Amazon.com description: Product Description: The period from 1400 to 1550 was a glorious era for European manuscript painting. Even after Gutenberg's invention of movable-type printing in around 1450, the demand for luxurious illuminated manuscripts continued well into the 16th century, with the leading studios in Italy, France and Flanders producing some of the finest works of art of the period. The British Library's collection of 15th- and 16th-century manuscripts contains some of the outstanding surviving works from Flanders. Examples form the last great epoch of Flemish illumination, (1475-1550), include the work of most of the major illuminators active after 1470, and an extensive holding of manuscript painting by Simon Bening, the greatest of the Flemish book painters. This book contains 140 reproductions of manuscript paintings from this rich tradition. It offers an opportunity to see a wide range of examples from these precious manuscripts, many of which will never have been reproduced before.