Libraries Gave Us Power

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Dr. Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings, and explores the medieval world they reveal. In this episode, the story of the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection reaches its end with the last great flowering of illumination, in the magnificent courts of the Tudors. Ramirez investigates astrological texts created for Henry VII and unwraps his will-still in its original, velvet and gold cover. She hears music written for Henry VIII (which went unperformed for centuries) and reads love notes between the king and Anne Boleyn written in the margins of a prayer book. Ramirez also visits Bruges, the source of many of the greatest manuscripts depicting the collision between medieval art and Renaissance innovations.