The art of reading: an illustrated history of books in paint

Abstract

Camplin and Renauro reveal centuries of symbiosis between the visual and literary arts. They examine the development of printed books and the simultaneous emergence of the modern figure of the artist. In doing so they weave together an engaging cultural history that probes the ways in which books and paintings represent a key to understanding ourselves and the past. -- adapted from jacket.

Contents

Why do artists love books? How it all began ; Who invented 'the artist'? ; Courtly cultures and their undercurrents ; 'People are stuffed with reading matter' ; Books and the painting of 'modern life' ; Things hold together -- Painting is 'like a book ... which needs to give up its riches'. The word of God ; 'Book-love' and the home ; Perennial pleasures in multiple locations ; 'All that men held wise.