This book catalogues the rich and mostly unstudied illumination of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Scott has made a selection of 140 illuminated books with perceptive insight; she includes those containing the finest works of art and also many illuminations that accompany some of the great masterpieces of Middle English literature. Among the magnificent liturgical works catalogued are the Carmelite, Abingdon, and Sherborne Missals, the Bedford Hours, and the Lovell Lectionary. Illustrated editions of Chaucer, Lydgate, and Gower are included; medical, botanical, and typographical books are represented, in addition to works of chivalry and chronicles of the Kings of England. Presenting a fifteenth-century view of court, church, and the taste for decoration and ornamentation, this book will interest historians of art and society.