Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

On first glance, what might you notice about a medieval manuscript?

Maybe the material it's made from, the elaborate script, or the ornamental illustrations.

But look a little closer and there's a lot more to discover.

In fact, as historian and curator Michelle P. Brown explains in her new book, Illumino,

these medieval artefacts are a portal to the past with life stories of their own.

Emily Briffitt spoke to Michelle to unravel some of their secrets.

Talking about your new book, Aluminow, it offers an insight into the medieval world through 12 of its illuminated manuscripts. And I'd really like to

get acquainted with some of these. But first, before we go there, what do you think makes

medieval manuscripts such a fascinating source for telling medieval history? I've always found

them one of the most complex and engaging forms of medieval evidence, and you can

excavate each book rather like you would, Sutton Who or any other major archaeological site.

So it opens up the world of the physicality, it's the economy, it's the trade, you know,

how did these materials get to be where they are who actually was engaged in making them?

And then you move in from that, obviously to the textual content.

But even beyond the textual content, the illuminated manuscript world can actually allow you to dig deeper.

And in fact, much of the import and the meaning of them isn't actually

pictures at all. They're not just illustrations. They're things that serve to help you

articulate and navigate your way around massive amounts of information and also then to

commit them to memory. So it's how the book acts as a repository for disseminating its contents

in all sorts of ways. Not only the main text, but for example, you might have scowalus

political commentary in the form of the equivalent of political cartoons and satires in the margins.

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