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Faksimiles

Facsimile Editions

Vibrant Colours – Sparkling Gold – Narrative Images

Facsimiles are fascinating! Please allow us to take you on a fantastic journey to the world of medieval imagery! You will admire the bold pictorial compositions on the smallest scale, the attempts at linear perspective and at three-dimensional figures, the colour harmonies full of fine nuances, and you will marvel at the gold and silver.

Like a museum encased between two book covers, each facsimile gives you an insight into the thought world, the social environment, the culture and the everyday life of an era, which may sometimes appear both strange and yet curiously familiar at the same time.

Facsimile Folders

Windows on the Brilliant World of Medieval Imagery

Facsimile folders are a first step to get acquainted with the facsimile editions published by Quaternio Editions Lucerne. They take the viewer on an educational journey to the wonderful world of medieval and Renaissance imagery. As collectables they are available independently of the editions.

Production: The Art of Facsimile Production

From the Original to the Authentic Replica

Fac simile (Lat.) means “make something similar”. The facsimile editions produced by Quaternio Editions Lucerne follow this very principle step by step: from the photographs of the original manuscript via the strictly monitored printing process to the bookbinder’s craft. The focus is invariably on making the facsimile resemble the original as closely as possible. Specialists and experts contribute to achieving this aim by creating outstandingly good facsimiles which deserve to be described as “true to the original”.

Glossary

Glossary on book illumination and manuscript studies A to Z.

Masterpieces of medieval book art

Shining brightly with vibrant colours, the seemingly dark Middle Ages are sparkling with gold and silver in very sumptuously illuminated manuscripts preserved from this period. Quaternio Editions Lucerne, by producing facsimiles which are faithful to the original, will enable you to experience certain masterpieces of medieval book art. The highest quality standards applied in the production of the facsimiles make this experience not only highly impressive visually, but also appealing to the touch, down to the smallest detail.

Each facsimile is published as a unique, limited, hand numbered edition, thus offering direct access to the sheer wealth of book illumination. At home you can peruse the manuscript at your leisure and indulge in the splendour of medieval book art to your heart’s content, even though the century-old originals, preserved in libraries, museums and archives, are inaccessible to the public.

Using facsimile editions, scholars are able to compare manuscripts which are dispersed throughout the world; the opportunity of viewing the originals might well be denied to them.

The reproduction of a facsimile is always accompanied by a scholarly study of the manuscript. Therefore, as a part of each edition, a comprehensive commentary volume provides the key for understanding the manuscript. A facsimile folder containing several facsimile pages is published in advance for you to get a close look at the characteristics of the corresponding manuscript. Test the publications of Quaternio Editions Lucerne for their excellent quality!

Discover wonderful imaginative worlds, be enchanted by their gold and vibrant colours, and surrender to the fascination of medieval book illumination! It is only in our facsimile editions that this age-old art can be experienced as intensely and as vividly.