2. Facsimiles and Studies: includes facsimiles, near-facsimiles (more than 50% but not all pages of manuscript reproduced), and studies of single manuscripts.

3. Surveys: books studying illuminated manuscripts in general, using many different manuscripts as illustration, exhibit publications (also called exhibit catalogues) produced in conjunction with major exhibits of manuscripts, et cetera.

I anticipate the creation of a fourth category, containing miscellaneous books that do not have illumination and calligraphy as their focus, but which nonetheless contain information of interest to the scribe.

Currently active pages are:

• Part 1: Technique and Texts.
  
• Part 2: Facsimiles and Studies.
  
• Part 3: Surveys, page 1 and page 2.
  
• Books used in support of a project and not necessarily included in the main bibliography.
  
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 1: Dutch Pater Noser Page
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 2: Japanese Calligraphy Class
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 3: Franco-Flemish Troempe-l'oiel Page
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 4:English Illuminated Document
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 5: Period Paints, period manuals
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 6:Whitevine and Goldvine
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 7: Another couple calligraphy/paleography references
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 8: Discussion of period colors.
  • Supplimentary Bibliography 9: Miscellaneous books illustrated with illuminated manuscripts and documents.

  Note that, throughout the site, books not included in the main bibliography (Part 1, 2, and 3, above) are indicated by a dot. All supplimentary bibliographies contain at least one book not in the main bibliography.

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