The illuminated splendid manuscripts produced on the monastery island of Reichenau are among
the most important of the early Middle Ages. Many of them were not intended for the monastery
itself but for external recipients. After an introduction focusing on the history of libraries
and research the book is intended as a chronologically ordered tour through an imaginary
exhibition of these widely scattered manuscripts. It is the result of a collaboration between a
representative of Latin philology of the Middle Ages and an art historian. At least one
representative page of each of the 58 manuscripts explained here is illustrated in colour.
