"The remarkable and distinctive art of early Netherlandish painters such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden is well known to visitors of art galleries and museums. Yet illuminated manuscripts, rarely seen except by scholars and curators, offer some of the best evidence for our understanding of early Netherlandish painting through a remarkable period of 150 years. Unlike paintings, which have been varnished, cleaned, repainted and exposed to light, the illuminations kept secure within the bindings of a book retain their original colour and clarity of definition."--Book Flap.