Sara J. Charles, The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages. London, Reaktion Books, 2024, 349 pp., 48 color ill., 8 b/w ill.

This ambitious study satisfies in many ways. In seven chapters – bookended by an introduction and a brief conclusion – Charles explores the broad landscapes of early European book production, told as a journey. A fictional vignette introduces the topic of each chapter, engaging the reader with both real and made-up personalities from the medieval world, encouraging imagination and open-mindedness. Throughout, the extraordinary crafts involved in medieval book production are paired with the very effective diffusion of knowledge transported through the texts, whether original or, more frequently, copied. Hence, the reader receives a concise intellectual history of early and medieval Europe.