Alphabet Book

Description The medieval alphabet is illuminated in two different styles. Without any accompanying text, the original purpose of the book remains unclear, but scholars have suggested that it was a sample or model book for manuscript illuminators, or that it was intended as a gift. The book was rebound in the eighteenth century, and in the same century extensive notes, which have since been erased, were made alongside the initials.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
3/13/1989	Examination	examined for technical study
8/28/2015	Treatment	examined for digitization; media consolidation
4/15/2016	Examination	examined for condition

Exhibitions

• The Medieval Craftsman and His Modern Counterpart. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans. 1959.
• Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984-1985.
• Manuscripts and Facsimiles. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1985.
• The Gothic Revival: The Illuminated Manuscript in Medieval and Modern Times. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1991.
• The Artful Book: Selections from a Contemporary Collection of Books by Artists. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2002-2003.
• Paradise Imagined: Images of the Garden in the Islamic and Christian World. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2012.
• Henry Walters, Léon Gruel, and the Reinvention of the Medieval Manuscript . 2015-2016.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters