Cambridge Illuminations Research Project

Since 2003, the 'Cambridge Illuminations' project has been researching the 4,000 illuminated Western manuscripts and incunabula preserved at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge colleges, and publishing them in a multi-volume catalogue series. The project has received private philanthropic funding and research grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Modern Humanities Research Association, the Isaac Newton Trust and the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund.

High points of the project were The Cambridge Illuminations exhibition (26 July–11 December 2005) and the COLOUR exhibition (30 July– 30 December 2016), accompanied by their own catalogues: The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. P. Binski and S. Panayotova, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2005, and COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. S. Panayotova, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2016. Both exhibitions closed with international conferences. The proceedings of the first one were published in 2007: The Cambridge Illuminations: The Conference Papers, ed. S. Panayotova, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols. The two-volume proceedings of the second conference will be published in 2017–18: Manuscripts in the Making: Art and Science, ed. S. Panayotova and P. Ricciardi, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols.

Multi-volume series of academic catalogues

A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols:

Part One: The Frankish Kingdoms, Northern Netherlands, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, The Meuse Region and Southern Netherlands, 2 vols., ed. N. Morgan and S. Panayotova, 2009
Part Two: Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, 2 vols., ed. N. Morgan, S. Panayotova and S. Reynolds, 2011
Part Four: The British Isles. Vol. 1: Insular and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts c.700-c.1100, ed. N. Morgan and S. Panayotova, 2013
Part Three: France. Vol. 1: c.1000-c.1250, ed. D. Jackson, N. Morgan and S. Panayotova, 2015
Part Five: Illuminated Incunabula. Vol. 1: Books Printed in Italy before 1501, ed. A.E. Andriolo and S. Reynolds, 2017

Subsequent volumes, currently in preparation, will cover the remaining English and French manuscripts.

Exhibitions and exhibition catalogues

The Cambridge Illuminations exhibition (30 July – 30 Dec. 2005). This two-venue exhibition (Fitzwilliam Museum and Cambridge University Library) displayed over 200 of the finest manuscripts preserved in the Fitzwilliam, the University Library and the Cambridge Colleges. Attracting over 90,000 visitors at the Museum and over 10,000 visitors at CUL, it was the Fitzwilliam’s first ‘block-buster’ exhibition and one of the most successful ever.

The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. P. Binski and S. Panayotova, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2005. The catalogue and its first reprint sold out before the show closed, necessitating a rapid second reprint.

Bicentenary exhibition COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts (30 July 2016 – 2 Jan. 2017), attracting over 100,000 visitors and overwhelmingly positive responses by academics, conservators, the press and the public

COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. S. Panayotova, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2016. The catalogue sold out half-way through the exhibition and its reprint sold out as the show closed.