Understanding illuminated manuscripts

A Fine Art Facsimile Edition without a comprehensive scholarly commentary is a mere torso. We at Faksimile Verlag Luzern always entrust internationally reputed experts to comment on the illuminated manuscript destined for reproduction. Often a whole team of scholars work on a manuscript using an interdisciplinary approach. Art historians, philologists, codicologists and palaeographers co-operate closely to make all details of these age-old magnificent manuscripts accessible to today's readers and viewers. There is no way that we may renounce on a commentary concerning the historical background of the manuscript in question: Who commissioned it, who owned it?

Understandable explanations

Both the editor, the publishing house as such, and the lecturer, insist that the text of the commentary volumes be comprehensible even for interested lay readers. The scholarly texts not only address researchers but also collectors and art lovers interested in learning more about both picture and texts. The commentary thus teaches us how to view the pictures and read the original text in the proper way. All commentary volumes contain a precise codicological description of the manuscript, i.e. of its outer appearance, in order to convince the reader of the faithfulness and quality of the Fine Art Facsimile Edition he holds in his hands. Both text and pictorial contents of the precious book are explained together with material aspects.

The commentary volume deciphers and reveals all meanings for the contemporary reader. It bridges the gap to long-gone centuries, leading us into a world which most people today ignore.

Scholars of international renown

Since our standards for the quality of commentaries are very high, we work with the best experts in the world. Umberto Eco, Bernhard Meehan, Jonathan J.G. Alexander, Ellen J. Beer, François Avril, Eberhard König, Bernhard Bischoff, Florentine Mütherich, Otto Mazal, James, H. Marrow, Piter Fl.j. Obbema, Johannes Duft, Gudolf Keil, Raymond Cazelles, Gerhard Schmidt, Dagmar Thoss, Hermann Fillitz, to quote but a few, are among the authors working for our house. It is a matter of course for us to have commentary texts translated by experts in their field. Commentary volumes, just like the Fine Art Facsimile Editions themselves, must meet our highest standards of quality.