THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Margaret Manion specializes in Medieval and Renaissance art history with particular reference to manuscript illumination. She has worked in this area for almost half a century and helped to train a generation of Australian scholars in the history of the hand-written book and its visual presentation. Australia and New Zealand have significant manuscript holdings, and together with Vera Vines and Christopher de Hamel, Margaret has helped to make these better known through scholarly catalogues published by Thames and Hudson in 1984 (Australian Manuscripts) and 1989 (New Zealand).
Among her particular research interests is late medieval liturgical and devotional book illumination. She has published a series of articles on the religious books made for French royalty in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and she is presently writing a history of the development of the Italian illuminated choir book. Her recent publications include a richly illustrated study of the illuminated manuscripts in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, which were acquired through the Felton Bequest.

Margaret Manion is keen to contribute to a new phase of manuscript studies in Australia and New Zealand, which will exploit the potential for greater international collaboration and accessibility to manuscript material offered by the era of digital technology and the world wide web.

Select Publications

Books

• The Felton Illuminated Manuscripts in the National Gallery of Victoria (The National Gallery of Victoria and Macmillan Art Publishing Australia, 2005), 439 pp. and over 500 colour illustrations.
• The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship  ed. with B. Muir (Exeter University Press, 1998), 337 pp, 8 colour plates, 99 black and white illustrations. Second edition, 2006.
• Medieval Texts and Images, Studies in Medieval Manuscripts ed. with B. Muir (Harwood Academic and Craftsman House, Melbourne and New York, 1991), 224pp, 8 colour plates, 84 black and white illustrations.
• Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections with Vera F. Vines and C. de Hamel, (Thames and Hudson, London, 1989.), 200 pp., 24 colour plates, 174 black and white illustrations.
• Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in Australian Collections with Vera F. Vines (Thames and  Hudson, London, 1984), 240 pp., 48 colour plates, 254 black and white illustrations.
• 'Introduction and Commentary', The Wharncliffe Hours, colour facsimile of illuminated pages (Thames and Hudson, London, 1981).

Recent Publications and in Press

• 'Personalising Liturgical Prayer: The Breviary of Antonio de Macerata' in Migrations: Medieval Manuscripts in New Zealand edited by Alexandra Barrat and Stephanie Hollis (Cambridge Scholars Press, Cambridge). Publication planned 2006/7.
• 'The Princely Patron and the Liturgy: Mass texts in the Grandes Heures of Philip the Bold and related Valois Books of Hours' in The Cambridge Illuminations. Conference volume, edited Stella Panayotova (Harvey Miller/Brepols, London and Turnhout). Publication planned 2006/7.
• 'Authentication, Theology and Narrative in the Gospel Book of Theophanes' in Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott. Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Byzantina Australiensia 16, Melbourne, 2006, 320-333.