The British Library’s current exhibition, Royal Manuscripts The Genius of Illumination, is a triumph.
The show draws its material primarily from the Royal Library that was given to the nation in 1757 and includes more than 150 of the most exquisite and ancient illuminated manuscripts to be found in Europe.
Visitors enter past a short display that describes how such manuscripts were made – by monks and scribes writing and illustrating upon parchment made sheepskin and vellum, from calfskin.
Their paints were created from the likes of lapis lazuli (blue) and minium (red) – hence, the display explains, the word miniature.
