ROYAL: Illuminated Manuscripts of the Kings and Queens of England

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In 1757 King George II presented the approximately 1950 manuscripts of the royal library to the newly founded British Museum. Since that time, the manuscripts have remained together as a distinct collection: ROYAL. Royal preserves the medieval and Renaissance library of the kings and queens of England, and includes within the illuminated manuscripts most surviving medieval paintings owned by them. Hence its importance can hardly be overstated. Yet remarkably, the Royal illuminated manuscripts have been little researched, and have never been presented to a scholarly or wider public as a group. The British Library, home of the Royal collection since its creation in 1973, plans to change this situation by working collaboratively with the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, to present in October 2011-March 2012 a major exhibition of illuminated Royal manuscripts at the British Library in London. To make this possible a research project on these manuscripts will be undertaken, responding to research questions at complementary levels. The project team will be led by two internationally-recognised experts in illuminated manuscripts: Dr Scot McKendrick, Head of Western Manuscripts at the British Library, and Professor John Lowden of the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. They will be assisted by a postdoctoral scholar, providing opportunities for this scholar to develop her or his expertise and career, and to develop expertise in medieval and Renaissance art, history, and presenting manuscripts to a range of audiences. The scholarly research resulting from the experience and expertise of this team will allow the Royal manuscripts to be presented and contextualised in new and creative ways. To build further collaborative relationships between the British Library and higher education experts and fellow curators within the United Kingdom and internationally, the project will be overseen by an international advisory board, and will include an international conference on the collection to be held at the end of the project.Each of the approximately 400 illuminated manuscripts in Royal with significant medieval or Renaissance decoration will be examined individually, to research its patronage, artist, scribe, models and function. The results of this analysis will allow thematic questions to be formulated and answered, and the approximately 150 exhibition manuscripts to be chosen. The exhibition will then be structured around these thematic questions. These themes are likely to include studies in the formation and development of the collection of illustrated manuscripts by English monarchs, the role of pictorial narrative in illuminated vernacular histories ordered by Edward IV, the change in function of monastic illuminated manuscripts after the dissolution of the monasteries, and the way in which illuminated manuscripts in the library were used and received by their owners. The project will interpret and present medieval and Renaissance painting in Royal manuscripts in an innovative way in an exhibition in London, which will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue. The research will also be disseminated freely to an international audience through an online virtual exhibition and online introductory 'tours' for a general audience explaining aspects of the Royal collection of illuminated manuscripts. In addition, in order to respond to the needs of the wider scholarly community and provide long-term research benefits, the information on all 400 manuscripts will be made available online as part of the BL's free, illustrated Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts (CIM). The research made available through the CIM and the other online resources will allow scholars and the general public to formulate their own further research questions, promoting active learning.