This publication is the first of a two volume set exploring an outstanding collection of leaves and miniatures from medieval manuscripts. Brimming with beautiful illustrations, this contribution to medieval scholarship covers a period from the late 9th to the late 15th centuries and incorporates new discoveries in this still growing field.0The turbulent times when Napoleon?s troops were sweeping over Europe under the banner of secularization, seeking to suppress ecclesiastical influence within the sphere of political power, had disastrous consequences especially for ecclesiastical libraries, which were broken up and looted. The Italian religious houses had their cultural treasures destroyed or moved out of context and spread all over the world to satisfy a growing market for medieval art. These fatal years (1796?99) coincide with a major interest in early Italian painting, when French and English connoisseurs joined their Italian colleagues in a systematic study of early Italian art, producing fundamental studies on the subject. 0The present volume is dedicated to the holdings of single leaves and miniatures from medieval Italian manuscripts, which cover a period from the late 9th to the late 15th centuries, and are enriched by a few Byzantine items, appropriately included here and discussed by Georgi Parpulov. The focus on late 13th- and early 14th-century illumination in the collection demonstrates McCarthy?s predilection for the medieval and early Gothic world, which also becomes apparent in his holdings of French and German illumination, to be discussed by Peter Kidd in volume II, to be announced shortly
