Suzanne Reynolds Book order

Drawing on works of art spanning four thousand years and from across the globe, this book explores the fundamental role of touch in human experience, and offers new ways of looking.

The manuscript library at Holkham is widely recognised as one of the most significant collections still in private hands. It consists of some 550 items, deriving chiefly from the libraries of lawyer and parliamentarian Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) and his eighteenth-century successor, the builder of Holkham, Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester (1697-1759). Chief Justice Coke's book include many texts on law, heraldry and religion, and are mainly of British origin; these will be catalogued in volume 2. Thomas Coke's library, however, was acquired through a series of large-scale purchases and gifts on his Grand Tour (1712-1718), and includes examples of the whole range of European book production from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. Here [vol. 1], the heart of the collection - manuscripts made in Italy in the Middle Ages and the age of humanism - is properly described for the first time.

Focusing on medieval literacy, the book explores how glosses—teachers' notes on classical Latin texts—were utilized in classrooms, revealing a basic and literal approach to reading. Suzanne Reynolds examines the interplay between Latin and vernacular languages, the significance of classical texts in medieval culture, and the concepts of allegory and literary theory during this period. The findings challenge and deepen our understanding of medieval hermeneutics and the evolution of reading practices.