Illuminated Manuscripts Coloring Book (Dover Art Masterpieces To Color)

Each image in this book is very detailed and reminiscent of....well....illuminated manuscript pages (obviously). I'm assuming this is an earlier Dover publication because under their new Creative Haven line they print everything single sided now. However, in this book, the images are printed double sided - forcing you to use a medium other than markers or risk serious bleed through onto the backside image. I wish they'd correct this design flaw, especially if they republish any of these books. There are 30 images and, as usual with the Dover Coloring Book series, they feel the need to put a little educational blurb at the bottom or side of each drawing. This doesn't thrill me since I just want to color it and don't want text on the page if I want to display it. However you can simply copy an image to 90lb cardstock paper and print it off on your home printer after putting it through picture editing software (like Paint.net) to remove any unwanted text or page numbers. Then you have a clean one-sided image on good heavy paper to work with. Because the book size lends itself to being copied like this and the images are so detailed, I'm giving it 5 stars.

Usual solid quality of Dover book. It gets one less star because the pages are doublesided. They come from a variety of types of illuminated manuscripts. This is not about filling in letters of the alphabet, although some images have more lettering than others. Mostly it is the images used to illustrate text.There are 2 specifically from the Haggadah, at least 3 that are secular, 2 Persian/Oriental and the remaining ones of the 30 come from illustrations of saints, the Bible or Books of Hours (prayer books). I hadn't realized in advance how these types of images would be different from the typical modern adult coloring book. These images won't necessarily make sense to a reader unfamiliar with the quirks of medieval manuscripts or the medieval style of art which was not photorealistic and was more attuned to expressing political realities or conventions of the day. Accept these are glimpses of a different culture and different time and that you won't necessarily understand what is happening (why is that woman standing on the dead man? see photo).

I've always been fascinated by illuminated manuscripts, so I was very happy to find this book. Having zero artistic talent, I appreciate the skill and patience of the monks who so carefully drew the pictures and decorated the alphabets in these historic manuscripts.I made plain paper copies of all of the pages and used them as masters for copies printed on art tablet paper cut to fit my printer. That way, if I make a mistake or decide that I don't like my color choice, I can start over. I use Prismacolor erasable pencils, and Faber-Castell metallic pencils.There are pages with a great deal of open space as well as some requiring a very sharp pencil, so it's easy to find something to fit your mood.

Great selections make this adult coloring book a great choice for those participating in our newest book craze - adult coloring books. Terrific for therapeutic purposes! I find it great to listen to Gregorian Chant while spending some relaxing time coloring and imagining a much less stressful time - well, provided you didn't have plague, famine, cold weather, etc. Hmm. Actually, much better to color today than back then.

Some of the designs are a little cramped for coloring even with pencils, but I still loved coloring it. Not suitable for younger folks..

Absolutely beautiful! This is a perfect gift for any Christian who is well versed in Christian history. The illuminated manuscripts are a blessing to color and if you want exact color charts the titles help you Internet search. I color listening to orthodox chant on Spotify and then look it up to see how close my vision was to the original. Works great with colored pencils. ... very sharp colored pencils.

While the art is good, the paper is so thin. I will have to copy the pages onto better quality so as not to ruin every other page in this book.

Wonderful book, I've been so entertainned coloring it. Thank you, because Mandala books are too boring for me, but I really love medieval and renaissance stuff.

Lovely pictures, designs good if a little childlike, . I do enjoy the illustrated books of ancient and old worlds. Nice paper, takes most media.

Detailed colouring book,very enjoyable.

I love Dover Colouring Books. They are beautiful images and from real books. The reviews that say they are too simple are wrong. Those trendy mosaic style colouring books are not the same as Dover. These are made to be reproduced in a variety of crafting and Art mediums. I will be making copies of pages on special paper, colouring with special markers (bought on Amazon), and framing these images. Dover makes the best colouring books.

Good service from the seller.The illustrations were very disappointing for anyone with a love of manuscripts.Fake naive and childish, coarse in line and detail.In no way recommended.

love the drawings :)