Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
by Christopher de Hamel
Publisher: Allen Lane
Published in 2016
ISBN-10: 0241003040
Reviewed for Volume 1 Issue 1 Winter 2023
The Review
Christopher de Hamel has created his own remarkable manuscript; part travelogue, part history part and review of books. This volume in twelve chapters spans 12 manuscripts from the 6th to the 16th centuries. It also takes the reader into a dozen very different museums, often to the parts the casual visitor cannot access, to touch these manuscripts that most of us will never get to handle.
The twelve manuscripts from the 6th Century Gospels of Saint Augustine, held at Corpus Christi Collage, Cambridge, to 16th century The Spinola Hours held in the JP Getty Museum in Los Angeles via The Book of Kells, in Dublin, the Carmina Burana, in Munich and eight other manuscripts around the world. Each one is of great historic importance but together in one illustrated book is something spectacular.
The chapters are self-contained and can be read in any order. For each there is the reason for choosing the particular manuscript, how the author gets to the Museum and his experience there. They all have their own character and architecture both literal and metaphysical.
Then you have the history of the manuscript itself. The content of which is also analysed and has a direct connection to the history of the time: webs within webs!
The author does, however, make the text, whilst accurate and precise, very readable. Details of the museum buildings and even the seating and refreshments crop up, coffee and pastry in an Italian monastery, so you can imagine being at these wonderful museums and archives. Of course as the author is a world class authority on manuscripts being both Fellow and Librarian at Corpus Christi Cambridge he has an easier path getting to handle these manuscripts than any of us ever will. In which case this book is the closest you can get to being there and with such a well informed and amiable guide.
The last parts, after the Epilogue, more of which later, are a comprehensive bibliography and index along with notes and precise list of illustrations. Readable this book certainly is but it also has full academic rigour so you can reference and follow up on any point.
I have had this book since it was published in 2016 and it is worth every penny. I never grow tired of it and from time to time, usually prompted by a TV program or some other research; I dive back into particular chapters.
The Epilogue, apparently written in an airport departure lounge, explains there are a lot of other manuscripts (in far flung museums) that could have been included giving food for thought that you might want to research them… So if you or a loved one is looking for a fascinating book with a long shelf life this is a great present. It is now in paperback but really you deserve the hardback if you can find it.
Video of Christopher de Hamel Talking about Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, introduced by William Dalrymple at Jaipur Literature Festival in 2019
