The Illuminated Alphabet (Dover Coloring Book)

These are similar to the illustrations drawn and painted by monks to decorate their hand lettered religious texts during the Middle Ages. At that time they had to create their own paints using precious stones and crystals. They used real gold flakes to provide the gold color. The pictures are fantastic and provide a peek at the religious beliefs of Christians during that time period. There are from one to several drawings of each letter. They feature angels and saints, Christ, birds and dragons, the pope, and more. I counted 49 large pages. The pages are thick and large, so a variety of different paints, pens, or pencils could be used to color the pictures. The pictures are fantastic and the book is well worth the price. These pages should copy well enough to be used for a group or for instruction or display. This beautiful book is suitable for gift giving. I would purchase again.

Used with students to create small display on illuminated manuscripts. The students enjoyed decorating their letters!

I gave this to my partner for a gift, and it is his favorite coloring book. The illustrations are large and easy to color but beautiful. The material is taken from medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Very nice examples, some letters have more than one example. You will enjoy the peeks into the medieval lives, religioussymbols, and saints.

Nice, Have not used it much yet. Could have more content for the price.

I bought this book to share with my middle school students when learning about Medieval Europe and illuminated manuscripts. Most letters include 2 different samples. Some only have 1. Letters I, J, K, Q, and X did not have letter samples that appealed to me. The others were beautiful and showed a variety of features of medieval life. Beautiful drawings.

This is an Excellent Book filled with Iconic Graphics matching closely to the Cover Graphics,Makes for lots of Fun Recreating these Graphics Freehand.

not that great just ok

Good buy

Brilliant. Did just what I wanted! Thank you

Not very good paper.

thuoght there would be more for each letter. I wanted to adapt the ideas not really what I was looking for.

This is a great colouring book. I love the medieval style compared to modern colouring books. There is 2 pages for almost every letter. I wish I knew the symbolism and figures better but I think I can learn as I colour. I highly recommend Dover books for their uniqueness and quality. The pages are printed on good paper but are double-sided so I will not be using my Alcohol Markers on it unless I copy the pages.