Might-have-been moments in the lives of manuscripts are familiar to De Hamel, who for 25 years worked for Sotheby’s. Strikingly, in the Last Supper scene, the disciples are shown eating with their fingers at a low, eastern-style table. De Hamel’s book, scholarly but unfailingly readable, is the beginning of wisdom in all things scribal and scriptural. Sumptuously illustrated, Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts is a journey to some of the world’s greatest collections, from Copenhagen to Florence, Munich to St Petersberg. With meticulous biblio-sleuthing he seeks to divine the hidden ‘character’ of the celebrity documents under his scrutiny.

Instead of guiding our own exploration of these beautiful objects, his book has to serve as a substitute for the real thing. de Hamel is not so star-struck that he cannot be critical: a famous illustration in the ''Book of Kells'' is ''dreadfully ugly''; a naked Adam and Eve look ''Knobbly-kneed'' and ''brightly pink like newly arrived English holidaymakers on Spanish beaches''. de Hamel, to meet the pope or the president of the United States than it is to touch the ''Tres Riches Heures'' of the Duc de Berry.Erudite and enthusiastic…de Hamel has catalogued more medieval manuscripts than anyone in history; everyone, not only academics should listen to what he has said. He traces the elaborate journeys which these exceptionally precious artefacts have made through time and space, shows us how they have been copied, who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell), how they have been embroiled in politics and scholarly disputes, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and luxury and as symbols of national identity.

But anyone with a professional interest in the field will not want to miss de Hamel’s own original thinking about these ancient tomes…a wonderful book. We may all pretend that a well-known celebrity is no different from anyone else, and yet there is an undeniable thrill in actually meeting and talking to a person of world stature. It's a beautiful book (I'm referring to the hardcover, as another reviewer mentions don't bother with the paperback, completely different level of quality, size is small so you can't appreciate the photos of manuscripts as well as other illustrations and most annoyingly, all photos/illustrations are in black and white and the paper quality is noticeably lower! With meticulous biblio-sleuthing he seeks to divine the hidden “character” of the celebrity documents under his scrutiny. In the course of a long career at Sotheby's Christopher de Hamel probably handled and catalogued more illuminated manuscripts and over a wider range than any person alive.A glorious book…de Hamel pulls readers in with his unmistakable passion for every facet of these handcrafted treasures…. De Hamel makes an informative, entertaining book (the most suitable medium, after all), and no one but he could have written it.