The Art & Science of Illuminated Manuscripts: A Handbook, ed. Stella Panayotova. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2020, 528 pp., numerous color ill.

This book was produced to crown Stella Panayotova’s career as curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (apparently, she is now affiliated with The Royal Library, Windsor, UK). As its subtitle indicates, it intends to serve as a handbook for medievalists interested in manuscript studies, especially manuscript illustrations. Here we face the most interesting close collaboration of scientists and art historians, and all contributors to the present volume make strong efforts to draw from the latest understandings of medieval paints and painting techniques. That new information makes it possible to trace much better than before the origins of the basic elements for the paints, which hence sheds light on international trade routes. We can now also try to develop a more precise dating of medieval works of art, here based on manuscript illuminations. Numerous research teams from Antwerp, Catania, Cologne, Getty, Washington, DC (NGA), Padua, Paris, Durham, UK, and the Fitzwilliam provided their assistance.