Illuminated Manuscripts

Ovid sends his little book toward Rome without a red title: crimson, he says, is the wrong color for mourning. How can a page’s decoration carry meaning as well as beauty?

Writing in the early twentieth century, John William Bradley traces an art that reaches from painted Egyptian papyrus to the brilliant pages of medieval books. He begins by separating illumination from miniature painting: a little picture may stand on its own, but true illumination, he argues, needs both color and precious metal. Along the way, red pigment leads back to Roman scribes, while vellum opens a window onto the craft of making books before paper. What makes a decorated page more than a collection of pretty pictures—and what, exactly, does it illuminate?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.